Air Conditioner SEER Ratings

To understand the best SEER ratings let's first discuss what SEER is. Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER) is the measure of energy efficiency of an air conditioning system. SEER ratings allow consumers to compare various cooling systems and the effectiveness to operating costs.

Basically new AC units are going to have a higher SEER rating than those that are older.  This is just common sense but it does not always mean you need to spend a fortune on a new AC unit. There are many factors that will come into play and taking a look at all of them will help deduct the best possible resolution to this venture.

Before you look into the AC unit itself you will need to determine a few things about the environment you are trying to cool such as; insulation, layout, air leakage, the condition of the current piping and duct system already in place to filter the conditioned air, and the current operating cost of the AC unit already working in the environment you are wanting to cool.

In the end the higher the SEER rating the more efficient your cooling system is going to be.  Aside from looking at the physical aspect of the area you are cooling you will need to deduct certain percentages to figure out what you are going to need to have a sufficient system.

This is a mathematical equation that uses the combination of comparing the SEER rating that will provide a certain amount of BTUs to the cooling per WattHour (Wh) of operation. The SEER rating itself will determine the number of BTUs for example a SEER rating of 10 will produce 10 BTUs of cooling per Wh.

This is what makes a higher SEER rating more efficient. Wh measures either electrical energy produced or consumed and this is determined by the amount of energy used when the AC unit runs for an hour. To break this down a little better if you are using a 100 watt light bulb for an hour you are using 100 Wh of energy.

There are many factors in determining the SEER rating and this is why we have heating and cooling professionals to help you break all this down and figure out what is going to be the best unit to acquire and why.