How To Cool A Room & How To Keep A Room Cool In Sacramento
It’s hard to imagine life in California without central air. But what do you do when your home has an unconditioned space that needs supplemental cooling? Whether it’s a basement workshop, a craft room in your attic, get-togethers in a newly-enclosed porch, or impromptu band rehearsals in your garage, nobody wants to sweat the entire time. Ace Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning helps with air conditioner installations for these and other unconventional spaces so you can get more use from them year ‘round.
Adding a New Air Conditioning Zone
There are times when adding a zone to your central air makes sense and is much easier. If you’re renovating your home, or if you’re replacing your central air, those are good times to have this work done. However, running additional ducting from your existing system isn’t always practical. For one thing, an HVAC system needs to be properly sized for your home, and adding another zone can leave a system working too hard. For another, there are cost and architectural considerations that can make adding a zone impractical (not to mention that you can’t just run a duct to a detached garage). In those cases, you’ll want to explore your alternatives.
Evaporative Coolers
An evaporative cooler, colloquially known as a “swamp cooler,” moves air over ice or water. As water evaporates, it lowers the ambient temperature and raises humidity. On the plus side, evaporative coolers use very little energy. But their downsides include the inability to cool larger spaces, and the increased humidity that will eventually leave the user feeling warmer than they would have using a different cooling method.
Window and Wall Air Conditioners
Window units and wall-mounted air conditioners are good for some small spaces. They’re not quite as efficient as central air, but they’re fine for occasional cooling of small spaces. They’re not without their limitations; not all spaces will have windows that are large enough for an air conditioner that can cool the space in question. And in some cases, those windows’ placement (i.e., high up in a basement) or configuration (like the slatted windows in a sunroom) may limit their use. Wall-mounted air conditioners are an alternative in some cases, but these won’t be right for all spaces either.
Portable Air Conditioners
Portable air conditioners, which can be vented through a window or even a sliding door with the right adaptations, can be another alternative. They, too, have their disadvantages, not least of which are their size, weight, and relative inefficiency. While they’ve improved over the years, their cooling capacity relative to their stated BTU output isn’t as good as a window unit of the same rating.
Ductless Split Systems
Ductless split systems work in much the same way as the central air conditioning your home already has, placing the coils, condenser, and compressor outdoors and an air handler indoors. They differ in some key respects. For one thing, the components are smaller. For another, as you’ve gathered from the name, they don’t rely on ducting, so they can be installed quickly and easily in places where other types of air conditioners would be impractical. Many systems can pull double duty, heating in the winter as well as they cool in the summer, making it easier to use spaces year ‘round.
Working with Ace Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning
Just as homes aren’t one-size-fits-all, neither are their heating and cooling needs, nor the solutions to meet them. So if you’ve got a challenging heating and cooling situation, call ContactAce Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning at Click To Call 916-455-4548 for a consultation and air conditioning installation.