{"id":411,"date":"2011-08-24T08:00:35","date_gmt":"2011-08-24T12:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polarbearairconditioning.com\/blog\/?p=411"},"modified":"2011-08-17T10:08:50","modified_gmt":"2011-08-17T14:08:50","slug":"what-is-seer-a-question-from-washington-dc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.polarbearairconditioning.com\/blog\/air-conditioning\/what-is-seer-a-question-from-washington-dc\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is SEER? A Question From Washington DC"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve been looking at air conditioners<\/a> in Washington, you\u2019ve probably noticed that they all seem to have a SEER rating. But what does this actually mean?<\/p>\n

The SEER, which stands for Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio, is a measure of how energy efficient a particular air conditioning model is. So when you\u2019re shopping around for the best deal on an air conditioner for your home, this is something you\u2019ll absolutely want to pay attention to.<\/p>\n

Interpreting SEER Ratings<\/h3>\n

The SEER rating system is relatively simple \u2013 the higher the SEER, the more energy efficient the product. But because a higher price tag typically comes with a higher SEER rating, it\u2019s important to know just how much more efficient a higher rated unit will be. It helps you decide whether paying significantly more for a higher rated unit is worth it in long term savings. Will it actually save you enough each month to make up for the difference in price?<\/p>\n

Evaluating Your Energy Usage<\/h3>\n

A big factor here is how much you will use your air conditioner. If you live in a place with very hot and humid summers where the air conditioning runs constantly, you\u2019re probably best off with the highest SEER you can find. When you consume that much energy to keep your home cool, you want to get as much as possible out of it, and that\u2019s what a high SEER model can do for you.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, if you live in an area that doesn\u2019t have the harshest summers, you may be better off with a slightly less efficient (and therefore cheaper) model. Keep in mind, too, that the actual percentage increase in energy efficiency goes up by smaller and smaller increments the higher in SEER ratings you get. For instance, while a 10 SEER unit may be almost 20% more efficient than an 8 SEER model, a 12 SEER is only about 10% more efficient than that 10 SEER.<\/p>\n

Finding the Right Balance<\/h3>\n

The best way to decide what SEER rating is best for you is to determine the annual cooling costs with your current unit and then calculate your savings in dollars based on the percentage each model would improve your efficiency. If you don\u2019t currently have an air conditioner, this can be a bit tricky, but a professional contractor<\/a> or air conditioning salesman can help you estimate your total monthly cooling costs with the various units.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve been looking at air conditioners in Washington, you\u2019ve probably noticed that they all seem to have a SEER rating. The SEER, which stands for Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio, is a measure of how energy efficient a particular air conditioning model is. So when you\u2019re shopping around for the best deal on an air conditioner for your home, this is something you\u2019ll want to pay attention to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[212,85,84,69],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polarbearairconditioning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polarbearairconditioning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polarbearairconditioning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polarbearairconditioning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polarbearairconditioning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.polarbearairconditioning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":413,"href":"https:\/\/www.polarbearairconditioning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions\/413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polarbearairconditioning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polarbearairconditioning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polarbearairconditioning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}