heat pump comparison
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
Which is cheaper to operate? Central air conditioner or portable air conditioner?
I would like to know which one would be less expensive to operate. For example, if I only wanted to cool the living room, should I use a portable air conditioner or the central air conditioner that cools an entire house.
The central air conditioning unit (outdoor heat pump unit that has a EER rating of 10 and is built in year 2003) versus a newer portable air conditioner (EER of 9 and consumes 1450 watts of electricity)?
Basically, I want to know how much “wattage” a central air unit uses in comparison to a portable room unit. There was no such info on my user manual for the central air pump unit.
Easy, use the room A/C!
EER is BTU/watts. So, for EER 9, 1450W, that’s 13000 BTU.
The cental A/C is slightly more efficient and will pump 10% more heat for a given power, but will waste part of that going into the other rooms. It will use far more wattage, check the nameplate on it for current. Multiply times the voltage, usually 240 for the power. The BTU’s will be huge, so it will cool down the room much quicker.
How To Buy A New AC Heating System, Furnace Or Heat Pump Installed