Purchasing a new HVAC system is arguably one of the biggest decisions homeowners have to undertake at one point or the other in their lifetime. This is because HVAC systems are expensive and play a crucial role in giving you a comfortable indoor environment whether it is cold or hot outside. This means when choosing a HVAC system, you must look beyond how well it heats or cools your indoor space into an analyzing its overall effect on your comfort.
When looking at comfort factors, there are specific aspects you need to closely examine. The discussion below touches on 3 of these aspects and their importance in indoor comfort.
Temperature Management
This is a crucial aspect in home comfort. When it’s hot outside, you want an indoor environment that is cool and when it is cold outside, you certainly want a warm indoor environment. While this may seem obvious, what is of importance here is not whether your home will be cool or warm, but to what extent. In an attempt to save money and probably squeeze other items into their budgets, homeowners often make the mistake of going for the least expensive and low efficiency systems that have long swings of hotter or colder temperatures.
What this means is the system will take a long time to warm or cool a place because of the longer cycles. Even when you set your thermostat at a particular temperature level, the HVAC systems may make the temperature swing over or under the desired temperature by as much as 10 degrees during their run cycle. In order to manage your temperatures well; look for high efficiency systems that preferably have a rating of 16 SEER or higher. These systems manage the temperature much more precisely with variations of about a degree over or under. This saves you on energy and keeps you comfortable.
Temperature Variability
The greatest challenge homeowners face in the selection of HVAC systems is in getting a system that cools or heats every room in their houses evenly. Usually, the warm or hot air coming out of the HVAC system has to travel all the way to the rooms in order to cool or warm them up. By design, rooms that are far away from the HVAC system tend to be shorted out of the coolest air in summer or the warmest air in winter. The solution to temperature variability in end-of-the-line rooms is to install an efficient HVAC system that has variable speed capacity. These systems vary the magnitude of heating or cooling into a space as well as the airflow during the cycle.
Humidity Control
Homeowners living in humid environments often run their air conditioners more than it is necessary particularly in the hottest months. This is because air conditioners act more or less like sponges that absorb humidity and take it out of your home. High efficiency systems often run longer, but on low power to help expunge the humidity from the air. An added advantage of running your system longer at lower speeds is that it filters pollen, dust and other airborne particles leaving you with a clean and healthy indoor environment.
Higher efficiency HVAC systems therefore give much more than just cooling or heating your indoor space. They are the systems to invest in if you want a comfortable and healthy home.
