My wife and I bought a lake home in central Albuquerque several years ago. We purchased the home during a very cool spring. The A-framed home did not have an air conditioning system; however there were two patio doors and several windows that faced the lake so we thought we would not need one air conditioner or whatever.
We were wrong. We moved into the house at the end of July of one of the hottest weeks on record. Not only was it warm in the house but the humidity from the air and lake had everything damp and musty smelling.
The first night we spent in our new home I slept under the ceiling fan in the living room because we had no idea where our fans were. It was interesting sharing my space on the floor with our two cats that were trying to get cool also. We did not have all of our things unpacked before we were asking our new neighbors to recommend a dealer for an air conditioning system.
I think we could have dealt with the heat through the use of fans and opening windows, but the humidity was another story. We found that we were getting mold in the basement. Even our bread was molding if we did not put it in the refrigerator. We knew that an air conditioning system would help to regulate the humidity in the house as well as the temperature.
We have crank out windows and the patio doors, so we did not even consider a window air conditioning system. The A-frame house also made a wall air conditioning system impractical for us. We called a heating and cooling specialist to evaluate our home.
He did a cost analysis for us comparing using a mini-duct system and the traditional central air conditioning system. He recommended a the central air conditioning system which utilized the existing duct work from our furnace. The main cooling unit for the air conditioning system was placed on the north side of our home on the outside, so the system did not take any additional space inside the house.
We were told that the placement of the air conditioning unit on the north side would help keep the unit itself cooler so that it would not have to work as hard. The specialist emphasized that it is very important to clean and replace filters on a regular basis so that the unit will run efficiently. By doing this the air conditioning system will not use as much electricity and will save money on the monthly cooling bill.
You'll found that understanding your system well and learning how to regulate the temperature inside your home will allow you to run your air conditioning system in a very economical way. We are also much more comfortable and enjoy our lake home more fully.
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