Central Air or window ac in a large house to save money?

Question

We just bought a new house in north new jersey. Its a quite big house for NJ. about 5 bedrooms [all about 18 x 20 or bigger] and 2.5 bath. And 2 spare rooms [15 x 18] with a large kitchen . The House has a 3.5 Ton central AC Unit installed and working. I was just wondering how much it would cost to run such an central AC. Would it make more sense closing all vents and buying window AC units to replace such a huge central AC system? We need to cool all 4 bedrooms and the living and kitchen at the least.

Answer 1

I would use the existing central AC. You could always buy a small window AC to keep your own bedroom (who cares about the kids anyway) a bit cooler while saving money by raising the temp in the main part of the house a bit.

I am assuming the unit is not really old and inefficient. If it is an older model with a low SEER rating, it might make sense to get some estimates on replacing it with a newer more efficient model. Particularly since you are cooling such a large home.^

Answer 2

With as many rooms as you want to cool, definitely keep the central air running, rather than window units.  Keep the thermostat set as high as you can comfortably handle, turn it up a few degrees higher when no one is home, and the energy cost should be manageable, depending on the weather, expect 75 -100 dollars worth of electricity to run it monthly.

Hope this helps

20+ yrs HVAC Tech