Heating, Cooling & Comfort - Choose a Product

Air Conditioners

In summer, high relative humidity, elevated air temperatures, and bright sunshine can sometimes combine to produce an uncomfortable indoor environment. An air conditioning system can provide comfort for occupants by lowering both the air temperature and the humidity level in the home.

Options that are available to consumers include:

• room air conditioners
• central air conditioner
• heat pump.

The best choice of system will depend on your circumstances; therefore it is worthwhile taking the time to evaluate your needs.

Before starting off, ask yourself first if the whole house need to be air conditioned or would cooling in one room or two rooms be sufficient?

• Room air conditioners offer an effective, low-cost option to providing comfort in a small space, up to three rooms, with minimum installation effort.
• Central air conditioners and heat pumps are used to cool the entire living area. Central air conditioners are cooling-only products; whereas heat pumps provide winter heating as well.

The choice between a room or central air conditioner is examined in the next pages, and in greater detail in NRCan's Office of Energy Efficiency's (OEE) book entitled Air Conditioning Your Home. Additional information on heat pumps can be found in the book Heating and Cooling with a Heat Pump. Both documents can be ordered or viewed on-line at the OEE's InfoSource Web Page at http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/infosource.