Older homes come with an added aesthetic that sets them apart from more modern or heavily renovated buildings. Although you may love all the quirks and charm that come along with your home, you might find yourself struggling to figure out an efficient and effective way to keep it cool at times due to a variety of reasons. Having air conditioning options for an older home gives you the flexibility to make the best choices for how you’d like your home to look. Do you sacrifice closet space? Do you work in new ducts that can chop up a building’s historic fabric? These choices all play major roles in how your system works.
One of the most common issues that homeowners of older properties face is setting up a modernized air conditioning system. Luckily, there are a few air conditioning options for older homes that can improve an older home’s overall cooling efficiency. You’ll need to make a variety of decisions involving your home’s duct systems.
Rely on Ductless Air Conditioning
If you own an older home, you may be hesitant to go in and make major changes to the property. For this reason, adding air ducts for a central air system may not be in your best interests, as it requires a fair amount of renovation and even additional electrical work.
Fortunately, a ductless system is one of the best air conditioning options for older homes. Also commonly referred to as a mini-split system, this method of air conditioning places one cooling unit inside the home, mounted on a wall, and another unit outside of the home to bring air directly into that room. These systems work best in warmer climates.
Running off of electricity, these systems can be energy efficient by turning off once the room in use has reached the desired temperature. The wall-mounted cooling unit takes up far less room than a traditional duct system, so less of your charming older home needs to be changed or removed. Just like any air conditioning system, a ductless unit comes with a wide variety of pros and cons.
Increase Electrical Supply for Air Ducts
If your heart is set on an air duct system for central air in the entire home, it is possible with increased electrical supply and a little more work.
Most older homes simply were not built with enough electrical supply for a central air system. Installing ducts and central air without first acknowledging this fact will leave the rest of your home’s appliances and lights fighting for power, thus diminishing the home’s overall efficiency. Electrical work is a very complicated project, especially in older homes. If you’re inexperienced in this regard, please contact a professional.
By increasing the electrical supply in the home before installing air ducts, you will allow for the finished central air conditioning system to run as energy efficiently as possible without disturbing anything else running off of the home’s power source.
Adding or renovating existing air ducts may be a bigger undertaking for homeowners and their contractors, but it is possible to do so in a way that leaves the older home’s original charm intact. In this example from Old House Online, a Maryland family found the perfect alternative for their old home. Instead of a traditional duct system, the Sisson family found a mini-duct approach that rapidly pushes air through 3” diameter holes. This unobtrusive system can be the perfect solution for an older home that wants to keep away from diminishing the home’s overall beauty or ease of access.
Contact Hammock’s AC
Our highly-skilled technicians can install an HVAC system that will best suit your home’s exact needs. We’ll help you decide what system suits your specifications and get the cool for the summer. To learn more about air conditioning options for an older home, contact one of our incredible technicians. Remember, we’re not comfortable until you are!