What is a S.E.E.R. rating?
When purchasing a car, smart buyers usually check the miles-per-gallon rating. When purchasing gasoline, they check the octane rating. And, when purchasing a central air conditioning system, they check the SEER rating. The what? The SEER, or Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio, rating. Like its “mpg” counterpart in the automotive industry, the SEER gives an indication of the performance efficiency of the system. The higher the SEER, the more efficient the unit. And, the more efficient the unit, the lower the operating costs. The air conditioning industry originally used an Energy Efficiency Ratio or EER to rate efficiency. This was a simple mathematical ratio of cooling output versus electrical power input. Recently, however, the U.S. Department of Energy developed a more sophisticated test method that rates the performance of a unit over a wide range of operating conditions. The result — the SEER — is indicative of the unit’s operation throughout an entire cooling season. Bear in mind,
