Air Conditioning in Homes without Ducts
Adding Air Conditioning Systems
While there is a significant number of homes with central heating but lack Air Conditioning, there are even more homes with different types of heating without AC. These heating types can include forced water, radiant heat, and electric resistance heating. Without ducts in place to supply cold air throughout your home, the installation of ducts is necessary. This can be significantly more expensive than simply adding an Air Conditioner and few other components to your home.
Installing New Ducts
Before you install ducts solely for Air Conditioning, consider installing central heat at the same time. While the size of your home and its general design can make the difference, it might be such that this type of heating is more efficient than your current set-up.
The easiest type of home to add ducts for Air Conditioning to is a one-level ranch with an unfinished basement or crawlspace. This embodies the primary factors that affect newly-installed Air Conditioning ducts:
- Attics are hot and can significantly warm cold air being sent through ducts.
- The farther that air must be sent from the cooling unit itself (i.e. multiple stories), the warmer the air will be when it exits the vent register.
Duct Design and Cost
While it is still very much feasible to install ducts in a multi-story home from the attic, a more powerful Air Conditioning unit will be necessary. In the case of homes with finished basements or homeowners who simply do not wish to put ducts in their basement, such ducts will be run through the attic and vent through ceilings. In the case of multi-story homes, ducts can be sent to lower levels of the home via closets without taking up much room or being overly unattractive.
The overall cost and resources required of an Air Conditioning installation with new ducts, depending upon site-specific factors, will be about twice that of an installation without ducts. This amounts to about $7,000 - $8,000, 3 -4 technicians, and a half a week to a week of labor.
Resources
For tips on cleaning and maintaining your new Air Conditioning ducts, learn more from the EPA at their HVAC website.
How can I find out more information?
When you Request a Central Air Conditioning Quote one of our recommended Air Conditioning specialists will give you an estimate on your Home Improvement project and will help review your options to make the best possible choice regarding your particular needs and budget.