is it cheaper to run a room air conditioner instead of central air for a 1000 sq. foot home?

Answer 1

Window units have a much lower capital cost to purchase.
Central a/c is more efficient, thus it uses less electricity, (maintenance is likely to be simpler too, but that's a guess) so it's less expensive to operate.

Answer 2

Central air is your better choice for proper indoors climate. As was stated, the HVAC system not only cools the house, it circulates the air in it, filters the air somewhat, and pulls moisture out of the house. A lot of window units are bad about adding humidity. Another problem with a single room air conditioner in a 1000 SqFt home would be proper cooling outside of that room. Unless the home is set up with an open layout it won't properly cool anything beyond the room in which it's located.

Answer 3

It depends on what you want. If you want the whole house to be cooled, you'll have to run a window unit in each room. That can add up pretty fast.

A central system has two parts - the condenser unit (outdoors) and the coil (in your house). Between them runs copper tubing that carries coolant back and forth. The coil sits on top of the heat exchanger in your furnace. When the thermostat calls for cool air, the condencer and furnace blower both kick on, and cool air is carried to the whole house. This is far more efficiant if you want your entire house to be cooled. It's only one unit running - a larger one, but still, only one.

Now, if you only want a cool room to sleep in or whatnot, stick with a window unit. Good luck with either decision!

Answer 4

Central air is cheaper and more comfortable...you a get very even distribution of the cool air.

I cool 2400 Sq. Ft. with a 2 ton (24, 000BTU) central air unit.

Answer 5

It could be close depending on several factors. How energy efficient is the house? Is it well insulated, does it have big shade trees around it, and how high are the ceilings? What part of the country is the house located. 2 or 3 smaller and energy efficient window units might even be better. Will your local electric or gas co. do an energy audit or evaluation to determine your R factors? Good luck

Answer 6

If your desire is to only keep that one room cool then yes. However a window unit will be less efficent for overall cooling of the house when compared to a central air unit.

Answer 7

My place is 2200 square ft and I used to run 3 window coolers. Central air is much cheaper to run.

Answer 8

localized room a/c with programmable thermostat controlled is cheaper than central air conditioner.

Answer 9

a 14,000 BTU ac that works on 120 volts would be a cheap way to cool that small house