The hot, humid Florida weather makes it essential that you have an energy-efficient air conditioning system. In the Pensacola area, most homeowners end up paying anywhere from $500 to $1,200 or more for air conditioning every year. If you have an outdated AC system that no longer works well, upgrading to a new, higher-efficiency system is an investment that’s almost certainly going to pay off. Let’s look at what you should know about SEER ratings and how to use this rating to choose a new AC or heat pump that works efficiently and will save you money.

What Do SEER Ratings Mean?

The acronym SEER stands for Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio, and the SEER scale is used to express how efficient an air conditioning or heat pump system is on average. The reason we say “on average” is that the main component of an AC or heat pump system is located outside, resulting in the efficiency and energy consumption of the system fluctuating due to changes in the outdoor temperature and humidity level. These fluctuations are why SEER ratings take into account the average energy consumption across the entire season. The main thing you should understand about SEER ratings is that the higher the SEER number is, the less energy your cooling system will use and the cheaper it will be to run.

How Are SEER Ratings Calculated?

The SEER rating of any AC or heat pump is based on how many BTUs of heat it removes from a building over a single cooling season compared to the total kilowatts of electricity it uses over the same period. That means you just need to take its total seasonal cooling output and divide that number by its total seasonal electricity consumption. However, the only way either of these two numbers can be determined is through laboratory testing. That means running real-world simulations to estimate how effectively the unit cools and thus how much energy it uses when running at different temperatures and different humidity levels.

Heat pumps also have a second rating (HSPF) that tells you how efficiently they work when heating. HSPF ratings are calculated the same way as SEER ratings except that take into account the BTUs of heat added to the building throughout an entire heating season.

The Difference Between SEER and SEER2 Ratings

In 2023, the U.S. Department of Energy switched from rating cooling equipment with the original SEER scale to using the new SEER2 system. The reason is that researchers eventually realized that the original SEER scale wasn’t as accurate as it could be and didn’t always reflect real-world efficiency. That’s mainly because the testing conditions were based on an HVAC system that didn’t have common issues that impact many such systems, like air duct leaks. SEER2 ratings are more accurate and allow you to better estimate how much any AC or heat pump will cost to run each year based on your location. As with the original scale, a higher SEER2 rating means you can cool your house for less.

What’s Considered a Good SEER Rating?

The U.S. Department of Energy also updated the minimum energy-efficiency requirements for ACs and heat pumps in 2023. In Florida, all split systems have to be 14.3 SEER2 or higher. The requirement for packaged systems is a bit lower, as they only have to be at least 13.4 SEER2. To qualify for an ENERGY STAR rating, a split or a packaged AC or heat pump system must be a minimum of 15.2 SEER2. If you chose an AC or heat pump with this rating, it would use approximately 7% less energy than a 14.3 SEER2 system.

If you instead were to install a 20 SEER2 system, your energy costs would typically drop by somewhere around 25-35%. Depending on how many tons the AC or heat pump is, even a 25% improvement in energy efficiency can easily equate to savings of several hundred dollars a year. When you add up the total amount of savings over the life of the new system, you might actually save more overall or at least break even with a 20 SEER system despite it being quite a bit more expensive to install.

When it comes to cooling, heating and indoor air quality in Pensacola, Bluewater Heating & Air is one of the best around. We have a team of HVAC installation experts that’s ready to help you install a highly efficient AC, heat pump or ductless mini-split system. We also have dedicated maintenance and repair technicians that can help whenever issues arise or you need to have your HVAC system serviced. For more information on the ways we can help you lower your air conditioning and heating costs, give us a call today.

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