[hciman77]

We are at last planning to buy a house. We have seen several houses we like but few of them have central air, something we are rather fond of now and central air seems to bump the price up a little.

We were wondering how much it would cost to install central air (from scratch, i.e in a house with possibly no existing ducting) in a modest 3 bed house i.e 2 floors and say 1500 sq ft, if it matters we live in the outskirts of Philadelphia. If the cost is say about $5k then we could probably do it, if it is $10K it would be iffy.

Does anybody have any experience of this and a ballpark figure ?

Cheers

Jim

 

[lewtz]

Sorry can't give you an answe now, but possibly later when dad gets home. Here in South Carolina everyone has air conditioning, and most have central nowadays I would say. I know I've always lived in houses with it. Constant 68-72 degrees year round.

 

[dvallere]

We had a similar sized house in the 'burbs of DC. The heater crapped out a year after we moved in, so we chose to have it replaced with a heater and AC unit. Total cost was about $5k (in 2000).

However, we have a new house here in Seattle (built new in '03) which was built without AC. Square footage is about 3200. We had AC added last summer and it was $6K just for the air conditioning unit. This bothered us a great deal, since we already had a good heating system here, but there was nothing to be done; all three quotes we got were within $100 of each other.

Depends how far out of Phila you are...call an AC contractor that's further on the non-Philadelphia side of you; they might have cheaper rates since they're in a less populous area.

 

[Jeff E]

We had central air retrofitted to a 2100 sq ft home with central heat. We used the existing heating duct work but because of the layout of the house, had to install a dual system (separate central units for the top and bottom floors). As I recall it ended up costing us around $10K in 1994.

EDIT: Correct story is that we had no prior duct work since the existing heat was a hot water/radiator system. At least I think that's the correct story. I wonder whether excesses in the sixties have memory consequences in '06. [Wanders off mumbling]

 

[grawk]

I had it done in bucks county, pa, on a larger house. There are lots of variables. Do you have forced air heat already (are there existing ducts)? Is it 1 story or 2? Is there an attic/crawl space? All that said, $10k seems high, $5k seems low...

 

[ken36]

Whatever it costs, it is well worth it. Pay the money gladly. Your comfort coms first. Additionally, it will add to the value of your home when It is time to sell.

 

[mrarroyo]

Another factor is the SER rating, so you may be close to the upper limit. One option you may want to explore mini split ductless A/C units. Such as: http://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadison/M18DCE.html

 

[seeberg]

You know, according to Azrael, central air is the greatest sin one can commit

(If you know where that one comes from, then someone probably has a pet monkey and a silent buddy too

)

,
Abe

 

[dvallere]

Edited to delete stupid comment about Azrael. I did like his little horns, though.

 

[seeberg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dvallere I thought he said central air was the greatest thing man ever invented? He is, after all, a frickin' demon.

Something to that effect! Personally, I'd like AC in some form, but at the moment I settle for a Honeywell air purifier that happens to be really powerful, enough to keep a nerd on chill for hours

,
Abe

 

[1911]

i now have a rental house in philly that i previously lived in and when i was thinking about installing central air with no previous ducting the ball park figures i was getting was 10k. this is for a around 2100 sq.

 

[raisin]

I'm in the same general area, and 1911 hits it on the head. No existing ducts=10k. ductwork present=5k, +- 2k, depending on difficulty and quality of contractor. Be sure to use a contractor who guarantees his work, there can be some fussing to get the system balanced.