Summer Comfort

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A funny thing happened on the way to promoting the purchase of energy-efficient air conditioners: The federal tax credits that were intended to heat up consumers’ interest in high-efficiency central air conditioners 2 years ago dried up.

The good news is that prices are about what they were in 2009, although the new standard for refrigerants, R-410A, has led to an increase in installation costs. Meanwhile, developments in the past 2 years have focused on tweaks to help central air conditioners to run more efficiently and on technology that helps to diagnose problems.

CREDIT THIS. The federal tax credit that was part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 isn’t gone, but it’s only a shadow of its former self.

That incentive gave to consumers a tax credit of 30 percent of the installed price, up to a maximum of $1,500, for a new central air conditioner that had a seasonal energy-efficiency rating (SEER) of at least 16. The program was extended through 2011, although the maximum tax credit has been reduced to a flat $300. (Editor’s note: You also can get the $300 tax credit through the end of the year if you install a package system [cooling and heating], in which all of the cooling components are in one cabinet, the cooling function has a 14 SEER and the heating function has an energy-efficiency ratio [EER] of 12.)

Previously, you could recoup most of the typical difference in price between a 13-SEER air conditioner (the minimum efficiency standard) and a more efficient 16-SEER model. It was a good deal. Is it still worth your hard-earned dollars to buy a higher efficiency unit? Contractors, unsurprisingly, say yes, but beyond the obvious—the fact that they stand to make more money installing the pricier 16-SEER unit—the reasons are compelling.

Steve Fink, who is a Long Island, N.Y., contractor broke it down for us: The annual per-ton cost of a 13-SEER central air conditioner would be about $270 per year, so a 2-ton model would cost $540 per year to operate. A 16-SEER system would cost $219 per ton or $438 per year to operate a 2-ton unit—a savings of $102 per year. (Figures will vary depending on geographic area, utility costs and use patterns.) Adding in the tax credit would mean that you could pay off the difference in the purchase price of the central air conditioner—roughly $1,000—in 7 to 8 years, which is well within the typical lifetime of a central air conditioner. Of course, as electric rates rise, savings would increase as well.

COOL INNOVATIONS. The big development in the efficiency of central air conditioners that seemed imminent 2 years ago hasn’t happened. Nordyne remains the only manufacturer that uses inverter technology, which allows a system’s motor, compressor and fan to run at variable speeds. That means that the air conditioner uses only the electricity that’s required to achieve cooling demands and results in super-efficient cooling (24.5 SEER, compared with a non-inverter industry high of 21 SEER). Although other major manufacturers told Consumers Digest 2 years ago that they were testing inverter models, none has produced such a model, and they wouldn’t even tell us whether they still were pursuing inverter technology.

Instead, manufacturers have made only tweaks to their products. For example, Trane dialed up its thermostat technology a notch. The company applied Internet connectivity to its central air conditioners. Trane’s ComfortLink II thermostat—when it’s coupled with a telephone-access module, which is a control box that’s on the air conditioner and uses its own Internet address—allows you to adjust temperature settings by using your computer or smartphone. You’ll pay about $750 to cover the installed cost of the thermostat, router and access module, plus a yearly $99 fee to Trane. This technology works only on Trane’s premium XL20i and XL16i air conditioners, and you also must have a Trane thermostat that has that communicating technology.