Although there are quite a few variants of air conditioners available in the market today, it is being observed that the central air conditioners are increasingly gaining popularity even for domestic purposes. It is a fact, that the central air conditioners have ruled the roost as far as commercial air conditioning goes. Now that they are making inroads in the domestic market also is significant.

Besides the general effects of air conditioners of keeping you cool and comfortable, central air conditioners have also been positioned by their manufacturers as partial air filters and dehumidifiers. Now if someone in your family has minor problems of allergy or asthma, then installing a central air conditioner can be of help.

Before you get yourself a central air conditioner installed in your house, you need to know exactly what capacity of air conditioner you will require. With other kinds of room air conditioners, knowing the dimensions of the rooms can be good enough. However, since the central air conditioner will be for the entire house, calculating the capacity of air conditioner you will require should be best left to an expert. You can call a contractor and take inputs from him. Any contractor would use , what we call the ‘manual j' method to determine the size of the air conditioner you will require for your house.

When you actually shop for a central air conditioner you should consider two ratios, the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER) and the Energy Efficiency Ratio (EER). These ratios will tell you how efficient your air conditioner really is. Since most modern air conditioners come with SEER ratio higher than 13, you should settle nothing less than that. Even the EER ratio should be around 12.

There are still a few negatives to the central air conditioning system. First of the installation is costly and it is also a lot of hassle. There need to be provision for installing a central air conditioner, the network of ducts has to be perfect so that all the areas in the different rooms are evenly cooled. The central air conditioner is also much less energy efficient than the room air conditioners. It cools the entire house even though all the residents of the house are in a single room.

So think before investing on a central air conditioner and weigh your options. If you find it is a worthwhile investment then go ahead and get yourself one.