What Kind of A/C?
My family and I are moving back to Fort Greene — to the house where I grew up. My parents did a gut renovation 40+ years ago and chose not to install central air at the time. Given the advances in cooling technology since then, we’d like to see if we have any options other…
My family and I are moving back to Fort Greene — to the house where I grew up. My parents did a gut renovation 40+ years ago and chose not to install central air at the time. Given the advances in cooling technology since then, we’d like to see if we have any options other than window units (which won’t fit with the bars on the parlor floor windows) without doing a gut renovation. Is it possible to install any kind of central air or other air conditioning while leaving all of the architectural details (plaster moldings, etc.) in place? If so, any recs for companies that specialize in cooling brownstones? And any sense of how much it might cost for 3 floors (and possibly the garden apt as well)? Thanks in advance!
Consider Unico-SpacePak, which uses better quality air handler, usually higher SEER condenser. High velocity systems deliver colder air, less of which is required to cool a house.
Vents to rooms are 1-4 smaller high velocity registers, depending on cooling needs. Installation requires trunk somewhere, but of much smaller cross section than conventional ducts. Small registers are connected to trunk by “spaghetti” hose, that can be pulled thru framed wall or ceiling joist cavities.
I have installer reco’s in NJ only, bruce at jerseydata.net
Obviously some plaster/sheetrock must be disturbed, but intelligent design can minimize the disruption.
Incidentally, you can also use one of those in-house air conditioners with a hose and you put it out the window with the bars.
Yes. You could do either traditional or mini-split, depending on the availability of bathrooms/closets where you can drop the ceiling to accommodate air handlers and vents. Mini splits are easier/less intrusive to install, but you are left with a fugly plastic box on your wall to look at 12 months a year.
I’ve just priced out mini-split systems for my house – total of 4 floors, 6 indoor air handler units, 1-2 compressors on the roof (depends on the system) and roughly 7 tons of cooling capacity. Pricing for the fugly box version has been between $30K and $40K, not including electrical and plaster/painting refinish. To do everything with hidden duct work, another $10K. Not cheap no matter which way you go, so you really have to want/need it.