Air Conditioning And Maintenance For Older Buildings

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Older buildings have special consideration when it comes to air conditioning. Many buildings were constructed before air conditioning was popular or common in households, and these buildings may not have the necessary structure in place to accommodate an air conditioning system. While this isn’t much help to you when you’re sweltering in your house now, retrofitting a building for air conditioning has its challenges.

If the building in question is so old that it lacks insulated ducts, you have the option of installing them. This is a costly option, but will ensure that you can get the most use of an efficient full-house air conditioning system. There may be problems with ducts, if there is not enough room in the walls to run the duct lines, but that can be discussed with your contractor. If you don’t want to install a whole house system, you have the option of installing window units. Buying window units can be economical if you want to only air condition one part of the house.

If your building has limited space for ducts, you may want to try a high velocity system. ...
... These systems use smaller 2” insulated tubing for supply lines. High velocity HVAC systems work by aspiration. Air delivered to the room enters at a higher velocity (upwards of 2,000 ft/second), creating air currents that circulate cooled air throughout the room. A high aspiration ratio is good, because it means a greater quantity of air is kept in motion, with less chance of air stagnation and temperature variation within the room.

A conventional system that uses 6” ducts only moves 500 †700 ft/second of air, and will usually have one output and one intake vent in a room. A high velocity system can have multiple input vents due to their small size. Conventional systems result in a “breeze” effect when the air is on, whereas high velocity systems result in a more even temperature throughout the house.

Maintenance is a factor of choosing any system. For a window unit, maintenance may be as simple as purchasing a new unit, if it is cheap enough. For conventional systems, the components tend to last longer since they are under less stress than high velocity systems. The special tubing required for a high velocity system will not last as long as the simple metal ducts used for conventional HVAC.

Older houses are not built to today’s specifications, so insulation is often a problem. There’s very little point to air conditioning a building if it’s all going to leak out through old windows, floorboard cracks, and doors. Be sure that it will be worth your time and effort to add air conditioning by improving the building as necessary before embarking on the project.

Before heading toward your goal of lower humidity and more comfort in your older building, be sure to examine all of the options available to you. It is possible that one system will shine above all others. If you are looking for something that will not impact the look of your building, a high velocity system will be your best option. For price, your best bet may be a window unit. If you’re looking for durability for decades to come, a conventional, standard HVAC system will probably do well for your needs.