Air Conditioners – Why The Star Rating Is More Important Than Price

star-ratingI’m currently in the market for a Split System Reverse Cycle Air Conditioner.

I went round a couple of the big box electrical stores last weekend and saw several models in the 3.5kw range, with prices ranging from $650 to $1,000.

But is the higher star rating of the more expensive models worth the extra dollars?

Finding Out The Savings

Well I went to www.energyrating.gov.au website to do a little investigation

I used their calculator and based my search on:

  • A 3.5kw Unit.
  • Heating for 5 months at an average of 10 hours per day.
  • Cooling for 7 hours a day for 2 months.
  • Power at $0.287 per kW hour.

The results were:

  • The best  6 Star unit would cost around $236/year to run.
  • The worst 2 Star unit would cost around $551/year to run.

That’s a huge difference of $315/year!

In other words buying the more expensive unit would be cheaper after less than 2 years!

When I decide to buy; I’m only going to be looking at the 6 Star units.