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