Take a quick peek at the average high temperatures during the summer in Baltimore, and you might be fooled into thinking that air conditioning is a take it or leave it proposition in Monument City. That's not really the case, however. All you have to do is walk outside in the middle of July or August, and there's no question that air conditioning is as much necessity as it is luxury in B-Town. If there is a new air conditioning unit in your future, here's a breakdown of what you need to know as you start shopping around.

Baltimore Air Conditioning Costs
The first question on the minds of most homeowners in Monument City is how much air conditioning is going to cost to install. We can help. Based on in-house data that ServiceMagic collects from homeowners who use our online referral services, we can tell you that our research puts the average price of air conditioning in Baltimore at about $7,400, though prices can range anywhere between $3,500 and $11,000. What accounts for the large disparity between our high and low numbers? Costs will vary depending on a number of factors, including the size of your home, its current readiness for air conditioning, and the cost of the unit itself.

Baltimore Air Conditioning: a Quick Lesson About Efficiency
Energy efficiency is a huge factor when it comes to the initial cost of your air conditioning in Baltimore, and the energy costs associated with air conditioning your home over the life of your unit. Truth is, not all air conditioners are created equal. Each air conditioner comes with a SEER rating that indicates its overall energy efficiency; the higher the SEER rating, the better. Current SEER ratings run between 13 and 21 for new units, while it's not unheard of for older units to sport SEER ratings of half those numbers. Up front, the higher the SEER rating, the more expensive the air conditioner, so if you choose that 21 SEER rated unit, you should plan to pay a pretty penny for it. When you contrast that with the fact that Americans spend about 11 billion dollars a year on cooling their homes, accounting for a full 5 percent of our nation's energy usage, however, it's easy to see why you'd want to place efficiency at a premium as you shop around for air conditioning for your Baltimore home.

Baltimore Air Conditioning Installation
SEER ratings aren't everything when it comes to installing air conditioning into your Baltimore home. Any number of factors can negatively influence the cooling efficiency of even the most sophisticated unit. Here's a list of things to watch out for if you're ready to install air conditioning in Baltimore.