Charlie: First question comes from Lois in the Almeda area. She wants to know what is SEER? She hears you talk about that with air conditioning all the time. What does that mean?
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Tom: Oh, I was going to say that’s what you do to a steak on the grill.
Charlie: Yeah. Only if you like it juicy, baby. That’s a-
Tom: Yeah. Anyway, it’s Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio. It is a number that … I guess it comes out of a computer program that is based on certain temperatures and humidities, to give an efficiency label for an air conditioning system, so people can sell it. It’s a sales tool, is what it is. Unfortunately, the temperature and humidity ratios that are used to create a SEER, which could be, right now they start at about 13, 14, and they can go up into the 20s, the higher the number, the more efficient the system is supposedly going to be. But what happens is it doesn’t meet the requirements of what we call Zone 3 in the United States. There’s Zone 1, 2, and 3. Zone 1 is way up north, nobody really cares that much as little as they use air conditioning. You know.
Charlie: Well, I beg to differ.
Tom: I mean, you do use it. You do use it, but you’re so much more concerned about your heating system when you put oil in it, and you have a big boilers.
Charlie: I have air conditioning clients up there, and trust me, they care about air conditioning.
Tom: No, that’s the Zone 2, then you’re getting just past the Canadian line, and you’re coming down into the United States. Zone 2 is the majority of the country. It works pretty well for that. Then you have Zone 3, which is just around the Houston area, and then all the way around the Florida peninsula and the Gulf Coast, and it just doesn’t meet, or is based on the requirements that we have. That’s why we’ve always had to tweak our systems for dehumidification. We talk to Rick at Absolute Comfort Air, and he’ll tell us about how he has to do certain things to get temperature drops across the coil, because high SEER rated coils tend to run too warm, and they don’t dehumidify. We’re a little bit different animal down here, but that’s what it’s about. But don’t put a lot of credence in, “Oh the higher the SEER rating, I’m going to save tons of money.” Not in the Houston area.
Charlie: Different animal.