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Categories - Efficiencies & SEER Ratings

What is SEER?

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We have heard it, used it, and in some cases do not know what it is, but when talking HVAC, we need to understand what S.E.E.R. means to be able to provide energy saving systems to our customers. This seems to be a common term we have all heard at one time or another either when choosing a new air conditioning or heat pump system or even when buying a home.

About 50 percent of the energy used in a typical home today is spent on heating and cooling, this is reported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It’s no surprise that your utility bills can be as unpredictable as the weather!
It is important that we understand what SEER is in order to save money in our monthly electric bills.
S.E.E.R. is an efficiency rating, much like how miles per gallon (MPG) is used to rate automobile efficiency and cost for usage. We understand that if you drive 300 miles and use up exactly 20 gallons of gas, then your vehicle's fuel efficiency (MPG) is 15 miles per gallon (300 miles divided by 20 gallons). A vehicle that gets 18 MPG would be more efficient (less costly) to operate, and a 12 MPG vehicle is less efficient (more costly) to operate. SEER is the HVAC industry term for the efficiency of an air conditioning or heat pump (in the cooling mode) and SEER stands for Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio. The seasonal energy efficiency ratio is the amount of cooling that a heat pump (or air conditioner) delivers per watt of electricity used to power the heat pump. In other words, a higher SEER unit uses less electricity.

In 1975, there was no universal standard of measurement for HVAC energy efficiency. The Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Institute (ARI) introduced the E.E.R. (Energy Efficiency Ratio) for the purpose of rating the cooling efficiency of HVAC units. E.E.R. equaled the rated cooling output of an HVAC unit in BTU's per hour divided by the rated input of energy in watts of electricity, measured at specific humidity, and specific temperature input/output conditions.

The formal definition of Energy Efficiency Ratio is a steady state efficiency measurement of BTUH cooling output versus power (watts) input or BTUH/WATT at a specific set of indoor and outdoor dry bulb and wet bulb temperature conditions.

While this sounds seems to make good since, there was no seasonal consideration to this rating and to the rating equation. The climates across the United States vary, as do seasonal conditions from one zone to another. As an example, Florida and Arizona have different summer conditions; this affects the performance and resulting cooling energy savings for the user of the air conditioning unit. This means the seasonal conditions of different locations across the U.S. do affect the value and needed to be considered when interpreting an HVAC unit's previous E.E.R. rating.

In 1978 the US Congress passed a law requiring the labeling of certain "appliances" (Including HVAC units under 65,000 BTUH cooling) with an efficiency rating that took into consideration the seasonal affect on cooling BTUH output, watts input, and an average cost of operation for the cooling side of a residential air conditioning unit.

The latest rating, S.E.E.R. (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio), was started as an alternative to the original E.E.R. This was done to more accurately consider the seasonal affect on the efficiency of HVAC products in different areas in the U.S. S.E.E.R. includes a rating at a different temperature than E.E.R. and it also includes the cycle rate (on and off conditions of the HVAC equipment) and so includes cycle losses in the efficiency equation.

Currently all HVAC unit specification sheets are required to show only S.E.E.R. ratings.

IN 1974 the two ways to determine the cost to operate a HVAC system were E.E.R. and S.E.E.R. At this time a 6 E.E.R. rating was the typical unit efficiency and by the mid 1980’s 8 S.E.E.R. was most popular. The first Federal mandate came in 1992 when manufactures were instructed to build equipment with a minimum efficiency of 10 S.E.E.R. and 9.7 S.E.E.R. for single package systems in 1993. Prior to 1992, individual states were free to establish their own individual minimum efficiency standards and the first federal mandate enforced the first of the national HVAC efficiency compliances.

The higher the S.E.E.R. number of your air conditioning or heat pump system means the greater BTU/H cooling output for the watts of electricity consumed (better miler per gallon MPG for your HVAC system). We’ll talk more about choosing the best SEER in the system you buy, and other benefits of an updated HVAC system, but for now we should realize that the bigger the SEER number, the more money you will save on your electric bills.

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