Hi, Got a question about air conditioning my house. It is an old house, recently renovated with cathedral ceilings on the second (of two) floors. It has a one pipe steam heating system and no ac system. It is 1300 sq ft and the rooms are on the smaller side. The previous owner cooled the place with 5 window units. My question is, what options do I have to cool this place? Here are some thoughts I am having on this:
1) Use many window units. Pros: cools the house. Cons: ugly, loud, inefficient.
2) Use a couple huge window ac units on the second floor and let the cool air drop down the stairs and cool the rest of the house. pros: more efficient, quiet (moreso downstairs), less intrusive. cons: still ugly, will it even work? This works in the split level ranch I grew up in. With central ac, we would close all the vents except the top floor and it would still make the basement artic. Would it work in this two story colonial?
3) Install a high velocity central ac system. This is my fav option, but I have a number of outstanding q's on it. How much will the installation cost? Order of magnitude is fine - $1k/5k/10k? I have heard they are noisy - how noisy? Have they become less noisy in recent years? If I have no noise at all and I'm watching tv, how much will I have to turn the tv up to overcome the hissing of the ac? Is it louder than a brand new window ac unit? Is it louder than a ceiling fan turned on high?
Thanks! josh