wrote in message
oups.com...
I have the Sears.ca sales agent coming over next week to check out our
place to see if they can install a central A/C unit. The sales
mentioned that the SEER rating doesn't mean much for someone who lives
in Western Canada. When he faxed over the specs of the Kenmore unit
that he is suggesting, I see it has a SEER rating of 10!

Based on the trane website, SEER rating helps to reduce your electrical
bill in teh long run and they suggest something along a SEER 15. The
more expensive ones are SEER 19. So this has me all worried about the
SEER 10 Kenmore unit.

Can anyone shed some light on this situation? Will the SEER 10 be
louder? Much more costly? Thoughts?

In the US it is now not legal to make new units with the SEER of 10. I
forgot what the cutoff number is. They can be installed but not made.
Don't know how this will apply out of the US, but you are probably getting a
leftover or out of date unit. While it will not really apply in your case,
I just had a new heatpump installed to replace a 25 year old one. It had a
SEER rating of 14 as this seemed to be the best installation cost vers the
payback of a higher cost SEER rating for me.
One thing about it , the cost of enegery will not come down, but only go up
so you may need to think about what it may cost 5 or 10 years from now to
operate the unit. You may save $ 5 now per month but 10 years from now it
may be $ 20.