wrote in message
ups.com...
I am house hunting right now. Most of the houses in Philadelphia
suburbs, that are in my price range, have no central air and in many
instances no ductwork. I am considering buying such house and
installing AC system, so I want to know ball park figure of hiring HVAC
person to do these jobs (parts/labor).

I live in the Philly 'burbs - 50-year-old split level without AC, 4 BR on 2
of the 4 levels. We have 60-foot-high oak trees shading the house and get
by through all but a few days of the summer without AC. When absolutely
necessary we use a couple of portable ACs in the daytime in my and my
husband's offices as we both work at home. Ten years ago when we added a
2-story addition to the back of our house our contractor strongly suggested
that we upgrade our 20-year-old heater because he felt it would be
overworked with the added rooms. The HVAC guy asked if we wanted to add AC
at the same time since it would be a lot cheaper with him already there.
Both DH and I thought about it for maybe 3 minutes and mutually decided
against it, and we still don't regret that decision. In our minds, AC is
not necessary in this part of the country unless you're a wimp!!

Liz