SEER Ratings, Explained in Dollars
Your air conditioner has a “miles per gallon.” In Westchester, it matters more than almost anywhere in America.
SEER2 is the fuel-economy sticker for your AC. Here’s what it actually means for your Con Edison or Avangrid bill — with real math, real rates, and no jargon.
per kilowatt-hour — the real, all-in Con Edison rate Westchester homeowners are paying this summer
The Analogy
SEER is MPG for your air conditioner
When you shop for a car, you don’t need an engineering degree to understand the fuel economy sticker. A car that gets 40 MPG burns half the gas of one that gets 20 MPG to cover the same miles. Same trip, half the fuel bill.
SEER2 works exactly the same way. It measures how much cooling your system delivers for every unit of electricity it consumes. A 23 SEER2 system delivers the same cool, comfortable house as a 14.5 SEER2 system — it just “burns” about 37% less electricity doing it.
Here’s the part that makes this matter in Westchester: electricity here is expensive. At roughly 37¢/kWh all-in, running an inefficient AC on Con Edison is like driving a gas-guzzler when gas costs $7 a gallon. Efficiency pays back faster here than almost anywhere in the country.
Your car
MPG = miles driven per gallon of gas. Higher MPG, fewer fill-ups, same trip.
Your AC
SEER2 = cooling delivered per unit of electricity. Higher SEER2, smaller Con Ed bill, same comfort.
The Simple Framework
Four numbers decide your summer cooling bill
There’s no mystery to what your AC costs to run. It comes down to how big your system is, how much Westchester summer you throw at it, how efficient it is, and what Con Ed / Avangrid charges. That’s it:
(a 3-ton system)
(Con Edison, all-in)
Your home’s insulation matters too — a tightly insulated house needs fewer cooling hours, while a drafty one needs more. We assume a moderately insulated Westchester home here; a proper in-home evaluation tells us where yours actually falls.
Carrier’s Three Tiers — Side by Side
The window sticker your AC never came with
Below is the same 3-ton system for a moderately insulated Westchester home, at each Carrier product tier — plus the 15-year-old unit many of our customers are replacing. Think of these as window stickers on a dealer’s lot.
Our assumptions, in plain sight: 3-ton (36,000 BTU/h) system, moderately insulated Westchester home, ~800 equivalent full-load cooling hours per season, Con Edison blended rate of $0.37/kWh (supply + delivery, based on current 2026 residential bills). SEER2 values shown are representative ratings for each Carrier tier; exact ratings vary by model and matched indoor equipment. Your home’s actual usage will vary.
The Chart
Annual cooling cost by system — same house, same summer
Savings shown vs. a typical 15-year-old 10 SEER system. Between new tiers: Performance saves ~$108/yr over Comfort; Infinity saves ~$272/yr over Comfort and ~$164/yr over Performance.
Now multiply by the life of the system
A well-installed Carrier system runs 15+ years. Choosing Infinity over Comfort compounds to real money — and that’s at today’s Con Ed rates. Every rate increase makes the efficient system a better decision retroactively.
The Honest Fine Print
What the SEER number doesn’t tell you
We’ve been doing this in Westchester for 75 years, so we’ll tell you what a brochure won’t:
- Higher SEER costs more upfront. The right answer depends on how long you’ll be in the home and how you value comfort. Sometimes Comfort or Performance is genuinely the right call — we’ll tell you when it is.
- Efficiency isn’t only about the bill. Infinity’s variable-speed compressor also delivers far better humidity control and quieter operation — things a SEER number can’t capture, and things you feel every muggy July afternoon.
Want the math run on your actual house?
We’ll size your cooling and heating load, look at your real Con Ed usage, and show you the honest payback on each tier — no pressure toward the expensive one.
