I'm new here, writing with a cooling question for the community.
Last fall my wife and I bought a 1300 sq ft, two story house built in 1898 with old windows and likely lots of small drafts.
The heat is forced air with no evidence of prior central AC, and the floor plan is very chopped up.
We own two window AC units, one of which is about 10 years old, and the other is at least 20. I do not expect either is very efficient.
In the past, we've used one window AC unit in the kitchen to cool it down when we're cooking, and one in our bedroom to cool it down before going to sleep. We don't run them constantly, more just to keep it below 80 in the spaces we're using for the maybe 50 days a year that's a concern in our area.
I'm guessing that continuing our old habits with the old hardware is the most efficient setup, both financially and environmentally, but I also don't want to assume that's necessarly the case.
Are there general guidelines for making the window versus central AC choice, or are there ways to at least get a reasonable guesstimate of the better choice given our habits and time horizon?
Thanks!