Heating and Cooling options for your mobile home

This is one of the best articles I have seen on the options for heating and cooling your home. This comes from our friends at Biggerpockets.com

"Mobile homes and manufactured homes utilize many of the same features and mechanical systems when it comes to heating and cooling a home’s interior. Below is a list of the most popular heating and cooling systems used in many mobile homes today.
Split-Unit Central Air Conditioning:
Around the time I was ten years old, my family upgraded from window air conditioning units (see below) to the now common place Split-Unit Central Air conditioning units that force cooled air throughout the entire home via a series of under-floor or above ceiling ducts. Ducts are closed passages running from the mobile home’s air-handler or forced air furnace to a vent typically located underneath the mobile home’s floor.
The reason for the name “Split-Unit” is to signify that this air-conditioning system uses 2 separate appliances to force cooled air throughout the home. The exterior Compressor/Condenser is the component which sits outside the home and an Evaporator also known as an Air-Handler sits inside the home. Attached to the Evaporator is a fan which blows conditioned air throughout the home.
Base model units are often priced in the thousands of dollars new and used, not including installation. As these units are seldom moved after installation in many areas you may need a city or county permit in addition to a licensed contractor to install a central air conditioning unit.
Furnace:
A furnace is comprised of a heating device either gas or electric (electric typically being the least efficient) and an air circulating fan which blows heated air into the ducts and onto the interior of the mobile home. Furnaces are typically small enough to be located inside a closet in your mobile home, and should be properly maintained yearly to avoid damages. Filters should be changed regularly to avoid potential problems. Used units on Ebay.com start for around five hundred dollars not including installation. Any cost associated with this repair should be factored into all purchase offers for a mobile home.
Air-Source Heat Pump:
Heat pumps both cool and heat homes. Although less well-known then central air-conditioning units above, heat pumps are generally more efficient and less expensive to own and operate. Simply put, a heat pump works by exchanging warmth for cold in the summer months and cold air for warmer air in the winter. A heat pump can stand alone and look very similar to an exterior compressor/condenser portion of a traditional central-air unit.
Heat pumps do have limitations with heating a home when the exterior air temperature drops below 35-ish degrees Fahrenheit. This is one reason heat pumps are less commonly seen in the Northern half of the United States unless they are geothermal heated."

Read the full article here: http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2012/05/17/common-ways-to-heat-and-cool-a-mobile-home/

This article was written by by John Fedro on May 17, 2012.

The full article goes into several other options and should not be missed.

Now is a great time to get your cooling system checked and make sure it won't break down before Summer.