ParrotNotes

SEER Savings Calculator

Compare the cooling cost of an old and a new air conditioner or heat pump by SEER or SEER2 rating, with yearly savings and the payback on the price difference. Enter the size in tons or Btu/h, the old rating in SEER or SEER2, and the hours your region cools; old SEER ratings are put on the SEER2 scale for you.

Your numbers

tons

1 ton = 12,000 Btu/h. Use the size of the new system if it changes.

On the outdoor unit's data plate, the paperwork or its AHRI certificate.

SEER2
¢/kWh

Starts at the US residential average for August 2026 (EIA). Your bill's total divided by its kWh is better.

years

Your choice. DOE FEMP assumes 18 to 25 years of life.

$

What the higher-SEER2 system costs over the other option, after any rebate. Gives the payback.

Yearly savings

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Current unit
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New unit
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Savings over 15 years
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The calculation runs in your browser and ParrotNotes does not store your numbers. They sit in the page address so you can bookmark or share the result.

How the savings are worked out

SEER (now SEER2) is cooling delivered over a season in Btu divided by the electricity used in watt-hours. So the energy a unit uses is the cooling it delivers divided by its rating: capacity in Btu per hour × hours of cooling a year ÷ SEER2 ÷ 1,000 gives kWh a year. Multiply by your price per kWh for the cost.

Worked example: a 3-ton (36,000 Btu/h) system in the North, 1,705 hours a year, at 18.16 cents a kWh. An old 10 SEER unit is about 9.5 SEER2 and uses 6,461 kWh, $1,173 a year. A new 16 SEER2 unit uses 3,836 kWh, $697. The saving is about $477 a year; if the 16 SEER2 unit costs $2,500 more than a minimum-efficiency one, that difference pays back in about 5.2 years.

SEER vs SEER2

From January 1, 2023, DOE rates central air conditioners and heat pumps with SEER2, EER2 and HSPF2, from a revised test procedure meant to better reflect real-world installation and use. The same equipment gets a lower number on the new test, and DOE notes the two are not directly comparable: compliance is judged on the SEER2.

To compare an old unit with a new one, put them on the same scale. AHRI's equivalents for the 2023 minimums (14 SEER = 13.4 SEER2, 14.5 SEER = 13.8 SEER2, 15 SEER = 14.3 SEER2) work out to between 0.952 and 0.957, so the calculator multiplies an old SEER by 0.95. Treat that as approximate: the exact SEER2 of a given system comes from its AHRI certificate.

Minimum SEER2 by region

The DOE standards in force since January 1, 2023. The Southwest is Arizona, California, Nevada and New Mexico; the Southeast runs from Texas and Oklahoma to Maryland, Delaware and Florida, with Hawaii and the territories. In the North the rule follows the date a unit was made; in the South, the date it is installed. ENERGY STAR central air conditioners in DOE's FEMP tables are 15.2 SEER2.

DOE minimum SEER2 ratings for central air conditioners and heat pumps by region, from January 1, 2023
ProductNorthSoutheastSouthwest
Split-system AC, under 45,000 Btu/h13.414.314.3
Split-system AC, 45,000 Btu/h and up13.413.813.8
Split-system heat pump14.314.314.3
Single-package AC13.413.413.4
Single-package heat pump13.413.413.4

The Southwest also sets EER2 minimums for split and package air conditioners. Check the AHRI certificate of the exact outdoor and indoor combination you install.

Cooling hours and the price of electricity

The region choices use the hours in DOE's Federal Energy Management Program guidance for buying residential central air conditioners (updated December 2024): 3,409 hours a year in the hot-humid Southeast, 1,599 in the hot-dry Southwest and 1,705 in the North, for a 36,000 Btu/h unit. They are averages for a region; a house's own load, thermostat setting and shading move them. Choose your own hours if you have them, for example from a load calculation.

The rate starts at 18.16 cents per kWh, the US average residential price for August 2026 in the EIA's Electric Power Monthly (released October 23, 2026; preliminary). Your own rate is on the electric bill: the total of the energy and delivery charges divided by the kWh used. The savings over the years are a plain sum at today's rate, with no price rises and no discounting.

For HVAC sales: using it in the consult

Run it with the homeowner's own numbers: the old unit's rating from its data plate or paperwork, a recent bill for the rate, and the two systems you are quoting. Show the yearly saving and the payback on the price difference, not just the rating, and write down what they care about most (the bill, comfort, noise, a rebate) so the follow-up speaks to it.

Sources, each read on 2026-10-30. Results are estimates from the ratings, not a measured bill:

Sizing the new system first? The heat pump size calculator and the BTU calculator give the tons and Btu/h, and the electricity cost calculator prices any other appliance.

More for HVAC and home services sales: HVAC sales, HVAC sales training, Home improvement sales.

The upgrade is decided at the kitchen table

The age of the old unit, the summer bills, the rooms that never cool and what the homeowner can spend all come up in the in-home consult. Record it in ParrotNotes and get a transcript, a summary and the action items, so the quote and the follow-up match what was said.

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SEER savings calculator FAQ