Both window units and central units. I can look at old catalogs for tv or refrigerator prices, but don’t know where to look for ACs.
In this here 1975 newspaper ad you can see various window units advertised at prices in the $150-$450 range.
1975 Sears Wishbook. This is fun, a $300 microwave & cart.
Still looking for ACs though.
FYI, $100 in 1965 is the same as about $812 now. $100 in 1975 is $475 now.
Here is the picture of the head of a fan from approximately year 165…and it is waaaaay out of your price range.
Yeah, growing up in the 60s I recall air conditioning as being a luxury, far beyond what we could afford. Electric fans got us through the summer.
Yeah, realized typo later, but couldn’t correct. :smack:
Thanks.
The prices for those window units are basically the same as they would be today for the same cooling capacity. Though when you consider inflation, ouch for them in the past. Plus their efficiency wasabysmal. EER of 6.1 is barely half of what modern units get (though to be fair, window A/C units have lagged significantly behind whole-house systems).
Hey, found one that’s labeled 1968, for anyone else interested. $99.95 for 5,000 BTU, $279.95 for 22,000 BTU.
$279 in 1968 is about $2000 today. The two top rated 22,000 BTU air conditioners on Amazon right now cost $740 and $800. So they were almost three times as expensive back then, assuming comparable quality, which I suppose is a pretty big assumption. We did have a fairly inadequate window air conditioner when I was growing up in Chicago in 1968. My family was certainly not wealthy, at best lower middle class, but I guess they deemed it worth the price for some relief from the brutal Chicago summers.
Back about 1973, we sold 4000 btu window a/c units for $99.95.
I use in2013dollars regularly, and am aware of that the value of money changes. But I wanted the actual prices from back then, not value in today’s dollars, which is why I started with catalogs (where I found other items).
Air conditioners seems to have sold millions of units even in the early 1960s, and by the mid-70s 70% of new homes in the southern US were built with central air (understandably, the highest region by far with northeast lowest at under 20%). They were very expensive then, but not unobtainable for a large portion of the population, and those in hot climates, very desirable.
It’s not only the cost of the unit itself was a factor, but they were much less energy efficient back then. Probably close to a wash because of lower electricity costs.
And back in the '50s, if we wanted air conditioning we went to a movie.