What you need to know about air conditioning in Israel

Timing is everything. Especially when the air-conditioner in your living room dies at the beginning of July. 

To be fair, it had served me coldly and well for over 30 years. My regular service guy did his best to resuscitate it without success, and when another albeit far from new aircon in the bedroom joined the lounge unit in that great chilly pile of (hopefully recycled) aircons in the sky, there was no option but to do some market research and set the BTU’s in motion. The idea of surviving a summer in Tel Aviv without aircon, was not appealing.

BTU’s you might ask? For those in the know, British Thermal Units. Also for those not quite in the know. Am I not expressing myself clearly? Well welcome to the frigid world of air-conditioning. I am tempted to add the well-worn phrase “in Israel,” but never having gone this route anywhere other than Israel, I have nothing to compare it to, so let’s press the delete button on that one.

My first stop was a large chain located at the local mall. My aircon service guy had recommended installing a 3HP unit to replace the old 2.5HP unit in the living room and armed with room measurements, this calculation was confirmed by the salesman. The only problem was that 3HP units were not thick on the smoldering ground, whereas most brands offered 3.5HP units, which were in stock.

A call to another retail outlet further reinforced my fear that between the corona and the summer, there were no 3HP units available on the market.

Then I remembered another smaller chain. On visiting their showroom in Ramat Gan, to my utter joy (and surprise), the salesman checked and said they had 20 3HP units available. He enquired as to the size of the room and calculated the BTU required and then pronounced that 3HP was indeed the magic number. Now why anyone would want to complicate matters with BTU’s instead of simply talking about the HP is beyond me, but more of that later. He proudly displayed a BTU calculation table in front of me, sprouting numbers and formuli which if they were meant to impress me, did just the opposite. 

Apparently by establishing the size of the room you arrive at the amount of BTU’s needed to cool it and further down the line of thermal engineering, BTU can be converted to HP and from there voila – a xxHP air-conditioner is required.

Having established that I do not need to adjust the temperature in my lounge nor need to switch it on or off from the moon, or any equally distant location, and after trying to compare apples and pears (a/c units of different sizes and makers), I finally decided on a make and model and placed an order with the salesman by phone, paid for it with a credit card and heaved a sigh of relief. All very convenient, or so I thought.

AT THE beginning of August the air-conditioners were duly delivered and a few days later a team of two burly guys arrived to install them. Shortly after “good morning” and the prerequisite introductions and before even having time to get to the essential “coffee anyone?” the first bombshell dropped. 

The installer informed me that the 3HP aircon I had been so pleased to have found, was in fact 3.5 HP. Granted today all air-conditioners are highly energy efficient, and quite possibly the difference in running costs are negligible, but I had really wanted the 3HP, and would most likely have chosen a different manufacturer if I had known this. The installer called the manufacturer’s representative with whom he worked, who confirmed that the model in question was a 3.5HP. I called the salesman who insisted on talking in BHU’s and said that the air-conditioner was in fact 3.1HP (9000 BTU’s = 1HP; the aircon was 28000 BTU, which when divided by 9000 = 3.1). Elementary, wouldn’t you agree? 

There followed a heated discussion between the salesman and the installer in Russian, with neither side backing down. After much huffing, puffing and pacing, the conversation ended abruptly. Without understanding a word of Russian, I certainly got the gist of things!

Feeling totally deflated, I told the installer to simply continue and install the unit whatever BTU or HP it may be. The thought of spending another few weeks simmering without an air conditioner melted any remaining resolve or principles.

This was followed by a second bombshell: “You know that you need to pay NIS 550 installation fee for the small a/c and NIS 700 for the large one…”, “yes” I replied, the delivery fee and the installation fee had been duly stated on the invoice. “And you do know that in addition you need to pay a fee for dismantling and removal of the old units…”. No, I did not know this and I certainly would have expected the salesman to include this in the list of additional costs!

I again called the salesman who initially said it was on the invoice and after he checked and realized it was not, said very nonchalantly that everyone who buys an air-conditioner should know that they need to pay this in addition to all the other costs. Well, sorry, no, I was not aware of this, and why not be up front and disclose everything that needs to be disclosed in advance? With all due respect, the last time I bought an air-conditioner was in the previous century!

So in short, this is the breakdown you can expect when next replacing a small air-conditioner:

Price of air-conditioner (depends on make, size, model)

Delivery fee: NIS 250Installation fee: NIS 550Dismantling & removal of old unit: NIS 150Additional piping @ NIS 80 per meter (2m included)        NIS 80 (1m)Total: NIS 1,030

So let’s say that the air-conditioner itself cost NIS 1,500, you would need to spend close to another NIS 1,000 (even presuming you are fortunate enough to not need any additional piping) to have it up and running in your home. So for a NIS 1,500 air-conditioner the total spend would be NIS 2,530. Am I the only one who finds this rather distasteful?

Of course when moving the location of an air-conditioner – for example from the floor to the new (legally required) location on the wall – additional piping, drilling through concrete, and the extension of the electrical cord, may be required, further adding “incidentals” to the total. In certain cases it may also be necessary to call in an electrician to install a new plug or to run a new line from the board.

Another point to consider apart from price, functions, size and brand is the guarantee period. This too can vary considerably.

To be fair, kudos to the delivery company who delivered both A/Cs for a flat fee of NIS 250.

The one upside of this entire saga has been that for over a month I have been unable to invite guests and have enjoyed time out of the kitchen. It is with cool resolve that I now need to review this status.

But meanwhile, caveat emptor! Chill…