Todd H. wrote:
Greetings,
It's that sad time to replace a furnace and possibly the A/C at the
same time. The location is Chicago, IL, home is a 15 year old 2-story colonial around
2300sf, with a 15-year old 100,000 BTU furnace and a 3ton A/C unit.
Summers get hot and obnoxiously humid, but aren't that long. Winters
are, well, Chicago winters.
Hi Todd,
A new home in 1991 & they did not install the A/C system so that the
upstairs would be properly cooled!
That ought to be the first item you have them address.
What SEER is the unit installed in your home?
Ten-SEER or above & working good, forget replacing it, as you probably
NOT see any appreciable savings.
A 10-SEER is usually better at reducing humidity & they are good
functioning units.
Do not fall for all the hype about "potential" savings, as even the
15-SEER may not work well with your conditions.,
They can not guarantee that those SEER levels will save you any money or
provide as much or more comfort than the existing unit.
If you decide to change, Stay with R-22 &a 13 or no more than 14-SEER,
and demand a scroll compressor & a TXV refrigerant metering device!
Your website is great, my websites go back to that era, too.
I'd like some thoughts on the conceptual stories being spun by two
quotes I've received thus far. Sadly, the two companies seem to have
divergent advice on several points!
o Company A: a large well-respected 2-location Carrier dealer
in Chicagoland that has a training budget and a large staff
of technicians. Thought of well by every home inspector I've
come across.
o Company B: The other company, a lesser known, a 2 co-owner
Frigidaire dealer recommended by a friend who knows them very
well. The friend is one of those sorts who can do ANYTHING
to his house and just got done rebuilding it literally from
the foundation up largely on his own, and chose these guys for
HVAC.
The questions:
1) Carrier vs Frigidaire. Carrier I've had and had pretty good luck
with. Frigidaire...never even knew they did HVAC. Thoughts? I'm
leaning heavily Carrier or Bryant on this one.
2) 80 vs 90% The larger Carrier dealer interestingly was
recommending 80% for my 15-year old home. They said if it were new
construction 90% would make a lot of sense to save on running a
flue to the roof, but given that we already have one, it was
probably more cost effective to go with 80%. The Frigidaire
dealer said the 90% was the way to go with the number of degree
days we have here in Chicagoland. I'm more inclined to lean
toward 90% because I don't see energy getting anything but more
expensive in the future.
3) Variable speed vs fixed speed fan. Carrier dealer recommended
against variable speed for my ductwork. He did not recommend the
variable speed motor for my ductwork because it went from square
ducting to round ducting ,and something about the turbulence
caused by the transition causing the motor to run at higher speeds
for longer than it should--some mention perhaps of a sensor of
some sort? How do Carrier's variable speed motors work?
The Frigidaire dealer was very pro-variable speed, although they
couldn't seem to explain to me my question about "what dictates
the speed the fan runs during a cycle? Is there a sensor? Is it
timed?" They told me a lot about dip switches for setting mins
and maxes, but never did manage to "get" that I wanted to know the
control algorithm for the fan speed so I could make sense of maybe
why they were all for variable while the Carrier guy was not.
4) Dual stage furnace vs single stage. The Carrier dealer, who'd
ruled out variable speed based on my duct configuration, said a
2-stage would bring me more comfort and evenness of heating temp.
The Frigidaire dealer wasn't pushing 2 stage since variable speed
addressed the comfort issue.
5) 13SEER vs 15SEER. If it only cost $300 more, would ya do it?
Carrier dealer had this option for mein the quiet Performance
series (I like quiet given the configuration of my yard and its
use i the summer). Both dealers seemed to feel the federally
mandated 13SEER was plenty efficient for our area. In the Carrier
dealer quote, I had 13SEER comfort and 13SEER performance options
with a $300 spread between them for the better noise package.
Another $300 gets me to 15SEER and quiet.
6) R410A vs R22? Carrier dealer recommended the R410A versions of
their units vs the R22 as it was only $75 more to get the more
eco-friendly refrigerant that'd be around for the forseeable
future, plus the R410A units were a lot more reliable and had
longer warranties because they cooperate with lubricants a lot
better than R-22. The Frigidaire dealer was quiet on this issue
as they didn't appear to have any R410A units available.
7) Do furnace and A/C simultaneously? Or not? On one hand I'd like
to hold onto the $2500-$3500 the A/C would cost rather than
dropping that into the bucket now. The Carrier dealer said I
would only save about $250 in installation labor by doing them
both at the same time. The Frigidaire dealer seemed to push at
least replacing the A/C coil with the heater even if we waited on
the outside unit. (I agree.)
If you just change the E-Coil, get a good one with a TXV metering device!
Changing th coil now could save a lot of extra expense later.
The A/C currently seems to work well now,
though we do have a pretty good temp difference upstairs and down
even when running our current single speed blower 24/7. I don't
see a new unit making any difference in comfort, but we would see
a few months of energy savings. (May be NO savings.)
Company #3, another larger place, comes tomorrow. (Good idea, see what they say)
Thanks so much for any thoughts or advice with these issues!
Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/
- udarrell
--
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