DIYbanter - View Single Post

Peter[_14_]

On 12/3/2010 2:46 PM, wrote:

Anyone have any recommendations as to brands/models that they have had
good results with or those to avoid? Any particular features? I'm
thinking it's going to be worth it to get a high enough efficiency
system to meet the $1500 tax credit, but probably don't need anything
more than that. Any features you've found useful on newer systems and
would recommend? Things like variable speed blowers, dual stage,
etc? But honestly, the current one is fine in terms of comfort,
can't complain about drafts, etc. The house is 3200 sq ft, current
furnace is 150K BTU input, 4.5 ton AC. Location is coastal NJ, with
high gas and electricity rates.

I know what one guy here will say, ie just keep running the old
one.....

We replaced our very old Columbia gas fired, forced hot-air furnace and
our old Ruud A/C unit 4-7 years ago - both with Carrier units. I won't
bother you with the model name/number because just as with cars, the
model names and numbers change almost yearly. We have not required a
single service call for either since installation and have been totally
pleased.

We chose a furnace model that is 92% efficient and saw our natural gas
consumption drop about 1/3 with no additional insulation added to the
house and no change in our thermostat settings. The HVAC guy estimated
that our old furnace was probably only about 60% efficient. The
difference in price at that time between 92% and 96% efficient was huge
(about 25% more) and we figured that we were unlikely to remain in our
house long enough to make back in gas expenses what we would pay for the
additional 4% in furnace efficiency if we popped for the 96% unit.

We had been having a problem with chronic refrigerant leaks in the old
A/C unit despite spending oodles to try to find the leak (never did).
The system needed at least a top-off and sometimes more than that every
season. Therefore, when we replaced the A/C, we not only replaced the
coil in the furnace and the compressor outside, but we replaced all the
pipes connecting them. We're glad that we did. No more leaks and our
A/C electric usage dropped by about 50% during the hottest summer
months. (We're in the D.C. metro area.)

The bottom line as someone else wrote is to find and use a well
qualified and honest HVAC contractor. For each job, we got 3 different
bids from contractors that were highly recommended in the D.C. area
edition of Checkbook magazine. For both jobs we ended up going with the
same contractor. Both times his bid was in the middle - about 10%
higher than the lowest bid and about 30% cheaper than the most expensive
one. We'd use him again in a heartbeat. Good luck in your area!