Yes, I'd definitely call for a second and third company's opinion.

Gas heat flames oughta be blue, and maybe a trace of yellow here or there.
But in my expereince. a cracked heat exchanger doesn't necessarily guarantee
a yellow flame. And smelling gas doesn't necessarily mean a cracked heat
exchanger.

Natural gas heat, and electrically powered AC sounds right to me. But then,
I live in NYS.

--

Christopher A. Young
Learn More about Jesus
www.lds.org
www.mormons.com


"ishtarbgl" wrote in message
m...
My wife and I moved into a 30 year-old house a year ago. Everything
worked ok over the past year but I have never been please with the
A/C. Well, as winter slowly approaches here in Louisiana I go to turn
on my Gas heater and smell a small hint of gas. Again, my pregnant
wife smells it too. So I shut everything down including the pilot
light and call someone to come and inspect it. I am clueless when it
comes to this equipment and service so I just picked someone out of
the yellow pages that appeared professional. A man shows up and
immediately panics and says I have a cracked chamber. He says the
evidence of this is to look at the flame where it is yellow? Isn't
most fire yellow to some degree? I go down to my gas stove and see
the same type of flame. Of course I do plan to get a second opinion.
Anyway, he has his boss come out and take a look to see what it would
cost to basically replace everything and do some needed duct work.
Here is what he proposed:

Rheem 12 SEER (electric a/c and inside gas furnace part)
redo and add some duct work throughout the house
redo some of the piping that goes from the outside unit to the inside
unit
raise the slab where my outside unit will be so it is to code
Cost: $5600 (includes tax and everything)

Ultimately, it does sound like quite a bit of work and everything he
proposed makes sense. However, if you haven't already been able to
tell from my description (i.e. outside unit vs. inside unit) I am
completely naive about this whole process. So if anyone out there can
help me I sure would appreciate it.

My concerns are this:
How should I choose someone to do this type of work? I want it done
right but I can't really tell from the yellow pages who is
professional and who isn't.

Is Rheem the manufacturer I should go with? I have always heard that
Trane and American Standard was best. This guy that gave me this
quote even said that American Standard is probably a little better
than Rheem but given my installation he said Rheem would be best.
Again, I just don't know.

Is electric A/C and Gas heat really the way to go? Should I be
considering other options?

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Simply put I am lost but have to
get this done since Winter will be here before I know it and I don't
want to risk any development issues with our new baby.