I'm getting ready to have a new furnace and central a/c unit installed.
I'm not sure the size is important but I need a three ton central unit.
My question is how I know what seer rating to go with? I know the higher
the more efficient.
They guy that sized the job says a 10 would be fine but higher would
save me money monthly and will install what i want and gave me the price
on a 10 and a 13, big differance.
How do I know how high to go and not loose money because of the extra I
have to pay for the unit?
I live in northern Kentucky

Get more bids then report back.

wrote in message
...
I'm getting ready to have a new furnace and central a/c unit installed.
I'm not sure the size is important but I need a three ton central unit.
My question is how I know what seer rating to go with? I know the higher
the more efficient.
They guy that sized the job says a 10 would be fine but higher would
save me money monthly and will install what i want and gave me the price
on a 10 and a 13, big differance.
How do I know how high to go and not loose money because of the extra I
have to pay for the unit?
I live in northern Kentucky

The Feds raised the required SEER level to 13 so he may have trouble finding
a 10 SEER unit. I guess if he gave you a price, he must have one.

As someone else stated: Get at LEAST 2 more quotes (not estimates) and if
one of them can't tell you what the SEER ratings are all about, come back
here and ask.

Whoever does the estimate needs to do the proper calculations to
determine tonnage. How do you know you need 3 tons ?

IMO pay for the highest SEER you can afford because rates are gonna
keep going up.

Only a crook would recomend a 10 seer in Ky they will be outlawed soon
if they already are not. In Ky get as high as you can but a 14 seer is
maybe 40-50 % more efficient than a 10. You can go to 19.5 seer. You
need a written load calc, you may need 3 ton in 10 seer but 2.5 in 15
seer , oversize and you will be left humid, Get a few Pros out, not Mr
Cheaps selling you his last years overstock. Electricity is going up,
you can easily cut your bills in 50-75% with the right equipment. A VS
DC blower will also cut your bills, but get a 10 yr warranty on your
unit.

On Tue, 07 Mar 2006 09:59:41 -0500, wrote:

I'm getting ready to have a new furnace and central a/c unit installed.
I'm not sure the size is important but I need a three ton central unit.
My question is how I know what seer rating to go with? I know the higher
the more efficient.
They guy that sized the job says a 10 would be fine but higher would
save me money monthly and will install what i want and gave me the price
on a 10 and a 13, big differance.
How do I know how high to go and not loose money because of the extra I
have to pay for the unit?
I live in northern Kentucky



Go to this site and consider a unit with a SEER rating that will give
you a tax credit for installing a new unit.

http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?...pr_tax_credits

Additionally, there are calculators that let you plug in the SEER
rating of your old unit and the SEER rating of your potential
replacement and based on what you pay for electricity, will calculate
the potential annual savings. You can also look at the cost difference
between a 10 SEER and a higher efficiency unit. Some one posted one
of those sites on this news group a couple of months ago. Do a
search.

You will probably pay more for the higher efficiency unit but the
payback should be there with the tax credit and reduced energy bills.

And get competitive bids. The higher efficiency units should be
coming down in price as manufacturers ramp up the volume.

Frank

m Ransley wrote:
Only a crook would recomend a 10 seer in Ky they will be outlawed soon
if they already are not. In Ky get as high as you can but a 14 seer is
maybe 40-50 % more efficient than a 10. You can go to 19.5 seer. You
need a written load calc, you may need 3 ton in 10 seer but 2.5 in 15
seer , oversize and you will be left humid, Get a few Pros out, not Mr
Cheaps selling you his last years overstock. Electricity is going up,
you can easily cut your bills in 50-75% with the right equipment. A VS
DC blower will also cut your bills, but get a 10 yr warranty on your
unit.

10 SEER is not illegal to install, only illegal to manufacture. No
sense in making a law to outlaw installing, non will be available in a
few weeks to months anyway.

SEER IS cooling efficiency averaged over the cooling season in BTUs per
watt. Higher is better, like miles per gallon. Efficiency has nothing
to do with capacity. If you need a 3 ton in 10 SEER, then you need a 3
ton in 19 SEER efficiency.



Did your contractor do a manual J load calculation? It is a fairly
complex procedure. If he sized by the square feet of floor area, he
did it wrong. He needs the square feet of windows, what kind they are
and which way they face. The square feet of doors, walls,ceilings,
floors is also required as well as the R-factors for each. Then all
the numbers are run through a computer as it is getting too complicated
to do by hand.

If the contractor did not do all that, get another contractor.

What SEER you need depends a lot on the cost of installation, weather
conditions in your area and cost of electricity. Here in Myrtle Beach,
SC electric rates are about 6 to 6.5 cents per KWH. 14 SEER is fine
for most people with our weather conditions. If you pqy 12 cents per
KWH, go as high as you can. If your rates are somewhere in between,
then go somewhere in between.

If you pay $30.00 per month electric bill, an efficiency upgrade makes
less sense than if you pay $300.00 per month. We need more information
to make a good recommendation.

Stretch

You get more Btu cooling out of a 16 seer 3 ton than a 10 seer 3 ton,
sizing can often be decreased by using a higher seer.
Trane has Seer comparison sheets

Ransley,

You have no clue!

3-ton is 36000 BTUs per Hour Cooling. Period.

1-ton is the amount of cooling produced by melting 1-ton of 32 degree
ice to 32 degree water per day.

Melting ice absorbs 144 BTUs per pound. That is called the "latent
heat of fusion", that is the heat absorbed by the change of state from
solid water to liquid water without changing the temperature. If you
melt 1-ton (2,000 pounds) of water that is 2000 times 144 = 288,000
BTUs per day. Divide 288,000 BTUs per day by 24 (hours per day) and
you get 12,000 BTUs per hour. Divide that by 60 (minutes per hour) and
you get 200 BTUs per minute.

Air conditioners are rated by BTUs per hour of cooling delivered to the
space, a NET rating. Gas furnaces, on the other hand, are rated by
BTUs INPUT, a GROSS INPUT rating. Increasing the efficiency of a
furnace rated 100,000 BTUs per Hour Input means more BTUs delivered to
the space. But, increasing the efficiency of a TRUE 1-TON Air
Conditioner reduces the power consumption, it does NOT change the
cooling capacity.

Stretch

You misread bubba I never said a 10 seer couldnt he had

snip

snip
I should have provided more information than I did. I did have three
estimates, two this year and one a few months ago. Two of the guys did
do a load something maybe a manual j or some letter behind it. One said
I need all new duck work, other two said what I had was just fine.
All three said I need a three ton central air unit. If the furnace is
important I can get the number for it. It is natural gas.
My basic question was, is it a cost saving to go to a higher seer
rating. How many years would it take to realize the savings say from a
10 to a 13 or higher? And yes 10 seer are still sold and installed in
Kentucky.
Thanks

Learn to Read buba

m Ransley wrote:
You get more Btu cooling out of a 16 seer 3 ton than a 10 seer 3 ton,
sizing can often be decreased by using a higher seer.
Trane has Seer comparison sheets


BTU per watt of input power, yes the 16 seer 3 ton will use less electricity

Both units will produce 36,000 BTU/Hr of cooling, the 16 SEER will do so
using less electricity to do it than the 10 SEER unit.