Home air conditioner.

[drewkaree]

After years of bandaid fixing our HVAC unit we had ours swapped out last year and it’s been the best thing ever. I should have done it many years sooner. Our power bill literally dropped hundreds each month from how out of date and inefficient our old Ruud was! We went with the Bryant and that thing keeps the house cool, quiet and very efficient. I could have saved a fortune had I done the upgrades earlier and not dicked around with bandaid fixes, new compressors, capacitors every few years etc the list went on and on.

When we bought our house, the furnace was 39 years old and required fixing. Couldn't swing both the AC and the furnace that first year, so we put it off. 11 years later, when it finally gave up the ghost over weekend we were out of town, same experience as you should have done it a few years ago, but the change in our electric bills was maybe 50 to $100 a month, and it keeps up with the temperature I want a lot better than the old unit. 100% agree with you on that

Question: is there a tax credit based on seer rating? It was an after thought. I know certain appliances qualify.

I haven't had to look at anything like that since the first year, so not sure if it applied to a/c systems, or insulation and stuff like that instead.

If you go on the IRS site right now, you should be able to find out before the end of the season

 

[Toddanddaneen]

Question: is there a tax credit based on seer rating? It was an after thought. I know certain appliances qualify.

Most of that is done by the state you reside in and sometimes your utility provider will reimburse you for meeting a certain energy efficiency criteria. I’ve been out of the residential game for a long time so I’m not up to speed on all that.

 

[Brad_Ct]

When we bought our house two years ago in Florida we knew the old (2004) unit was going to need to be replaced. Not only was it old for Florida standards but it would not keep the house down to temperature in the summer afternoons. After doing a quick load calculation I determined that it was at least a half ton short of what we needed. 2,300 sq. ft. house with the typical Florida single pane glass everywhere and cathedral ceilings and we had a four ton system.

I was contemplating doing it myself (HVAC field for 40 yrs.) but my wife looked at me and said I was F-in crazy and to hire someone. We got three quotes, first two never even questioned the size of the unit and were going to replace it with the same size. Third company came in and one of the first thing they asked was if the unit maintained temp. during the day, he did a load calc. and determined we needed a 5 ton unit. Long story short, the only manufacturer that made a unit that would fit in the existing configuration was Rheem and the unit was a 15 seer so we didn’t qualify for any credit because Florida Power & Light has a minimum requirement of 16 seer.

 

[jlcj7]

Well, I’m going to bite the bullet and replace both of mine. Both still work but struggle to keep up on hot days and energy bills are getting much higher than they used to. One unit is 23 years old and one is 12 (had more issues with 12 year old unit than 23 year old unit including a failed capacitor yesterday)

I bought two Rheem units. Never had them before in a house but have heard decent things about them.

 

[tabbibus]

Funny this thread pops up today. One of my AC died. I hate Lenox with all my soul. So hard to get serviced

 

[gt5pilot]

My 19 yo Trane Compressor/Condensing unit shit the bed about 5 weeks ago, the condenser manifold developed a crack and vented itself to the atmosphere over night just when the TX weather decided to hit 100+ daytime temps.

Got three bids for replacing the 4T unit, ranging from $6k-$8k. Priced a 4T Oxbox (Trane) Seer 14 @ $2,300 delivered. Hauled out the old one and placed the new unit myself. Called a Tech to do to a cash install to sweat the new lines, hook up to a new Wifi Thermostat, connect the electricity, pump it down and the release the 410A into the system and make sure it was balanced.

NET ~$4K to the BOAT fund...

 

[tabbibus]

So I'm gonna replace my stupid upstairs Lennox AC. Any thoughts on these options?

 

[Sean R]

So I'm gonna replace my stupid upstairs Lennox AC. Any thoughts on these options?

View attachment 180542

Whatever one doesn't interfere with your sound system upgrade

 

[scokill]

So I'm gonna replace my stupid upstairs Lennox AC. Any thoughts on these options?

View attachment 180542

I have 17 SEER Carrier. It has two stage heating and cooling. It stays in the lower stage most of the time and our electric bills have dropped significantly in the summer. I got a 3.5T and 4.5T installed for cheaper than the $12,584. I know a guy who knows a guy.

 

[tabbibus]

Whatever one doesn't interfere with your sound system upgrade

While this is the right answer, all parts have been purchased for the boat, so we good.

 

[tabbibus]

I have 17 SEER Carrier. It has two stage heating and cooling. It stays in the lower stage most of the time and our electric bills have dropped significantly in the summer. I got a 3.5T and 4.5T installed for cheaper than the $12,584. I know a guy who knows a guy.

Does it have a proprietary thermostat?

 

[scokill]

Does it have a proprietary thermostat?

No. It just needs an extra wire that was already there.

 

[King]

We purchased a Trane almost two years ago. Whole new unit, inside and out. Had some duct work done as well. We were correcting for who knows what happened in the past. Nothing matched, horrible performance, huge bills and so on. So, keeping in mind, for us, anything would be an improvement. That being said, I researched it as best I could at the time and landed on Trane. We've been happy with it. But, I feel we'd be equally as happy with most any other quality system. The one thing I feel as if I can warn you about is trivial at best. Our unit came with the Trane touch screen thermostat and that's all that it will use from what they tell me. It's proprietary to the point I can't switch it out for a Next or something similar. Probably a blessing in disguise... I'm a gadget guy and would most likely hyper invest in some over the top crap for sure.

 

[Julian]

I have 19 SEER Carrier units we bought 12 years ago....running great, but I am stuck with their proprietary thermostats....which sucks. They are running great, but wish I could put a home automation T-stat on them!

 

[scokill]

I have 19 SEER Carrier units we bought 12 years ago....running great, but I am stuck with their proprietary thermostats....which sucks. They are running great, but wish I could put a home automation T-stat on them!

I think once you get above 17 seer then that's a variable system and more likely to require proprietary system.. I believe 17 is just dual stage so the thermostat needs to tell it high or low. I think our system starts at low and if it doesn't move the temperature in a period of time it goes to high. We have a cheaper Sensi by Emerson connected thermostat. I don't really need or want a learning thermostat. I can schedule this, or I can lay in bed and change it, or when I'm out of town. It also was programmable to dual stage when we switched over and I had fullly wired all terminals, so all i had to do is tell it I now had dual stage heating and cooling on my iphone.

 

[TimW451]

I would buy the Gold system. I think it is worth the jump over the Silver, but not sure if there is value in the Platinum. You can probably uses a standard thermostat with it, unlike the platinum, as others have said.

Is heat efficiency/economics unimportant? I notice all are only 80% efficiency. They are gas too, is electric heat better in your area? (That can be such a regional decision.) I live in propane for heat country and my neighbor, who s a commercial HVAC guy, said he’ll do a heat pump when it comes time to replace his system. (He already replaced his propane hot water heater with an electric heat pump one.)