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Shopping for a new Air Conditioning unit.............advice?

iamme

iamme

Lifer
my parent's airconditioner crapped out and the repair man said they may need to replace the entire unit. their home is two stories, 4 bedrooms.

any advice on buying a new system?

ballpark price?
 
Might help if you gave us a little more info -- was it a window unit or an outside-unit (central air)? Size of the house? How's the insulation? How 'bout the air-handler unit (if you have central air) - is it sized right?

I just had my outside unit replaced this week. Got an heat-pump to help (maybe) reduce some of the heating costs this winter. The price of propane has gone through the roof, so wanted to try something different. And if you don't have enough air-returns, it won't heat/cool the entire house properly, either.

Advice - have a pro come and size it. Have several come in and get estimates. If it's too small, it'll work too hard and burn itself up. (That's what happened to our old unit...) I think they also said that if it's too large, it won't defrost right, which will cause other problems.

Higher SEER units are more efficient, but more expensive. You'll probably want to go with a 12-14 SEER -- that seems to be about the best balance (efficiency -v- cost).

Estimates I received were from $1600 - $3600 in the 4-5 Ton 10-14 SEER range. Higher price was higher capacity, higher SEER.
 
it's an outside unit.

i'm not sure about the square footage of the house. it's two stories....4 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, 2 half bathrooms, basement....hope that helps.

insulation? well, they just got all the windows in their home replaced (about 6 months ago). other than that, i'm not sure how else to describe the insulation.

sorry, i'm not really a home expert so i can't describe it well 😛 i guess i just wanted to know any basics so that they don't get ripped off in any way. thanks for the help!
 
btw, my parent's neighbor just got their AC replaced. the neighbor's home is layed out similar to my parents. they got a Carrier Deluxe 5 ton 12 S.E.E.R. unit. 2 year P&L warranty and 10 year compressor warranty.

they paid about $2,800 about 3 years ago for the replacement. they told us that the people who did it were friends of the family and did their business and several other of their family's homes.

does this sound decent?

 
Originally posted by: Willoughbyva
Make sureit is energy effecient. You can save a lot of money if in the long run.
Click to expand...

Look for rebates from the power company and the government (if Bush and cronies didn't cancel all of them) for buying an energy efficient unit.
 
Originally posted by: Thegonagle
Originally posted by: Willoughbyva
Make sureit is energy effecient. You can save a lot of money if in the long run.
Click to expand...

Look for rebates from the power company and the government (if Bush and cronies didn't cancel all of them) for buying an energy efficient unit.
Click to expand...

interesting. i will look into that.
 
Originally posted by: iamme
btw, my parent's neighbor just got their AC replaced. the neighbor's home is layed out similar to my parents. they got a Carrier Deluxe 5 ton 12 S.E.E.R. unit. 2 year P&L warranty and 10 year compressor warranty. they paid about $2,800 about 3 years ago for the replacement. they told us that the people who did it were friends of the family and did their business and several other of their family's homes. does this sound decent?
Click to expand...

This sounds pretty close - it's probably gone up a little in the last 3 years, but base on that and you'll be close. (Estimate I had for 5T-12SEER with new evaporator coil and lineset was $2700 for Rheem)

Personally, I'd look for a Rheem or a Ruud (both are made by the same company) -- there's several things I liked better about them over Carrier. And all of the local service guys here really advised AGAINST Carrier. Dunno exactly why - but when I heard it time after time ...

Since you're "up north", you might not need 5 Tons unless it's an older house with poor insulation. Again, I'd really recommend getting a pro in there to size it right. But it sounds like you're probably gonna need either a 4 or 5 ton, and 12 SEER is the best choice (IMO)

And there is a rebate from the local power utility, but it's for installing a heat pump, not just an a/c. It's $150/Ton. Worth checking into!
 
get the next bigger unit than they want to sell you,
when its 92f,and the dewpoint is 74f,the "normal" sized units are not enough.

tell them the house has less insulation than it does,
 
Originally posted by: cavemanmoron
get the next bigger unit than they want to sell you,
when its 92f,and the dewpoint is 74f,the "normal" sized units are not enough.

tell them the house has less insulation than it does,
Click to expand...

I'm sorry what? It reaches above 100 consistently here in TX, yet we have a normal sized central air unit. In fact everyone in TX does.
 
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