PennSilverTaco's HVAC BS MegaThread!

Back in about 2006-2011, I was more obsessed with HVAC than I was with cars! Everybody knows Carrier, Lennox, Trane, York, etc...

My grandma bought a house in 2006 that was built in 1993-1994, and it had a 2004 Goodman heat pump that had replaced the original York system; I had never heard of Goodman until my Grandma bought this house, and unfortunately the unit my grandma's house was from an era when Goodman was junk...

My parents' house was built in 2016 and has Goodmans of the the greatly improved era that were first introduced in 2006 or so...

 

My parents' A/C units are 14 SEER, with R410a refrigerant the venerable Copeland Scroll compressors; They are certainly not the quietest units around, but they are comparable to the 13 SEER Carriers at our old house in terms of noise level, and certainly quieter than any pre-2006 Goodmans!

The EPA mandated that all residential central A/C units and heat pumps have a minimum of 10 SEER beginning sometime in 1992. There were air-conditioners and heat pumps of 10 to 12 SEER and higher as early as 1985-1986, but the typical standard efficiency condensing unit was about 8 SEER prior to 1992; The highest efficiency residential central air-conditioner (also available as a heat pump) you could get in 1990s, at least that I am aware of, was the dual-compressor Trane XL1800 that was first released in about 1997...?

The EPA upped the minimum rating from 10 SEER to 13 SEER in January 2006 I believe, and since our old house was built in 2007, it had 13 SEER units. The majority of new houses being built today have anywhere from 14 SEER to 16 SEER units, though I do believe that the minimum is 13 SEER.

The phaseout of R-22 began in 2009, and R410a was first mandated in new homes beginning in 2010 or so; R410a was first introduced by Carrier under the name of Puron, and my best friend's parents have a Lennox system from 2003 that has R410a. R410a started becoming more mainstream in like 2006-2009, and by 2010 it was mandatory.

 

So, that brings us to the 2004 Goodman 10 SEER installed in my grandma's old house by the wealthy but cheap previous owner; It worked great as an air-conditioner, but as a heat pump not so much. This was not a Goodman thing, but a heat pump thing; When it gets below freezing, heat pumps just don't heat as well as gas or oil heat.

The '04 Goodman was incredibly noisy, mostly because it had a reciprocating compressor rather than a scroll, but also because the cabinet is Nate of flimsy metal and the thing was a rattletrap. In roughly 11 years of service, the Goodman needed a run capacitor, and then the compressor shit the bed in the summer of 2015. The average service life for a heat pump, not just a Goodman but any heat pump, is a decade; 11 years is pretty damn good run!

Seriously though, my Grandma's Goodman was so noisy that you could hear it running inside the house!

 

I have an 18k BTU Mini Split, think it's 20 SEER. It is centrally located and cools a 1500 ft single floor ranch. If I let the house hit 80 inside then turn it on, it takes a while to get the temperature down, but if I keep it set to maintain it does great. It gets humid here, but usually not past 85 degrees or so.

It's one of the MrCool DIY units, which I believe is a rebranded Midea.

Central AC isn't very common in residential settings here. Typically you would shoot for a boiler for heat too (I have a Pensotti oil boiler for baseboard heat), so adding Central AC would mean installing ductwork everywhere. I do see quite a few houses with mini splits.

 

I ended up going with a Rheem 9k btu heating/cooling 26.3SEER with humidity control. It works nice but the install was a little poor now I have condensate dripping down the interior wall onto the hardwoods, so that is exciting. It has been installed for about 3 weeks but I have only been using it for the last week, due to ongoing renovations.

There is more space to condition in the future if plans get approved by the city, I'll simply add another DIY mini split because the install is super simple on the next portion.

 

Don't know without running a load calc like a Manual J.

Sq. Ft. Is practically irrelevant as a determining factor.

HVAC contractor for 25 years.

 

Only "issue" I found with the MrCool DIYs is they give you a 25 ft lineset out of the box. I used maybe 15 ft of it and the rest is coiled behind it. According to MrCool, that's fine but it's the only piece of the install that looks unprofessional. I am debating buying one of their 16 ft precharged linesets and replacing it.

 

Wow, those are kinda strange looking.

 

Here's a more normal-looking unit I saw at a building next door to that car museum in Pottsville a couple weeks ago; Circa mid-1980s Trane air-conditioner! These things were built from the late 1960s until the late 1980s with minimal changes, and as you can see they enjoy a remarkable survival rate!

 

Here is a real question. How much is it worth to repair vs replace when you're talking a 23year old unit. One rental I own has a 1999 heat pump/ A/C has not lost any refrigerant in 23 years! but will not cool the house below 74deg F. The condenser is drawing about 25% more amps than stated on the name plate. The cold side is 41deg F and the hot side is 103deg F.

Its R22 is it worth paying to have the compressor replaced? Probably replace the copper filter dryer too... How much more do you think the replacement would be vs repair?

 

23-year old unit with R-22? I'd hate to say this but replace; It's a rental property so go with a Trane XB or a Carrier Comfort Series. Do not buy a NORDYNE product!

What brand is the current unit? Before dropping up close to $10K on a new system, I would have a tech look at it just to make sure it doesn't need a charge.

 

It looks a little rough but if it works then great!!

 

I found more of them!

 

Nice!

 

The other ones were just pictures I found on the internet; I actually saw these in person at a commercial building in Ivyland, Pennsylvania!

 

Any HVAC or other input on this?

 

We’re both inner and outer sleeves taped? Any zip ties used?

 

no zips. and not sure what you meant by inner/outer sleeves. i reattached it all the way around with tape.

 

So you have all solid pipe? Big zip ties (a few feet or more in length) are used to connect flex ducting to plenum flanges, y-pipes, and boots but tape is the primary sealer. Flex has an inner sleeve with a spiral wire for shape, a spiral wrap of insulation, and an outer sleeve to protect the insulation as well as improve its efficiency.
For solid pipe connections you can use sheet metal screws before taping but never on dryer exhaust since it captures lint.
If it’s in an unregulated space you should wrap all uninsulated ducting with 1” thick roll insulation or those pipes will be wasting a lot of your heating/cooling energy, cold air returns too.

 

ah gotcha. Not sure if there were or not. It is the flex duct type tubes running everywhere up there. Only issue I was having was the return plenum separation from blower unit.