PennSilverTaco's HVAC BS MegaThread!

The Comfort Inn where Amanda and I spent the night is probably 30-40 years old, but it was just heavily renovated and is still undergoing work. Like most hotels in Central PA, this one seems to be all-electric, which means heat pumps. Our room was on the third floor, and these were located on the roof directly below the window...

 

This one may have been in COOL mode, as the blades were spinning slower, indicating a low-ambient kit; I think it's a York...

 

@Stitchgirl90

This is almost 13 years ago when Doug's parents' heat pump died and I got to take it apart; I also helped them pick out the new one!

 

Only you would be so interested in AC units

 

I've got several friends up and down the East Coast who are into HVAC, three of whom also have Aspergers!

 

Wow I didn’t know that. I love how you have so much knowledge on these types of things

 

@6 gearT444E
@ColoradoTJ
@shakerhood

I saw these on Sunday; 1984-1988ish Carrier Round Ones at a commercial building near the Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, PA...

 

They are round, was that common?

 

Yeah, and it was literally called the "Round One"; Carrier made them from like 1968 to 1988! Other companies that sold perfectly round A/C units and heat pumps includes Amana and Snyder General (sold under the brand names of ArcoAire and Comfortmaker, among others)...

 

@6 gearT444E
@ColoradoTJ
@shakerhood

Rheem pool heat pump at our rental house in Hilton Head; I thought that this was a regular heat pump that had been converted for pool duty at first!

 

@6 gearT444E

The house is almost new and has dual 3-ton Goodman heat pumps...

 

Down by the copper line set. You have a Goodman too, right? There is a white data sheet, and the number 36 in the model number of both units identifies them as 3-ton/36,000 BTUs. Yours is a 3.5-ton, right? It should say "42", denoting a 42,000 BTU unit...

 

Do you know where the term ton came from in the rating. I read it once and it was a rather interesting and old school method lol

 

This is the data sheet on one of the 3-ton Goodmans at the rental house. The nominal tonnage is in the model number, and then the serial number tells us that this unit was manufactured in either the 4th week of 2021 or April 2021...

 

No, how did the whole "ton" thing come to be? I know it's called "nominal tons" and that's about it...

 

I didn’t know, but now I do.
And who has the patience or time watch ice melt?

 

https://hvac-blog.acca.org/little-history-behind-tons-air-conditioner-capacity/


If you have a ton of ice, it takes (143 BTU/lb) x (2000 lbs) = 286,000 BTUs to melt it completely. You could do that in one hour, 10 hours, or a year depending on how quickly you pump heat into it. Somewhere along the line, someone decided to use 1 day, or 24 hours, as the standard time reference. If the ice melts uniformly over 24 hours, it absorbs heat at the rate of 286,000 / 24 hrs = 11,917 BTU/hr.

Rounding that number up makes it a nice 12,000 BTU/hr. So in air conditioning jargon, a ton of AC capacity is equal to 12,000 BTU/hr. There it is.

 

South Carolina Central Air Symphony!

 

@6 gearT444E
@98tacoma27
@ABA180
@BkerChuck
@ColoradoTJ
@Cpl. Punishment
@Just_A_Guy
@RustyGreen
@shakerhood
@Squatting Pigeon
@StandardTaco
@Stitchgirl90
@Taco critter
@TnShooter
@wilcam47

PLEASE READ AND RESPOND!

What does everybody think of geothermal heating? I've heard nothing but good things about it, including from my neighbor Drew whose company designs HVAC systems for large homes and commercial buildings. These systems are also called geothermal heat pumps, but despite the name, they are nothing like what most people reading this thread associate with the definition of a heat pump. Several companies make geothermal heating systems, but WaterFurnace is probably one of the best known in North America; I believe they have been making residential systems the early 1980s...?

As the technology has improved and parts have become eaiser to produce, the cost of installing one of these systems has gone down. WaterFurnace even makes direct drop-in replacement systems for existing homes with a conventional split-system, and it is also possible to combine a geothermal heat pump with a gas furnace if you live in a colder climate or still want a gas furnace for piece of mind.

The unseen underground components of a geothermal system are apparently capable of lasting a century, and service life for external components is about 25 years, which is why I feel like a geothermal system would pay for itself. It also costs less to run, is more efficient, and is not noisy. An added benefit is that the outdoor components are under the ground, so you don't have to worry about hiding the outdoor units with plants!

What is everybody else's opinion?!?!