PennSilverTaco's HVAC BS MegaThread!

Nice, hopefully that brings in a few bucks at scrap.

 

Let me know if it ends up being SoCal

 

I finally took apart the furnace today…

 

80% efficient, since it’s not a condensing furnace…

 

Performance Series, which I believe is Carrier’s midlevel product lineup; Sentry is the cheapo builder-grade shit, Comfort is the next step up, then you’ve got Performance, and finally the top-of-the-line Infinity…

 

@ColoradoTJ
@Just_A_Guy
@Lt. Dangle

Why does everything sold in California have some sort of health warning label?!?! These days, some central A/C condensers can’t be installed in the Southwest (or the Southeast for some dumb reason)!

 

For some reason, I thought the heat exchanger was aluminum and started taking apart the furnace; I’m glad I decided to test it with a magnet before plugging in the SawzAll, because it’s cast iron and not worth taking apart to scrap!

 

I did end having to use the saw to extract the blower motor from the squirrel cage…

 

I have a big electric motor for scrap that came out of an ancient table saw.

 

SEER rating has to be above 14 or so nowadays for installation in high usage areas. 13 SEER units can be installed in the north still.

I forget the exact numbers, but the gist of it is that some units aren't efficient enough for hot areas.

 

I believe that both Goodmans at my parents' house are 14 SEER; I have been told that opting to buy a 14 SEER over a 13 SEER in an area where there aren't restrictions is kind of a crapshoot...

 

I have a iron Duke(ducane) seer 13. Installed around 2006~ it's hanging tough.

 

Difference in cost is less than $500 or so. Depending on other factors like wiring and circuit breaker, I can do a 14 for almost the same as a 13. No real user difference IMO.

I imagine 13 SEER stuff is on the way out.

I should add that the new rating is SEER2 and is slightly different. An old 14 SEER unit is now like 13.3 SEER2 for example.

 

Whats funny is in 05 that 13 SEER unit was a good mid range product. In '06, that same 13 SEER unit was the bare minimum that could legally be sold as the minimum SEER went from the old 10 SEER stuff to a minimum of 13 SEER in '06 lol.

I bought a new mid range AC in '05 of a 13 SEER Lennox AC, next year it was the entry level A/C haha.

 

I like reading these posts , I'm getting a free education! Sooner or later I'm going upgrade my hvac system before I retire! Just wish my main man Charlie lived closer to do it !

 

My parents' old house, a townhouse, was built in 2007. The 4-bedroom version of that floorplan came standard with two units by default, but the 3-bedroom (which we had) came with one. My parents spent an extra $6,000 to get two separate systems. Since the house was built in 2007, it has 13 SEER units. Construction started on that neighborhood in 2004-2005, and 13 SEER wasn't mandated until January 2006 if I remember correctly, so older houses had 10-12 SEER units. However, our house was built before the R-22 ban, so it had R-22 systems. The last houses were built in late 2009-early 2010, and I think like half a dozen houses out of 386 (Yes, I counted every lot in the neighborhood plan that came with the sales brochure) had R410a...

 

I should add that in a post COvid world, I have installed 14 SEERs for the quoted cost of a 13 if there was no available stock.

Probably bad business for me, but I just want to get the job moving along so I can get paid. My cost on 13 vs 14 is very close.