PennSilverTaco's HVAC BS MegaThread!

One of my favorite units ever! The XL19i/XL20i with the dual compressors is my absolute favorite!

 

It has been excellent so far. A friend of mine runs one of the largest HVAC companies in the area so I got a decent price. I got that unit, plus the furnace, coil, new intakes and exhaust, and thermostat installed for 8600. So far it is definitely paying off. I've probably saved around 1200 doll hairs so far on utility costs since install, and I've been more comfortable in the process.

 

There is a small development being built less than half a mile from my house, and all of the lots sold before ground was even broken (I believe there are seven houses, plus a preexisting home that was built in 2016-2017)! A coworker bought one of the lots, and so far seems to have the only house on the culdesac with a single HVAC system…

 

The house is approximately 3,150 square feet and has a single 5-ton Lennox A/C unit matched with a gas furnace…

 

My parents’ house is roughly the same size as this one, and it has dual units (a 2.5-ton for downstairs and a 2-ton for upstairs)…

 

I have seen 2-story homes under 2,000 square feet with separate systems for upstairs and downstairs, and if I were building a 2-story house of 2,000 square or more from the ground up, I would go with separate systems…

 

The township building code has a minimum of about 3,300-3,400 square feet before two separate systems are required, which makes absolutely no sense to me. I have been in a couple of fairly large 2-story homes that only had one HVAC system and were fine, but those were the exceptions rather than the rule; Our house in Fairfax County, Virginia had only one system despite being HUGE, but you could really feel the inadequacy of the system, especially in my parents’ bedroom (located above the garage) on a really hot day!

 

Builder grade homes… Can you really blame them? They’re in it for the quick turn around and profits.

 

Yup! I can!

 

I think you thinking about building your own home makes a lot of sense if you have the skills (and some help when you need it). That was my dream but I'll tell you, I built a beautiful addition on my first home and got the desire to build my own home out of my system real quick.

As far as the HVAC I really think you need to spend as much time learning about air flow as you are spending looking at BTUs. The problem with a two story home is many, if not most, builders don't provide a carefully designed solution with sufficiently sized supply and return duct work to get the air that you "really need" upstairs. Also, if you can avoid it I would also not put a air handler in the attic and I would not buy (and then have to maintain) two seperate systems. I would work with an HVAC guy who knows what he is doing and get a single system layed out and designed to work with a second contractor who is a freaking experience expert and designs you a system that takes advanage of electronic dampers and creates as many thermostatically controlled heating, cooling, and humidity controlled zones in your home as you want. You can buy and maintain a lot of dampers for the cost of a seperate system.

There are a lot of good HVAC technicians out there. I'm a decent engineer and I trust a good electronic technician as much as a lot of the engineers I work with. But just because the guy knows HVAC technology doesn't mean he knows air flow and anyone who says they are an expert in both is feeding you BS. Most homes duct work is the result of what space is available versus the supply and return duct size, placement, and location that is really needed. I would, however, hire an experienced company to design and guarantee the supply and return air flow of the home you build.

The design of the duct work is, IMHO, just as important if not 2X more important than the choice and or size of the equipment you purchase!

 

My cousin’s in-laws have a 5-bedroom home that was built in 1996 and is just under 2,500 square feet; The house originally had a York straight-cool central A/C and gas furnace. The air-conditioner took a shit a few years ago and they replaced it with this Nordyne unit; I was surprised to see that this fairly large house only has a 3.5-ton unit!

 

This Carrier heat pump is actually located at a commercial property and I didn't get the nominal tonnage, but I figured I'd post it here since in my opinion this is one of the best units ever built; I saw it while I was at a cruise night in the parking lot of the aforementioned commercial building, located in Telford, Pennsylvania. The Carrier TECH2000 was in production from 1989 until 2005, and in 1996 the first units using Puron (R410a) were introduced. Again, I did not get the manufacturer date or nominal tonnage off of this unit, but I believe it to be about a 1999-2005 model...




This is more than just a mere TECH2000; It is a top-of-the-line Infinity System! This narrows the year of manufacture for this unit to about 2004-2005, so it's about a decade and a half old at the time of this post!




I'm surprised that this unit is not mounted on risers, despite being located in the Northeast where we get more than a little bit of snow...

 

Newer 1.5-ton Ameristar central A/C and 80% AFUE gas furnace at my friend's 702-square foot condo that he's selling...

 

HVAC Christmas Carols!

 

I know for a fact that big name HVAC companies (Carrier, Trane, Lennox, etc) still make oil furnaces as drop-in replacements for old units, but new construction homes in my area seem to most commonly have a natural gas forced air furnace with a straight-cool central A/C unit; When no public gas is available, builders either go with a propane furnace or an electric heat pump. I have scoured Zillow and numerous homebuilder brochures, and use of oil as a fuel source for central heating in new construction homes seems to have ended in the early 1990s in the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast.

Any homebuilders, construction workers, or HVAC contractors here on TW who have seen a brand new in the last 20 years or so with oil heat?

 

On the west coast, pretty much not allowed because of the oil tank, not so much the combustion process.

You nailed it though, NG nearly ubiquitous and LP so energy dense and clean burning - oil for new construction is unheard of.

 

90% AFUE gas furnaces are now required for new construction in almost all states, but 80% gas furnaces are allowed to be installed as replacements for broken equipment in houses that already had them. I have NEVER seen a house in California with oil heat, or a heat pump for that matter. However, a friend of mine here in PA recently had one of the four central A/C units replaced with an new Bryant unit; This is like 14 SEER unit, but it says on the data sheet "NOT FOR INSTALLATION IN SOUTHWEST"...? An air-conditioner is an air-conditioner in my opinion, and I have also seen this printed on gas furnaces...

 

Still plenty of house here being built with efficient oil boilers for heat & hot water. But more heat pumps/mini splits being added to supplement.

 

Maine makes sense; My grandma's lake house in Acton was built in 1980 and actually has electric baseboard heat and an electric water heater. Nice to hear they're still building houses with hot water baseboard heat; So much more efficient and better than forced air in so many ways!

 

I built my house out of wood.

Yes, many rural homes have decent oil heat systems new in New England.