18 SEER for Virginia?

[tulenutn2o]

Nothing we can do about that as all the brands are going cheap on the parts. Had a meeting with my wholesale supplier last week about caps. from china. They said they could buy better caps. but most of the service companies don't want to pay the xtra $ for them. I would pay a little more & get better parts. I guess service companies would rather just keep charging their customers to replace the low quality china parts. Make $ off the low quality parts & the service call. I just don't like doing business that way

Exactly, just sad to see the march down that road once again.

 

[dmccarty]

Same here. I've been in the biz since 1990 and the older Janitrol stuff was somewhat problematic. However, beware of online purchases as Goodman's policy is no warranty on units purchased from anyone other than an authorized distributor/dealer. So unless these online stores have a stated warranty do not buy. One thing that Goodman has been doing, like everyone else, is sourcing electric/electronics from China---- I have noticed alot more frequent failures of capacitors-especially. I am not a big fan of complicated electronics from China.

When we built the house in 2004 we had Goodman installed. The TBN HVACers liked Goodman and I had heard good things about Goodman locally, so we had it installed. Last year during an almost record breaking streak of 100+ degree weather, the capacitor failed. The HVAC guy did not like Goodman and I was not happy with the capacitor problem but it was somewhat cheap, but more importantly, quick to fix. Our previous house had a 20ish year old HVAC system that failed right after I bought the house. The old system was replaced with a Rheem unit which worked fine for 9-10 years but I do think I had a service call on it for some reason that I have forgotten.

To the OP the price difference between 14 and 15 is so small I would go for the 15 SEER unit. I would be surprised that one could make up the cost difference in the higher SEER units. If they can give you the estimated cost to run the units that might provide a clue.

Later,
Dan

 

[s219]

Since capacitors no longer contain PCBs, they have a much shorter lifetime. Even when on the shelf. I have been told 10-12 years is typical now. Bad thing is, when they fail, they can sometimes wreck the motor too.

 

[murphy1244]

Go find some milatary surplus

 

[czechsonofagun]

Thanks guys, always good info here.

Yes, the plan is to have the whole shebang - AC and heating. I put split system in the top of the barn - guest room/play room - years ago and that little thing can heat it up with outside temperature under 40. In our climate I definitely want to have heat pump to heat the house.

As far as installation - I have a friend who does AC for living and he will do the final check and vacuum and gas fill. I need to get everything ready for him by the end of September or so. The good thing is that the new system goes in the crawl space while the old AC is in the attic - I can work on the installation while the house is still air conditioned.

I will keep you posted, so far I contracted out the ductwork layout, since it is worthe the money to have it professionally designed and decided to do hard steel duct, not flexible lines for maximum efficiency.

That's the good thing about DIY, you do it the exact way you want it.

Thanks again.

 

[kenmac]

Good decision on the steel duck work. If at all possible. I replace the Refrigerant line set when replacing R22 with R410 & pull a vacuum to 400 mc.. If it isn't possible to replace the line set. Be sure to perform a real good flush. Vacuum to 400 mc....R410A oil doesn't like R22 oil

 

[Redneck in training]

We were looking at the fujitsu halcyon series. We needed three bedrooms to have ac so we were going to get the minisplit/heat pump combo. It was a 19.2 seer. The fujitsu have a 5 year parts 7 year compressor warranty.

Second that. That is what I bought for my offfice and a guest room in the shop building. I think they are fenomenal. Supposed to heat to -5F.

 

[forgeblast]

We just cant swing it it this year. For a 7k,7,9, unit(three bedrooms) and install was a little over 6k. But our bankloan didnt come throug for our roof (we wanted to upgrade our repairs to a metal roof), so we went with shingles and didnt have to take out the loan, which means we didnt have the $$ on hand for the unit. Next year I hope.

 

[meburdick]

I know I'm repeating myself, but it bears repeating.

Whether this year, next, or beyond - talk to your local electric company about rebates or special offers to install / upgrade HVAC items. Also, check with your tax preparer about current federal incentives to see if there are any tax rebates available too. If you combine discounts, rebates, and tax credits with a "December install", it could make it a much more reasonably priced project.

 

[forgeblast]

I think our electric company was offering a 350-400 dollar rebate depending on the seer.