Heat pump miracle!

[Pilot]

When the prebuy price on propane for the upcoming season hit $3.42 a gallon, we added a heat pump. Current propane price in our area is $2.84. Using some online heating cost calculators, it appears that I will be ahead of the game until propane drops to $1.00.

Researched heat pumps as well as I could, got bids from several outfits, bids ranged from $3,650 to over $12K. Went for a $4,000 bid on the recommendation of the guy who built our house & it was installed almost 2 weeks ago. Got a call from the installer today who said that he made a mistake when he thought our existing furnace was a 3 ton unit; after researching it he found it was a 2 ton unit, not sufficient for the heat pump he installed. We would need a new furnace. Gulp! Then he said he would install a furnace at his cost--no, not charging me his cost for the furnace--he is going to eat the whole furnace cost!

Sometimes you just get lucky!

 

[MossRoad]

Wow. A person with integrity! Give that guy plenty of free word of mouth advertising and send him out to a nice dinner on you.

My mechanic goofed up on some minor service during an oil change the other week. A couple days ago we needed more work done. We had to wait 20 minutes for our car because he was taking care of another customer. We never said a word and waited patiently. He asked me to back the car out of the bay. I told him we needed to pay, first. He said no charge because we have given him our business over the years. It was probably a hundred bucks worth of work. I'll send them some good chocolates at Christmas.

Similar thing happened at a body shop this year. On father's day, our car was destroyed by hail. We spent 4 months getting it repaired. The parts would not come in. The body shop foreman went on vacation. Then he quit. The new guy said he'd get on it, etc.... we were patient. When it was finally done, the last time we went to pick it up, the guy opened the door, handed us the keys and said thanks. We still owed about $500 on it for work other than the hail damage that we requested. He said we endured too much already and apologized.

Sometimes life throws you a bone. Sometimes it beats you over the head with it. Take the good and learn from the bad.

 

[DennisArrow]

The Heat Pump miracle that HE has blessed me with is this forest around me of old growth hickory and oak that are dieing due to the drought. Helps me rationalize cutting down and making into stove wood, dead trees that I would NEVER do to a live one.

We have 2 heat pumps here, for our 2 story "A" frame home. Neither will be turned on this winter with His blessings of the firewood, energy to split, stack, and carry.

Thanks God for YOUR true blessings.....................Amen.........

 

[Kays Supply]

Since I am in a business that has to bid jobs also, one thing to consider. Since he was on the bottom end of the price war, and your preexisting unit wasn't sized right, by someone else, you might have a heart to heart with him. Consider some payment to him. If you want him to be there when you need warranty work, it would be good for him to stay in business. I have seen honest people like him go broke " doing the right thing".

 

[irvingj]

Agree 100% with Kays Supply- the "genersoity/integrity" thing works two ways; offering to help out your contractor now will very likely pay handsome dividends later.

As far as your heat pump, I think you made a good choice; I used to be in HVAC, and put in a "water-source" heat pump when our house was built 23 years ago. (I think they call them "geothermal heat pumps" now....)

With a few repairs, the beast has ticked along all these years, still maintaining around a 3.2 ratio of BTU energy output to KWH energy input!

Even though electricity, like everything else, has gone up sharply this year, it's still the best deal around, heating an 1800+ sq. ft. house for around $600/year. (Used to be $350 ) You'll notice the non-ducted return (exposed intake filter)-- my wood stove is just out of sight in the foreground.... The 2 Grundfos circulator pumps recirculate heated/chilled water down the well hole in a continuous loop. The other 2 smaller lines along the stairs go to the DHW heater; yes, it makes hot water, too!

 

[HappyCPE]

I want to third Kays Supply comment - integrity like your contractor has shown is hard to come by.
My suggestion - ask him what the difference is between what he did and what he should have done, and give him at least that much. That's what you would have paid anyway. That, and free references for life!

 

[Sigarms]

My suggestion - ask him what the difference is between what he did and what he should have done, and give him at least that

Gas furnaces have certain ratings. BTU/hour input is usually the most reconized nomenclature in the furnace model number. However, also usually included in that nomenclature as well is the max CFM's the blower of that gas furnace will handle.

I'm guessing that the "contractor" assumed that the gas furnace would handle the CFM's for that three ton heat pump he installed (1200 total CFM's- 400 CFM per ton). However, apparently he found out that the gas furnace would only handle 800 CFM's, not enough for the new heat pump unit.

You need the proper airflow over your coil, and if you don't, you'll be causing some system issues (pretty much forever until the airflow issue is resolved).

Sounds like he ran a duel fuel system (running heat pump with gas furnace for back up heat). Also sounds like he left the existing furnace in place replacing the A/C system with another brand of heat pump.

By chance if this is the case, when you leave the existing furnace in place, you need to make sure the old furnace will handle the requirements of the new system being installed, no if's, ands or butts. This would be one of the first things you do (which would require no more than 10 minutes of his time on the phone if he wasn't sure).

Everything said, the contractor did do the right thing. Since he was the second to lowest bid (by thousands of dollars), and if he did work that you thought was exceptional, I would at least offer to cover some of his cost on the furnace. If anything, you will now have a VERY loyal HVAC contractor to you (particularly if your heat goes out in the middle of winter on a Saturday night).

I'm certain this contractor won't make the same mistake twice.

 

[Pilot]

I asked what his cost was for the new furnace; he said about $600, so I gave him a check for $400. He was happy. So essentially he made a little less on the heat pump sale. He did say that the markups in the industry were ridiculously high & in checking what other installers had quoted (some had said the furnace needed to be replaced, some said it didn't, and one quoted with and without replacing the furnace), one of them showed about $2,000 for the same furnace.

Just for info, we did not have A/C, so he just installed a heat pump to run with the old furnace as backup.

An interesting side note: He set the thermostat to switch the system to propane if the temp dropped to below 35. Out of curiosity, I checked the temp by the heat pump with my digital thermometer. It read about 4 or 5 degrees higher than my weather station elsewhere in the yard. So I checked several locations around the heat pump and found a variation of as much as 9 degrees, depending on location, on an overcast breezy day in the shade--warmer near the ground, cooler on one side than another, etc.

And when the thermostat reports it is about 40 by the heat pump,, I still get 105 out of the heat vent.

 

[kenmac]

He did say that the markups in the industry were ridiculously high

There are a couple of companies around here that will send 2 people out to try & sell you a system. Ever bought a new vehicle ?? These flokes do business the same way . If they want $5000 for a system. They start the price @ $7000. If you won't take the $7000 price thay start the haggle process. If you offer $6000 . you stopped the haggle process too soon. Cause, they made $1000 more than they would have taken for the system

 

[heehaw]

can someone please explain this to me? if you have a good working gas furnace, with air conditioning: and the "ac" goes out, you can install a "heat pump" system on the gas furnace to replace the "ac", an then have a duel fuel system??
heehaw