House A/C

[98Shabah]

Any hvac folks on here? I am rather curious how long a home A/C system should last... Maybe it's living near a big city, but it seems as though people sure jump on the "don't fix it, replace it" bandwagon pretty easily. I live in a 16 year old neighborhood, many of my neighbors have taken the plunge to replace their AC systems (and some furances) in the last couple years.. We all have/had the same 3ton Lennox AC and Lennox Furnaces. I've had a couple small things that have needed replacing on the gas furnace and AC over the last 3 years, blower control board and pilot ignition control in the furnace and the relay in the AC compressor, all of which I did myself at minimal cost, and they were pretty easy to do.

The neighbor across the street recently called a local hvac company because her AC wasn't keeping up, though it was running and cooling, when she called they asked how old the unit is, when she told them "16 years old", they said "ok, we'll send a salesman"... So the neighbor replaced it. :facepalm:

 

[bigdee]

Re: House A/C

I just replaced a 41 year old Lennox AC in my home this past month. I also have another 41 year old Lennox (5 ton) on the other part of my home that is still kicking. With the newer units having much better efficiency it makes sense to replace if a major repair is needed. On the other hand if you are on a tight budget and are able to nickel and dime more life out of it that makes sense too. I used to be a HVAC contractor so I was able to milk 41 years out of mine. I never had to spend over $50 to keep them running.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: House A/C

I am replacing my 23 year old working fine heater in my house in Tahoe because a new one will pay for itself in not too many years due to the higher efficiency. That and I can't afford to have the current one fail while I am not up there and have my pipes freeze.

On the other hand, I won't be replacing my 2year old HVAC unit in my main home because I hardly ever use heating or AC due to the mild climate.

For my Tahoe house I figured my yearly fuel cost to be around $1000. My current heater with ducts under the house are probably only 40% efficient. I am going with an 80% heater. If my max fuel savings are $500/year my $3400 heater will get paid back after 7 years not taking into account the cost of money. That isn't that great a payback but considering I am trading up in reliability for my freeze issue, the decision was easy.

 

[Redneck_Randy]

Re: House A/C

In 2018 if your AC needs freon you won't be able to have it serviced at all and you will have no choice but to replace the A-Coil, line set and outside unit because of the new freon laws that take affect then.

Reason for the new line set is that the older freon and newer don't play nice and if the lines are not replaced the two freons mixed will turn to acid and eat the unit from the inside out. They do make a line flush but don't trust it.

 

[drrpm]

Re: House A/C

I replaced 1 of my units 2 years ago at age 16. Between the tax credit and higher efficiency it was a no brainer. The AC really gets a workout here in central Ga.

 

[dingbat]

Re: House A/C

A unit becomes obsolete from an efficiency standpoint long before it dies of old age.

I replaced a 12 years old heat pump and cut nearly 30% off my heating and AC bill which put payback at 5 years. We’re looking at a 15% rate increase in July so the pay back just dropped to a little over 4 years. Pretty much a no-brainer

 

[roscoe]

Re: House A/C

I am replacing my 23 year old working fine heater in my house in Tahoe because a new one will pay for itself in not too many years due to the higher efficiency. That and I can't afford to have the current one fail while I am not up there and have my pipes freeze.

On the other hand, I won't be replacing my 2year old HVAC unit in my main home because I hardly ever use heating or AC due to the mild climate.

For my Tahoe house I figured my yearly fuel cost to be around $1000. My current heater with ducts under the house are probably only 40% efficient. I am going with an 80% heater. If my max fuel savings are $500/year my $3400 heater will get paid back after 7 years not taking into account the cost of money. That isn't that great a payback but considering I am trading up in reliability for my freeze issue, the decision was easy.

I'm surprised you can buy one with only 80% efficiency.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: House A/C

I'm surprised you can buy one with only 80% efficiency.

http://www.rheem.com/products/heating_and_cooling/gas_furnaces/

Normally, I would be buying one the higher efficiency condensing furnaces. According to my HVAC guy in Tahoe, their failure rates are much higher than the 80% ones and parts are more expensive and harder to get right away which is no bueno in a freezing climate for a vacation home with no one there. I do have an ethernet thermostat that sends me a text and email when the temp drops below a certain point which is 5? below my mimimum temp setting when the heater malfunctions

 

[bigdee]

Re: House A/C

http://www.rheem.com/products/heating_and_cooling/gas_furnaces/

Normally, I would be buying one the higher efficiency condensing furnaces. According to my HVAC guy in Tahoe, their failure rates are much higher than the 80% ones and parts are more expensive and harder to get right away which is no bueno in a freezing climate for a vacation home with no one there. I do have an ethernet thermostat that sends me a text and email when the temp drops below a certain point which is 5? below my mimimum temp setting when the heater malfunctions

So true and often mis-understood. 95% efficiency relates to energy savings, what they don't tell you is the complexity to make this happen increases the chances of higher maintenance costs and repairs. Like Bruce said, in my sometimes un-occupied vacation home I prefer simplicity and reliability over energy efficiency.

 

[hrdwrkingacguy]

Re: House A/C

80% furnace means if you put 100,000 btu's into it only 80,000 goes into the house and 20,000 goes out the flue...If you live in a place like I do where you use heat for 5 days a year it doesn't make any sense to pay almost double for a furnace you will hardly ever use...If you live in a place where you actually see snow it's a different story...

There has been a pretty decent leap forward in efficiency in the last few years...Now 13 seer is standard...15 years ago 12 seer was considered the high efficiency unit...Every one wants to just replace stuff, because its easier then fixing it...That's why I do commercial/Industrial, and avoid residential...The quality of the people in my business goes down every year...

 

[Av8nBill]

Re: House A/C

In 2018 if your AC needs freon you won't be able to have it serviced at all and you will have no choice but to replace the A-Coil, line set and outside unit because of the new freon laws that take affect then.

Reason for the new line set is that the older freon and newer don't play nice and if the lines are not replaced the two freons mixed will turn to acid and eat the unit from the inside out. They do make a line flush but don't trust it.

So, is it safe to assume if you don't replace the line at the time of new install that the acid takes out more than just the line and it's big bucks? I keep seeing ads for replacement costs that I can't believe would include new line. We're in a 1968 house and the A/C and furnace look like original equipment...so it won't be long.

 

[Redneck_Randy]

Re: House A/C

So, is it safe to assume if you don't replace the line at the time of new install that the acid takes out more than just the line and it's big bucks?

Yup It will eat up the compressor, a-coil and the line set. We just had our unit replaced and the installer/friend told me all about it.