Question for homeowners

Shizelbs

How much should a new air conditioner for a 3400 sq ft house cost, including installation?

How much should the service to do the yearly furnace inspection and service cost?

We called for quotes and we think we got some excessively high prices.

MSALLA

Are you adding A/C to your forced air system or do they have to run new duct work?

Shizelbs

MSALLA wrote: »

Are you adding A/C to your forced air system or do they have to run new duct work?

Just adding one to a forced air system. The house has already been prepped for the AC unit.

edbert

Truthfully I don't know, but I have been advised by a number of different A/C guys to purchase the largest coil(the actual part inside your house that the air blows past). The reasoning I have been given is the condenser(outside unit) should be at least the size appropriate for your house, but the coil bigger as it gives a larger surface area for the blower to send air past, therefore cooling your house more efficiently.

A few other tips, open up the vents throughout the house, it helps to increase airflow and makes your unit not have to work as hard. And unless you have bad allergies, you shouldn't be getting the expensive Filtrete style filters(looks like a large car air filter) as they severely restrict air flow and make it more difficult to cool or heat your home.

I know you are in Washington and for the most part it isn't all that hot for long periods, but it makes a huge difference for heating as well.

Good luck!

Shizelbs

Yeah, my neck of the woods doesn't get too hot, but for the few months it is hot, we are pretty miserable.

AsSiMiLaTeD

I haven't seen Frank Z around lately, but you may want to send him an email or PM anyway - I believe he's our resident AC/Heat System expert...

Shizelbs

Polkmaniac wrote: »

I haven't seen Frank Z around lately, but you may want to send him an email or PM anyway - I believe he's our resident AC/Heat System expert...

Yeah, thats what I was thinking too, but I also haven't seen him around here lately.

Skynut

I got a quote to instal/relocate a new A/C unit out side and instal a new furnace/ac unit inside. It is a friend and he is only quoting the cost of the equipment.
He says we can do it for $5000.00 on an 1800 sf house.
This is with no instal charge.

i know that the bigger the house the more the ac unit will cost.

MSALLA

Two to five grand.

markmarc

Last summer I had Sears come out for an estimate on my old house at 1700sq. feet. in Portland. The key is getting a unit that properly matches up with the furnace system. With permits, odds and ends, etc. I was quoted $4400 for a Carrier. I'll bet you're looking at $6000 for a quality unit that doesn't cause the neighbors to file noise complaints. Just make sure the unit is placed on a solid foundation, if not, the buzzing you hear thru your own walls will drive you nuts.

petrym

We did a furnace and AC unit replacement: two stage uber high efficiency furnace and a very large AC unit with Puron refrigerant for 1900 sq ft house. Total was $8,000+

Bill Ayotte

petrym wrote: »

We did a furnace and AC unit replacement: two stage uber high efficiency furnace and a very large AC unit with Puron refrigerant for 1900 sq ft house. Total was $8,000+

I assume Puron is a brand? R134a is the common refrigerant used now for replacement A/C units...For some ungodly reason, R22 is in my A/C unit, and it is only a year old.

R134a is actually cheaper than the harsh ****, since production of it was banned a few years ago (harsh ****)......You can buy a 15LB. drum of R134a at Sam's pretty cheap, if you have a refrigerant certification like me:)

schwarcw

There goes the audio upgrades budget:(

If you have the forced air system in place, it won't be too bad. Depending on the grade you buy, $2,500 to $6,000. HVAC equipment is like anything else, you can buy good stuff and cheap stuff. Do your research. A large surface area coil is good advice. A thermostat can range in price from $20 to $300 or more. The cheap one will break in a year, but will you need all the programable features of a TOTL thermostat. Do lots of research have four or five reputable people (not Sears) come in and give you recommendations and prices. Please note that some manufacturer's just rebrand units. Contractors can buy the units from a wholesaler and several name badges are inside the unit. There is no scam here, it just how it's done.

petrym

Bill Ayotte wrote: »

I assume Puron is a brand?

According to their website:
Chemically, Puron refrigerant is an environmentally sound 50/50 blend of two separate refrigerants, R-32 and R-125. Consumer products featuring Puron refrigerant were first marketed in 1996.

And: PDF
Puron refrigerant (R-410A) is an azeotropic mixture of two hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants blended in a 50-50 ratio (measured by mass):
R-32 (difluoromethane)
R-125 (pentafluoroethane)

petrym

The compressor is a scroll type (1/2 gallon-2 liter sized), but the condensor is a large 1.75-2 sq meters. It works quite well!

I-SIG

Don't over size the compressor, especially in a humid area like Warshington. Georgia Power recommends 1 ton for every 600 square feet. I imagine this would work well in the NW as well due to the dampness. The key is to allow the unit enough time to cycle the air through to keep the humidity down. For a 3400 sq ft house a couple of 3 ton or a 4 and 2 ton would be almost perfect. Also go ahead and pay for a higher SEER rating. My dad upgraded by a half-ton and actually had like $100 lower bills due to the massive increase in efficiency.

Wes

dorokusai

I took some freon hits from a car once, other than that I have no idea what it would cost....wait, where am I?

mrbigbluelight

Bill Ayotte wrote: »

I assume Puron is a brand?
......You can buy a 15LB. drum of R134a at Sam's pretty cheap, if you have a refrigerant certification like me:)

Puron is a blend of R-something and R-something else (R32 and ?). It's a 400 series (401, 404, etc) that runs at high head pressures to do its thing.

If you have Puron, MAKE SURE that you keep your condensor coils cleaned (that's the unit located outside).
At high temperatures (that's caused by letting your condensor coil get clogged with crap), any wax in the refrigerant oil comes out of solution and LOVES to migrate to the capillary tubes (the thing that squirts freon into the evaporator coil to cool it).

When that happens ...... it's expensive.

And, yes, they do make wax free oil; hopefully your service tech isn't out to squeeze the last dime out of your install job and does the right thing the first time.

But: KEEP THAT OUTSIDE COIL CLEAN !!!

mrbigbluelight

petrym wrote: »

The compressor is a scroll type (1/2 gallon-2 liter sized), but the condensor is a large 1.75-2 sq meters. It works quite well!

EXCELLENT CHOICE OF COMPRESSOR !!

Scrolls are the equivalent of an M1 Abrams tank; rock solid, accept abuse very well (they will pass liquid within reason), and run quiet. REAL quiet.
It's sometimes hard to tell if the compressor's running when checking a unit out because the condensor fan noise, etc will mask the compressor noise.

They'll run forever.

P.S. Didn't mean to shout up there, but .... did I mention that scroll compressors are awesome ? They don't rotate, they oscillate !

mrbigbluelight

I-SIG wrote: »

Don't over size the compressor, especially in a humid area like Warshington. Georgia Power recommends 1 ton for every 600 square feet. I imagine this would work well in the NW as well due to the dampness. The key is to allow the unit enough time to cycle the air through to keep the humidity down. For a 3400 sq ft house a couple of 3 ton or a 4 and 2 ton would be almost perfect. Also go ahead and pay for a higher SEER rating. My dad upgraded by a half-ton and actually had like $100 lower bills due to the massive increase in efficiency.

Wes

Here in Missouri, the rule of thumb is 750 sq ft per ton of refrigeration.

And, as Wes said, a unit has to run to cool but it has to run to de-humidify.
You can stick a 10 ton unit in a shotgun house (800 sq ft) and, yeah, it'll cool REAL quick.
"Gosh, my unit only runs for 30 seconds and the whole house is cool !" is a bad thing.
Cool and humid is not as good as cool and not humid.

If your unit runs 90 % of the day on the absolute hottest day of the year for your area, you're doing well.

Face

dorokusai wrote: »

I took some freon hits from a car once, other than that I have no idea what it would cost....wait, where am I?

I know someone who died from that in while we were in high school.

Willow

When we were looking at houses, we got quotes of 3K for a 2500sqft home.

dholmes

I had a new heat pump-air conditioner installed in Nov 06, my house is 2100sq ft. They replaced the main trunk line & outside unit for 3995.00 with a 10 yr warrenty on the compressor.Its a Trane brand xr 13 I think, which is made by American Standard.

-justin-

I'm getting quotes right now on a Unico AC system. I don't have existing ducts and don't want to put large bulkheads everywhere in my house. It's gunna cost me $8-11k, not looking forward to that, but I won't live another summer with those stupid window units.

~J

disneyjoe7

Originally Posted by dorokusai
I took some freon hits from a car once, other than that I have no idea what it would cost....wait, where am I?

Face wrote: »

I know someone who died from that in while we were in high school.

Brain Freeze

MikeC78

I recall the price jumps significantly as the efficency gets into the 95+% range. The more effecient they are, the larger the compressor that sits outside your house.

The larger compressor equates to a cooler running unit making it more efficient. (as I recall?)

Face

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

Brain Freeze

If you want to be technical, lung freeze.