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DELETE CASCADE posted:have you considered taking up smoking? weed, i mean, of course. then you won't be able to notice the cigarette smoke because your whole apartment will be dank as gently caress I don't care about that minor nuisance. I care about COVID. Motronic posted:So you need both. I live in NY. Being able to afford to move to a place that will be at least as safe WRT COVID is not something I can see happening any time in the near future. Let alone to a safer place. I have a portable vent AC yeah. I can get a wall AC if I need to is what I'm saying. But yeah. I lost my original job when the pandemic began and had to move back in with family so I do technically own the property, we simply have rented out one of the units - it's a three family home. So I can make some changes as need be. Again, it's really just one wall that connects to an adjacent bedroom. I can do a crude MSpaint diagram after I get off of work if that would help?
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Jun 15, 2022 01:49
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RoboChrist 9000 posted:I don't care about that minor nuisance. I care about COVID. So your family owns the home, you're being cagy about what's going on and who lives on the other side of the wall, you're worried about covid drifting through the walls, etc. I really don't think this is an HVAC question.
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Jun 15, 2022 01:57
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can you just sell the portable unit and get a window unit?
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Jun 15, 2022 02:06
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Some geothermal AC progress: First of all, assuming things leads to mistakes and manuals are good to read when you don't know what you're doing.  Turns out the heat exchanger needed to be turned 80° to the right. Now it's correctly installed according to the book, the condensation drainage actually works and it purges itself from air.  Also there's now a riser and a ball valve for air purging on the exchanger outlet side of things. I can only find a single auto purge valve for this purpose that's actually rated for ethanol which costs a small fortune so it's manual for now, probably forever. The semi-insulated riser hose on the left (exchanger inlet side) leads to the expansion tank. A few millimeters of foams seems sufficient to prevent condensation on the hoses so that's good.  There are blinky lights and fancy electronics now. I have a very vague idea of how any of this actually works but bro can touch his laptop and turn the circulation pump and blower on and off as well as regulate the blower RPM.  The air duct bends finally showed up so apart from that little piece of flex hose it's now hard duct from inlet to filter at least. We also started duct insulation yesterday. There's very little locally available for the purpose apart from Armacell sheets which are awesome but very expensive at $50/m2 so we ended up using rolls of 50mm fiberglass with paper backing on one side and wrapping the ducts in that and fixing in place with tape. A very itchy job and it's not looking pretty but it seems to work significantly better than no duct insulation at all at least. I assume we'll also have to wrap the whole sausage in plastic to get a proper vapor barrier before everything is finished. It's obvious that duct insulation is critical for getting cold air to the far end of the air passage. It's working great at the outlets closest to the heat exchanger but the outlet air gets progressively warmer the further away you get, especially when the sun is shining and the attic gets very hot.
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Jun 15, 2022 09:36
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RoboChrist 9000 posted:I don't care about that minor nuisance. I care about COVID. Replacing the one-hose portable AC with a two-hose portable unit or a window unit will help with your negative pressure. Consider a small stand-alone HEPA filter air purifier - one with a charcoal filter will help a little with smoke smell as a bonus. IMO these, and doing what air sealing you can, are the changes that are practical for you to make, though they may be of limited effectiveness. The stuff I've seen about reliably effective HVAC approaches to covid mitigation are all mostly beyond DIY means and tend to be expensive - the two main ones being maximizing air changes and high MERV filtration.
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Jun 15, 2022 14:32
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glynnenstein posted:Replacing the one-hose portable AC with a two-hose portable unit or a window unit will help with your negative pressure. Consider a small stand-alone HEPA filter air purifier - one with a charcoal filter will help a little with smoke smell as a bonus. IMO these, and doing what air sealing you can, are the changes that are practical for you to make, though they may be of limited effectiveness. The stuff I've seen about reliably effective HVAC approaches to covid mitigation are all mostly beyond DIY means and tend to be expensive - the two main ones being maximizing air changes and high MERV filtration. Thanks. I have CORSI cubes. So yeah, it's really just 'what's the best air sealing I can realistically do'
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Jun 15, 2022 14:43
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I've been having a massive home heating conundrum and I hope this is the right thread. We currently heat a townhome (two zones: finished basement + first floor, second floor + loft) with an oil boiler, hot water system with radiators. The boiler is also our source of hot water. The hot water tank needs to be replaced soon, and the boiler itself is from 1987, so we really need to replace this whole system before it fails catastrophically. We have an outdoor Mitsubishi heat pump with minisplits for AC, age unknown, but it is only really sufficient for supplemental heating, and I do not know that there is any upgrade to this system that will make it reliable and efficient in Boston winters as the sole source of heat. We do not have natural gas run to the house and we do not intend to add it (but we have the ability). The easiest solution is to replace everything with a new oil system, but this feels completely absurd in 2022. I hate everything about it. I have looked into geothermal heating and do not mind the high up-front costs, but it appears that water systems work poorly and only heat to ~120F. We also have a small yard so I anticipate we are limited in the choices of loop systems. If we need to switch to any kind of air system, we would need to do massive replacements of our heating infrastructure within the townhome in addition to the heat pump installation, and need to figure out a new solution for hot water, like an electric hot water heater. We talked to a MassSave consultant and they basically said that it's not going to be worth it. Obviously, vendors have different opinions. Is it really the right move to just replace the oil boiler with the highest efficiency one we can find (and maybe upgrade the outdoor heat pump down the line?)
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Jun 17, 2022 14:54
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First of all, what water tank? Do you have an indirectly fired water tank attached to this oil furnace? Does it have a domestic hot water loop or is it a heat only unit that was zoned to an indirect fired tank to provide DHW? Secondly, what is actually wrong with the oil furnace? Are you having it service annually? Has anyone said something is wrong with it? With more than the gun, which is a completely replaceable unit? Unless there's a problem with the fire box I don't see why you would replace it. And yes, modern heat/cool minisplits are much better at low temperature heating. You might want to look into replacing those units so you can run them as your "first stage" heat. When its too cold outside for them to be efficient switch over to oil. Since they are mini splits it's likely this will have to be a manual process.
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Jun 17, 2022 15:04
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Motronic posted:First of all, what water tank? Do you have an indirectly fired water tank attached to this oil furnace? Does it have a domestic hot water loop or is it a heat only unit that was zoned to an indirect fired tank to provide DHW? It's an indirectly fired tank and we have a domestic hot water loop. The tank is rusted near the hot water inlet for the heat exchanger and there is a very small leak somewhere underneath the tank that produces a permanent wet spot about the area of a drink coaster (not a standing puddle, just damp to the touch, and also cool rather than warm). Because it's an old lined tank we don't expect a catastrophic failure, but it clearly needs a replacement. There is nothing currently wrong with the oil furnace, and the burner is operating fine, but we are the only townhome of six to be using the original boiler, so we expected it is nearing the end of its life. Perhaps this is pessimistic? My inclination had been to use the replacement of the indirect tank to proactively replace the 35-year-old boiler with a higher-efficiency unit, rather than waiting for it to fail. I take it your recommendation would be to replace the water tank and leave the boiler alone for now? BRAKE FOR MOOSE fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Jun 17, 2022 |
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Jun 17, 2022 16:01
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BRAKE FOR MOOSE posted:I take it your recommendation would be to replace the water tank and leave the boiler alone for now? Yes. Keep up with annual maintenance and inspection of the boiler. If you want to improve your heating situation spend the boiler replacement money on newer inverter mini splits that can operate efficiently at lower temperatures so you can reduce your reliance on oil heat.
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Jun 17, 2022 16:08
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Hey! I was trimming some plants back from around my AC unit, and it looks like some critters have gnawed on the control wiring. I “fixed” it with some electrical tape, but anticipate getting it fixed during my AC checkup. My question is if it’s OK to have the wiring exposed like this or should it be in some kind of wire loom? I can’t help but think this’ll just occur over and over and would prefer a more permanent solution. 
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Jun 17, 2022 19:04
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Looks like a wild weed wacker may have gotten to it. It's low voltage so there's no real danger from it being in pieces. I don't know what the proper fix is but every one I've seen just had the wires nutted back together and left hanging. If it's actually critters getting to it you can tape it to the exterior of the line set insulation or conduit to deter them.
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Jun 17, 2022 19:10
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Hehe, this would definitely not have been from my weed whipper, there’s a garden the unit is in the middle of (and I’d be a dead man for even thinking of such things). Anyway, so even the taping might be good enough? Just try to attach it to the gray piece in the background with more electrical tape? Edit: Nice! Thanks, IOwnCalculus. I probably will spring for the Honda tape. $50 for tape kind of chaps, but the HVAC company charges more for a checkup, so I imagine I’ll make it out ahead. nitsuga fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Jun 17, 2022 |
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Jun 17, 2022 19:59
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Plastic wire loom is definitely cheaper, but rodents can/do chew through that too. You can get spicy electrical tape, though.
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Jun 17, 2022 20:12
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This may not be the correct thread for it .. but .. it is ventilation specific. I live in a "manufactured" home (AKA .. doublewide from 2000). It was cheap, super cheap .. and its not bad, and its not great. I am working on improving the insulation and all that fun stuff so my electric usage stops killing me at times. One of the areas that glows like the sun on an IR camera is the range hood vent. This thing is hot when its hot and cold when its cold .. I hate it, we bought some air filtration units because it just seems to blow the smoke around in the kitchen and not exhaust it. With that being said, is it insane to get rid of the duct work and just patch the hole in roof and ceiling and call it a day? Or is there actually a product that works at keeping hot/cold out from this hole in the ceiling.
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Jun 17, 2022 21:47
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mAlfunkti0n posted:This may not be the correct thread for it .. but .. it is ventilation specific. Is it setup to actually exhaust outside and not just "filter" the air? I wouldn't get rid of it personally but make sure it actually works.
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Jun 17, 2022 21:52
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H110Hawk posted:Is it setup to actually exhaust outside and not just "filter" the air? I wouldn't get rid of it personally but make sure it actually works. Yeah it's set to exhaust outside, I just felt the air filters/purifiers did a much better job of clearing it. The biggest issue is the hot/cold inlet issue, here is a thermal image of the problem. 
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Jun 17, 2022 22:15
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My daughter's room (on the second floor) gets 5-10 degrees hotter in the summer than the rest of the house because of the way the central AC is built (her room is on the end of the run and the single vent into her room is on the floor), and because the sun pours in all day long through the window. Even closing the blackout blinds doesn't do much. Based on looking at reviews I want to buy this unit, however I am unsure of what mounting things I need to buy along with the unit, and how to tell if the mounting will work with my house. Any pointers appreciated.
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Jun 18, 2022 15:52
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https://na2.electroluxmedia.com/Original/Electrolux/Electrolux%20Assets/Document/Installation%20Instructions/16120300a23793.pdf installation manual. apparently nothing, if you have the right windows.
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Jun 18, 2022 20:41
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Hey guys, I left for about 2 days and left my a/c running right around 82f for the cats comfort(it's been about 90-93 here lately most days). I tend to run it pretty low when I'm home, like 70 +/- a few degrees, my thermostat doesn't work super well. Got back today, the house had a slight musty smell and everything seems to work the same as usual, except the air will not go lower than about 75 or so. I think there's probably a good chance I have some dirty coils. I watched a video on cleaning the outside unit, and that seemed pretty easy to do, however I think there might be a good chance my evaporator coil up in the attic might be the main culprit because I didn't change the filter for quite a while, and ran it without a filter for about 4 days a week or two ago. It has a new filter right now. Should I attempt to clean the evaporator coil myself? It's a furnace type thing up in my attic and looks possibly more complicated than the outside pump to clean in terms of dismantling the covers. I'm not even sure where in the unit the evaporator coil is, although I could get pics. The attic was insufferably hot when I poked my head up there earlier, so I hauled rear end back down pretty quickly. I'm paranoid if I call a tech out they might try to rip me off before just giving the coils a clean to see if that helps. I guess it could possibly be the thermostat, but if I bump it way down to compensate for it's inaccuracy wouldn't it eventually cool as low as it usually does, as long as it's not cutting off?
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Jun 19, 2022 22:46
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MRC48B posted:https://na2.electroluxmedia.com/Original/Electrolux/Electrolux%20Assets/Document/Installation%20Instructions/16120300a23793.pdf Thanks for finding this. Can you expand a bit on what 'if you have the right windows' means? I measured and the windows I have are aluminum windows with an opening width of 32.5 inches (vs. the 23.6 inches minimum) and an opening height of 23.75 inches (vs. the 13.8 inches minimum). The offset (see Fig 4B on page 2 is 1.125 inches in height) - will this be an issue? The manual does not mention anything about the height of the offset, so I think this unit will work in my window.
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Jun 20, 2022 02:56
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I wrapped a package yesterday. A sweaty itchy package. Seems to work though.
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Jun 20, 2022 07:31
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Question for the thread. Like much of the US it is unseasonably hot outside and the fan motor on my AC system's compressor picked this morning to apparently seize up. The AC calls for cooling, I hear the unit straining for about 30 seconds, but the blades don't spin and the unit then kicks off. I've called the HVAC people, but they're booked two weeks out. Anything I can do to kick-start this thing? PremiumSupport fucked around with this message at 17:29 on Jun 20, 2022 |
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Jun 20, 2022 17:26
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PremiumSupport posted:Question for the thread. You could have a bad start capacitor, if that's the case you may be able to buy one locally and swap it out. With the unit not calling for the fan to be on, see if it spins freely. If it doesn't then you've got a shot bearing/bushing and it is mechanically stuck. Sometimes you can give it a nudge and it'll spin free, other times you are just hosed.
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Jun 20, 2022 20:37
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Jose Cuervo posted:My daughter's room (on the second floor) gets 5-10 degrees hotter in the summer than the rest of the house because of the way the central AC is built (her room is on the end of the run and the single vent into her room is on the floor), and because the sun pours in all day long through the window. Even closing the blackout blinds doesn't do much. Piggybacking on this I have the same issue, one room gets 5-10 hotter or 5-10 colder in winter d/t central AC, I've had HVAC play with the vents repeatedly without success. Is there anything I can tell the HVAC guys to do to fix this or is it just purchase AC conditioner/heater as above kinda solution?
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Jun 20, 2022 21:04
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Yooper posted:You could have a bad start capacitor, if that's the case you may be able to buy one locally and swap it out. I eeked a week out of a blower with a bad bearing by push starting it with a stick. Made it to the appointment, but only ran it at night so we could sleep. We were worried it would draw too much current and possibly fry the board, but also had to sleep so rolled the dice on it. adnam posted:Piggybacking on this I have the same issue, one room gets 5-10 hotter or 5-10 colder in winter d/t central AC, I've had HVAC play with the vents repeatedly without success. Is there anything I can tell the HVAC guys to do to fix this or is it just purchase AC conditioner/heater as above kinda solution? You can try a remote temperature sensor, but then the other rooms are going to be overcooled. We checked flow rates and register temps, but everything came out normal. We have the same problem and it's an insulation problem. Vaporware fucked around with this message at 22:45 on Jun 20, 2022 |
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Jun 20, 2022 22:41
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Vaporware posted:I eeked a week out of a blower with a bad bearing by push starting it with a stick. Made it to the appointment, but only ran it at night so we could sleep. We were worried it would draw too much current and possibly fry the board, but also had to sleep so rolled the dice on it. Yeah that's pretty much what I'm hoping here. I will not be able to sleep if I can't cool the house, and there is no chance of a technician even giving it a look until next week.
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Jun 20, 2022 22:53
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Yooper posted:You could have a bad start capacitor, if that's the case you may be able to buy one locally and swap it out. All of this, plus (at least the two times I've done it) it really isn't outside the realm of most DIYers to replace the fan motor if it is trash. Even if you can't get an exact replacement, you can probably get a close-enough generic replacement as long as you verify rotation, power, and RPM. I would expect the hardest part for someone with a limited tool set to be pulling the fan blade off of the old motor, since that might require some pry bars or possibly even a puller.
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Jun 21, 2022 00:05
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Drunk Driver Dad posted:Hey guys, I left for about 2 days and left my a/c running right around 82f for the cats comfort(it's been about 90-93 here lately most days). I tend to run it pretty low when I'm home, like 70 +/- a few degrees, my thermostat doesn't work super well. Got back today, the house had a slight musty smell and everything seems to work the same as usual, except the air will not go lower than about 75 or so. I think there's probably a good chance I have some dirty coils. I watched a video on cleaning the outside unit, and that seemed pretty easy to do, however I think there might be a good chance my evaporator coil up in the attic might be the main culprit because I didn't change the filter for quite a while, and ran it without a filter for about 4 days a week or two ago. It has a new filter right now. find a professional who you think won't "rip you off". can't help via forum post, too many issues at once. PremiumSupport posted:Question for the thread. If bearing is seized, you could try wd40 or similar to skate through the next few weeks. Jose Cuervo posted:Thanks for finding this. Can you expand a bit on what 'if you have the right windows' means? I measured and the windows I have are aluminum windows with an opening width of 32.5 inches (vs. the 23.6 inches minimum) and an opening height of 23.75 inches (vs. the 13.8 inches minimum). The offset (see Fig 4B on page 2 is 1.125 inches in height) - will this be an issue? The manual does not mention anything about the height of the offset, so I think this unit will work in my window. check out figure 5, you basically need a solid surface to "hang" the unit from. otherwise you may want a bracket. its required some places.
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Jun 21, 2022 00:47
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My head's currently spinning from trying to do analysis on converting oil heat to propane or ID other methods regarding my current oil boiler. I have a house built in 1988 with oil baseboard heating, 275g tank in the basement. The boiler looks like it's the original with possibly some parts replaced over the years, and there's a Becket burner on the front. There is no external water heater. I just moved in and got the unit maintained and it hasn't been maintained in the past 2 years. The service tech said it looked fine, a little more dirty than normal, but that the copper pipes on/around the mixer valve were fairly corroded. He said not to try to touch/scrape the corrosion off because the water would likely start leaking. Based on the age and how easy it is to unscrew some of the piping from the furnace, a repair could cost $600-1500. The service itself (annual maintenance) cost $250. His recommendation was that if anything went on this unit, to seek replacement rather than throw money into it. Saying all that, I called his company up for a quote on a new unit. They offered a budget option called a New Yorker and another option, the viessmann which is more expensive. They're going to come out next month for a proper estimate, but a rough swag was basically $11k for the viessmann (high efficiency model with external water heater, for 3 heat zones which I currently have). The New Yorker was only $2k cheaper and did not include a indirect water heater and was not touted as 'high efficiency', so I'd just spend the extra $2k if that was the case. This led me to think of a few possible outcomes... 1) Live with the current furnace. It's outdated and inefficient though, so I don't want to piss away money into it. However with a new system costing $11k, I feel like the break-even point could be a ways off. Sure I'm spending more per month on oil because it's less efficient, but is it worth it? 2) Change to propane. Every website I look at says something different on if this is worth it or not. Propane seems a little cheaper than oil in my state (Connecticut), but it appears you need 1.35 times the amount of propane for every gallon of oil you would need based on some websites (https://www.fuelsnap.com/blog/heati...0heating%20oil.) Again...no idea how believable this is. I don't see any reason to upgrade to propane if I'm going to spend more per month when you compare two new systems of oil vs. propane. The only other benefit propane would have is I could get a propane range, but paying much more/month in heating costs make that not seem worth it. 3) Upgrade furnace to a new oil one. I'm trying to see how much I would benefit here for a payoff (ie, if my current furnace is 70% efficient and the new one is 87%, what would the break-even here be for spending $11k on a new system?) 4) try and augment the existing furnace by using the heat pump on my AC units...I've got a split system on the lower level and a central ac unit up top, both are capable of heating. I have NO idea what those will cost to run versus oil, but maybe I use them in tandem, like the oil as a base heat of say 60 degrees, and then the heat pump to get up to something more comfortable like 68-70 degrees? 5) Wait and see how things work after a year of living in the house (best option I think). This way it gives me time to analyze everything and really see where I can get the best bang for the buck. I don't know what I don't know and I know I need to do more research, but right now my gut says to stick with the old furnace for a while and see if I can boost up my efficiency via other means (insulation or windows, if needed). I've reached out to my state because they'll do an energy audit so I'm hoping to get those results soon enough. Here's my very rough calculations on what it would take to break-even on buying a new oil furnace: It makes a lot of assumptions, the first being that oil will continue to cost $5.30 a gallon (unlikely but who knows...a lower number will increase the time to break-even, if it dropped to $3/gal, the break-even is 14 years). It also assumes I fill up the tank fully 6 times a year which I think is unlikely. The PO said he was spending about $700 a month in oil costs this past winter which makes me think he was filling up at the 1/3 tank mark, give or take. So I likely would only 'fill it up' 3 times a year maybe, which increases the break-even time period even further. But, if I'm even close to being correct, using the worst possible values out there, I wouldn't break-even on a new boiler until 7 years later. Now, if a big repair comes up soon with the boiler, all bets might be off and I'll need to just replace the unit. Edit: one huge assumption is my current unit's efficiency. I have no idea how to estimate that, so I googled and got 70% as a best case scenario. So-what am I missing here? If my state gave a tax break on a new oil boiler, that'd be one thing to consider, but they don't. They do offer some rebates on insulation and windows though, so all the more reason to see what the audit comes back with. nwin fucked around with this message at 02:36 on Jun 22, 2022 |
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Jun 22, 2022 02:23
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MRC48B posted:check out figure 5, you basically need a solid surface to "hang" the unit from. otherwise you may want a bracket. its required some places. Probably overthinking this but do AC units plug into a regular wall outlet?
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Jun 22, 2022 03:15
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Jose Cuervo posted:Probably overthinking this but do AC units plug into a regular wall outlet? You're not overthinking it, actually. Up to 10k-12k BTU yes, they'll take a standard 120V 15 Amp outlet, though at that size you'll want a dedicated circuit regardless. Bigger than that and they go to 220V which requires a special outlet. But even if it will plug into a standard outlet, you'll want to make sure you don't overload the circuit that it's on. The specific unit you're looking at uses a regular outlet, checking the stats says it uses an LCDI 515P plug, which means it plugs into a normal outlet. It'll draw 8.8 amps, and a standard circuit will handle 15 amps, so you might want to think about what else is on that particular electrical circuit. For example, don't put a second of those on the same circuit, because that will trip the breaker.
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Jun 22, 2022 15:40
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Two days ago our condenser stopped kicking on. We had a tech out yesterday while I was at work, so the girlfriend handled it. I don't know much about HVAC, she knows even less. As a result, I've got some garbled second hand info here that hopefully makes sense. The tech told her (to the best of my reconstruction) that the pressure switch was faulty. It sounds like he maybe bypassed it? So the unit is running, and he basically said it'll be about a thousand dollars to fix because we need to replace the refrigerant when it's done. He also said it's not really an emergency to get done, but could become an issue if we were to develop a refrigerant leak. Does this all make sense? Is this a replace tomorrow situation or a "whenever is convenient" situation? Also a thousand dollars to replace part of a unit that probably costs about 1500-2000 seems off to me. I know prices vary wildly locationally, but does it sound reasonable enough? Edit: the unit is 2 years old. Is this potentially a warranty issue?
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Jun 24, 2022 11:32
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Slugworth posted:Two days ago our condenser stopped kicking on. We had a tech out yesterday while I was at work, so the girlfriend handled it. I don't know much about HVAC, she knows even less. As a result, I've got some garbled second hand info here that hopefully makes sense. Not an HVAC tech (there are a couple in this thread), just a homeowner with some experience dealing with HVAC systems. HVAC warranties are generally parts only. So the pressure switch, which might be a 60 dollar part, could reasonably cost 1000 dollars to fix once you factor in the labor involved, especially if they have to evacuate the system of refrigerant, open the system up, and then recharge the system. When I had my evap coil replaced at my last house, the part was about 400 dollars, and it cost another 1200 for removal/install of the new coil, and evacuating/recharging the system. It was like 1600 bucks total and the guy was done in less than 3 hours. It hurt, but unfortunately it's not something a normal handy homeowner can do*, so you've got to pay up. My current house I paid the last company 185 in labor to replace a capacitor, which takes about 60 seconds. The 15 dollar part was under warranty, but not the labor. Unless you purchased some sort of plan from the installer that covers the labor as well, you're probably on the hook for the labor and the refrigerant costs. * It is possible for a homeowner to do, if they invest in the right tools and get the EPA license to source the refrigerant, so it's not impossible
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Jun 24, 2022 16:01
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When a system is repaired, what is done with the refrigerant that is pumped out? We had a system at work pumped out, repaired, and new oil/refrigerant was added. I get the oil part, but are they just filtering the refrigerant and selling it to the next guy?
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Jun 24, 2022 16:10
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Reclaimed refrigerant gets sent to an industrial reprocessing center, then repackaged and resold. It is inadvisable to re use it on different units for contamination reasons. Different systems use different oil types, acid or particulate transfer. Using it on the same unit is possible, and standard practice. And yes, total cost to recover a split, evac then recharge is over a thou, even when the part is tenbux. More if the switch is brazed in. Also, all of these companies are for profit busineses in a specialized market. Price too high? Go somewhere else. Post the actual quote they give you on paper for the work, not the verbal approximation secondhand from the tech.
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Jun 24, 2022 16:36
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MRC48B posted:Also, all of these companies are for profit busineses in a specialized market. Price too high? Go somewhere else. To the other part of my question, should I be rushing to get this done asap?
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Jun 24, 2022 16:47
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Slugworth posted:Oh, I didn't mean to sound too whiney/outraged about the price, I just wanted to get a better idea of what was involved. If was correctly diagnosed as a bad switch and isn't actually low on refrigerant or has a fast leak, you probably don't have to rush; however, as long as the switch is jumped out you lack some protection against causing a much more expensive repair.
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Jun 24, 2022 18:51
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nwin posted:
If I'm reading your spreadsheet right, you are predicating all your calculations on 6 complete tank fills? Filling a tank 6 times a year is a really high number. If you're truly burning 1650 gallons per year, your best bang for buck is absolutely in weatherproofing improvements, or just turning the thermostat down and wearing seasonally appropriate clothing. Your spreadsheet shows the problem with efficiency-only improvements. In the vast majority of cases, they don't pay back. If you need to replace a working unit, sure go ahead and spend the extra on a more efficient solution. But if you have an operating unit, rarely (if ever) will an upgrade just to improve efficiency make sense.
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Jun 24, 2022 19:18
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TacoHavoc posted:If I'm reading your spreadsheet right, you are predicating all your calculations on 6 complete tank fills? Filling a tank 6 times a year is a really high number. If you're truly burning 1650 gallons per year, your best bang for buck is absolutely in weatherproofing improvements, or just turning the thermostat down and wearing seasonally appropriate clothing. Yeah, I figured 6 fillups is very generous. If I’m doing that, I need more insulation or new windows. Thanks for pointing that out. My main concern is getting something new before this existing furnace becomes a money pit and/or dies out in the dead of winter and repairs/replacements are hard to come by due to demand. However, I do have the heat pumps in my ac units, so maybe I could rely on those for a bit. I’ve read they don’t work so well in extreme cold though (I’m in coastal Connecticut so not sure if I’d meet that threshold or not).
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Jun 24, 2022 19:25
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