My split unit York (NG furnace) was 25 years old if she was a day, but TN summer's been brutal and she was overcome. She's dead. Now what? Two general questions: (1) For a leaky 1936 house (5500 sf, 2x4 walls w/ no insulation in them, 1960s-ish single pane windows, giant un-flued fireplaces, severe leakiness all around), is geo an option? I like to think that since I use a lot of energy, I'd want to produce the energy as efficiently as possible. However, I'm also concerned that I'll be in auxilliary heat all winter and not see the savings that I might expect. I realize my bills would be drastically cut, but I also realize they better be because of the heavy payback of the system. (2) I got one quote back (waiting for the second). The one I got was VERY basic - 2.5 sentence description and (big) price. Is he waiting to see if I'm sticker shocked before doing any real work to properly measure/size the house? I'm reading on this forum that it takes some careful planning (and possibly NASA certification) to get a good system, and walking around looking for 45 min won't cut it. But, I also understand not wanting to invest a lot of time until it looks like it might pay off. Contractor has a good reputation here. Thoughts?
Geo, unlike air source, is very expensive per additional ton Therefore start by doing or paying to have done a heating and cooling load calculation. See what can be don to reduce load. How big was your York, RIP?
The existing is/was 5 ton downstairs. Upstairs is 3 ton w/ electric coil heat. Upstairs is still kicking, but in my replacement cost comparisons, I'm assuming it will have to be replaced in 3-4 years, too.
Your name jumped out at me as it is the same as the inventor of the geo trio. We absolutely hope everyone does their calculations, but unfortunately it's just not so. When we all set up the shoppers check list we also agreed that while every point was important, one should try to satisfy the lion's share, but not necessarily expect 100% success. I can tell you that I measure every house, and do load calcs, but I also begin to discuss numbers and size with my customers right away as I'm reasonably certain of the size I'm going to select (like 99.9999% sure). We do do the math anyway because we might be wrong. That said, if you have someone with a good rep., good product, good track record and based on load calcs you get independantly and bring here we decide it's a good design, then it still might be your guy. As Curt said though, start first by improving the envelope. j
