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Which H.V.A.C. equipment is right for you?

There are many different manufacturers of heating and cooling equipment on the market today. Which is right for your home can be a complicated issue. Of course there may not be one single right product your you, buy several that offer the best of many items that are important to you.

We will take a look several items that you should investigate before making the investment of heating and cooling equipment. Decide which ones are important to use and choose accordingly.

SEER Rating: This is a commonly used term that refers to the efficiency of the system. The higher the SEER, the higher the efficiency, and thus, the lower the utility bills. Although everyone wants lower utility bills, making the large investment in the highest SEER equipment can sometimes be a poor decision. Say for instance you are building a new home and you have been given an option by your H.V.A.C. contractor to upgrade to 16 SEER equipment for the price of $4500. This price upgrades you from the standard 10 SEER equipment to the elite 16 SEER top-of-the-line product. Well, the first question you should ask yourself is how long do you think you will live in this home. Why this is important is that each SEER upgrade has a certain pay-back. This is the time that the initial investment, $4500 in this case, will take to be paid back to you in utility savings. In most cases, this pay-back period can be as short as 3 years, but sometimes as long as 6 years. Say for instance you figure your pay-back to be about 5 years, but you plan on selling the house after 2 years. Clearly, your initial investment would not be returned in this case. However, if you plan on living in this new home until you die, or many years, the initial investment would be clearly returned to you in many months of utility savings. Ask your contractor to what he feels your pay-back period would be. Some contractors may even have programs which figure these numbers for you.

Extended Ratings: Once you have figured out which SEER rating is best for you, it's easy from here. The next most important item to examine is the equipment extended ratings, or sometimes called expanded ratings. What this actually addresses is the ratings on the air conditioning portion or your equipment as the outdoor temperature rises. Each air conditioner has a nominal rating, which is the nominal size, or tonnage of the unit. Typically, each ton of air conditioning is equal to 12,000 BTU"s. For instance, a typical 4-ton air conditioner has a nominal capacity of 48,000 BTU's. That is, when it's not extremely hot out. When the outdoor temperature is a reasonable temperature, say 80 degrees, the unit can typically output the 48,000 BTU's. Now, this is not to say that all air conditioners even start at the nominal 12,000 BTU's per ton. Although you'll find that your better units will, there are many inferior units out there that even start our poor. And then as the outdoor temperature rises, unit's will gradually decrease in the amount of BTU's. Now this is where the better units are worth their weight in gold. For instance, if you compare a great unit to a very weak unit, you can have a difference as much as 20%. As the better 4 ton system will probably drop to a 3.5 ton as the temperature hits 100 degrees, your cheaper weaker system will be puttering along at the capacity of a 3 ton or less. What this means to you is that the system will now have to run that much longer to satisfy the load inside the home, which will result in higher utility bills.

With air conditioners, as with most product, you get what you pay for. If you buy quality name, you'll get quality equipment with great ratings. If you choose to save money and select the cheaper equipment, you can expect to pay for it later, in utility bills.

Ask your contractor to see the extended ratings on the systems your considering. Choose the one with the stronger ratings. If your contractor can't or won't supply you with the ratings, find another contractor.

Warranties: Equipment warranties can vary greatly within a particular manufacturer as well as within different manufacturers. Warranties are great for piece of mind, but some can be more valuable than others. For instance, a parts warranty may save you some substantial money over the life of the warranty, but where the savings really come into play are in the compressor warranty and especially the labor warranty. Most systems will come with a pretty good or great compressor warranty, an OK warranty on parts, but typically a poor labor warranty. And as you well know, labor is where any service-orientated company makes their money. Most, if not all, units come with a 1-year labor warranty. And chances are, most systems will perform without any major problems within the first year. What we suggest is asking your contractor about the equipment manufacturer's extended warranties. Although most contractors are not in the habit of offering them, they will be more than happy to quote you a price for one. Typically, a ten year parts and labor warranty can be purchased for $500 to $600, per system. In our opinion, this is money well spent. Especially if you plan on living in the home for that entire 10-year period.

Reliability/Longevity: Again, in this category, you get what you pay for, typically. With a good name, high quality manufacturer, you can expect years of smooth running. With a lesser known, cheaper brand, you should expect less reliability plagued with break-downs and expensive repairs. We have our favorites that are backed up by their reliability records, but we are also hesitant to name any names. What we recommend you do is investigate into the popular magazine Consumer Reports ratings on air conditioners, heat pumps, and gas furnaces. You can be sure their picks for reliable units are what we have on our own homes.

These are just several items you should consider when choosing heating and cooling equipment. Our best suggestion is take your time, investigate, listen and learn, and choose accordingly. Good luck!

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