Question for T-Bone,or anybody with HVAC experien

I'm not going be much help as I haven't kept up with new units since I retired. Gas piggybacks carried a lower SEER around 12 maximum than Heat Pumps approx 15.

Most of the better gas units have 90% to 95% effiency and they still make 80% units so watch that number. There you need to watch the sales hype that our is 2% more efficent but cost $500 more than a 95% unit. The 95% unit is a better buy looking at nothing more than $$$.

The only problem that I ever had with Coleman was parts were hard to come by and expensive when available. Coleman was always a industry "follower" not a leader, meaning some brand could be found that was more efficent and had the latest technology advancement.

Trane is/was probably the industry leader in the home units for years. Carrier, Rudd, Rhrem, Lynix were all good units. Copeland was one of the better compressor brands. Carrier was always excellant quality and a indusrty leader in technology but also came with a leader price tag.

I assume you've read my comments on the Tractor Talk forum on scroll compressors.

Thats about all I can help with as like welding machines, I just haven't used any of the newer equipment to give any advice of hands on experience.

T_Bone

If I had it to do over, I think I would have gone with the 95% efficiency condensing gas furnace rather than the 80+% model I chose. At the time I bought the furnace natural gas was really cheap and I didn't think I could ever come out on the $1k, or so increase in price for the higher efficiency model. But since then my gas rates are almost twice what it was then and I wonder if I made a mistake. The other thing to consider is the venting. The higher efficiency model could vent through the wall, while the one I chose required a chimney through the roof. It would have been easier to do through the wall and would have allowed a bit more efficient packaging in my new house.

The furnace people that I bought my system from said that they had more trouble calls with the higher efficiency models and almost none with the older designs. So maybe I am making up for the higher gas costs of the system I bought by not having to have it worked on. So far it has worked flawlessly.

I live in Eastern Washington, where it gets pretty hot in the summer and can get to 30 below in the winter. We have to have good heating and cooling. I always burned wood and used a swamp cooler in my old house, but about the time I decided to build a new house, a natural gas main was installed in the street in front of my property. I have sure enjoyed how easy it is to just let the gas furnace and air conditioning operate automaticly. But when I designed my house, I left room for a chimney through one of the closets so I could easily add a Metalbestos type chimney and a wood stove in the basement. I hope to get that set up in the next couple of years. I have lots of wood available just for the cutting and splitting and I would like to be able to burn solid fuel for backup or supplementary heat. There always has been plenty of natural gas, but you never know.....

Heres the link to the other post I made.

The scroll compressor is the best on the market as it hard to screw one up from having a poorly trained technician apply his skills. :)

T_Bone

• OT Electric or Gas furnance.