AC Install

At 8:30 am three guys (from Company 2) showed up to install our new AC, the 2-stage 17 Seer 2-stage Carrier Infinity. A little before 6 pm the job was done. I'd estimate up to 20 man hours were used to get it installed. And there's still more to do! But that's for a later post.

Air handler ducts and parts

Mummified air handler

3 tons of cooling

The old one

The new one is a few inches taller and wider

The new air conditioner was dropped into place within an hour. After about another hour of hooking stuff up outside the guys disappeared into our crawl space for most of the day. During their lunch break I took a few pictures of our old air handler, which is located in the crawl space behind the headboard of our bed.

Old air handler

Ripping out the old air handler and some of the ducts

The AC guy wanted to keep the old copper pipes, which worried me that he was trying to cut some corners, but he said that since we had some fairly extensive insulation done in the attic, it would be disruptive to remove and install the new copper if the old ones were still intact. He promised they would pressure-test the old pipes and re-use them only if they were still OK. They were and were flushed out with some cleaning solution and nitrogen gas.

Cleaning out and checking the old copper refrigerant pipes

Old ducts

Testing testing

Air handler gone. The drip tray was removed later

Like an artist signing his canvas, the company owner signed the drip tray.

Our fancy, new AC thermostat is wi-fi enabled and can run lots of diagnostics to let us know how the system is functioning (it's also smaller, therefore we are stuck with some annoying screw holes to fill).

One problem? Being able to see how the system is functioning. It's an issue of too much knowledge. It turns out that new systems are designed to be run with less static pressure, so that the air comes out gradually and cools the house without the noisy gusts of cold air from the vent that were apparently the norm (and preference?) in the 90s. Our system was running at almost 1 inch static pressure and it should be running at 0.5. Which means our ducts aren't optimal for the new system. Which means a lot more work...The good news is that our AC company agrees this isn't optimal. Some complaints on the web are that a company will install a new AC unit, learn that it's running at 0.9 or higher, and just say "oh it's fine." Our company agrees we need to try to improve airflow, at least.

We can still run the AC as is it now, but it's not really working as it should. Back to the drawing board - duct work in progress. More to come.

REFRIGERATE!

OK, we have a temporary solution to our AC problem. D checked in with a bunch of neighbors and was able to find two people willing to loan us window units. They're loud and annoying - and don't cool things very well. But they came in handy earlier this week with temperatures above 90. Truly hating our Cape Cod house right now, with a top floor that heats up to attic temperatures.

The fancy one we ended up finding for the baby's room is much better than the standard window unit in our room. It cooled down the whole upstairs significantly:

Even though it seriously looks like it wants to take over the planet:

In the meantime, we've got our quotes for a new central AC unit. It is...well let's just say significantly more expensive than we though is putting it mildly. We have two different quotes and probably should get a third, but the two are priced very similarly, so we suspect this is just the price we have to live with. Both quotes have pros and cons. We thought it was interesting that in both cases, the AC people only suggested one option - the bottom option. We actually had to go back to ask how much it would cost to get a better model. I would have expected a few options included in the original proposal.

Here is, more or less, what we had to decide. (Blogger doesn't use tables, so this is a screenshot from Excel.)

A few things to note - Company 1 says the Lennox unit is 16 seer but the product info on the Lennox webpage says it is 14 Seer. We thought this might have something to do with a new air handler, listed at 2 Seer, adding to the efficiency. Company 2 has not finalized paperwork to take part in our utility company's rebate, so unfortunately we lose out on some rebates there, though Carrier has some rebates that Lennox doesn't (in the annoying form of a visa gift card). Also the actual total for the 3rd option will cost a bit more because we would pay extra to have a wi-fi enabled thermostat.

In the end, immediate availability is impacting our decision quite a bit and we're opting for the 3rd option (the 2-stage AC from Company 2). The first company hasn't even gotten back to us on our request for prices of a higher-end model. We've used the first company before and like them, but they just have too much business right now to try hard to "sell" this to us. And we want something sooner.

What would you have done? Would you have gotten more quotes? Will we regret this incredibly costly decision? It doesn't help that we're likely entering a heat wave early next week.

Dead as a Doornail

I behind in blogging this month, but it's not for lack of effort. Lots of planned posts, many photos (mostly of the yard), but I just haven't found the time.

All those planned posts are going to take a backseat so I can tell you that our AC is dead. Very dead. Really and truly dead.

We'd held out on cranking it up this year for a while to save energy but decided eventually that we should put it on for a particularly hot day or two - both for our comfort and to test it out. And it's good we did. There was air. Plenty of it. But it wasn't cold. We let it run for a while, partly because the cycling air was doing a tolerable job of cooling the house anyway. But there was no denying that the air conditioner wasn't, well, conditioning.

We called our heating and AC people. Yes, we've been in the house long enough that we now have "people." Our roof person, our heating people, our electrician, etc. They promised to send someone out within a few days. That was Monday.

And today they came to take a look. The diagnosis: dead. Not just "maybe we can repair it" dead. Dead dead. There's no pressure in the system AND some animals managed to nibble some wires and move in (see nest picture below). There's no more coolant and apparently, it's 20 years old and the coolant isn't even available anymore. I don't think we need a second opinion on this one. I think we're lucky we've kept it working as long as we have.

So our AC people are going to give us an estimate this weekend for a new one. I guess it involves some work in the air handler area of our attic too, because they mentioned something about needing a small unit up there because of how cramped and tight it is. They are Lennox dealers, so I guess that's what they'll suggest. Anyone have anything good or bad to say about this brand?

Another problem? Approximately a 3 week wait. This is pretty much prime time for AC people.

We are considering getting a second estimate, but I'm not sure it's worth it. We trust this company and, frankly, we're not sure if we want to wait even longer before being able to make it cool in here. Living on the top floor of a Cape Cod is bad even in moderate conditions, so we're in for a few potentially bad weeks. Maybe time to rent/buy a cheap window AC unit?