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.