Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Aldeer General Forum another HVAC question.

I am currently in the process of building a home and thought I'd ask our resident HVAC guys which units are the best. Is it the old Ford vs Chevy question? I DEFINITELY want to go with a higher SEER rating heat pump with gas piggy back but is all the variable speed stuff worth the money?
Suggestions comments much appreciated

If you want to get something real nice look at American Standard 21 seer variable speed heat pump with the 95% furnace set up as dual fuel.

You will definately spend money on the higher end equipment but it would be worth it since you are building and planning on being there a while

A.S. 21 seer is top of the line. The furnace would rarely operate with a V.S. heat pump so spending extra for the 95% furnace may be a waste.

Good recommendation by the way.

I'm with delta, I would also just go with a standard heat pump . Vs dual fuel HP It's a sweet unit as it is. A lot of people in my area love the dual fuel, we see and install it more so with single or two speed condensers.

Jeff, is there any specific unit or brand you have been looking at?

Delta,

May want to consider how low it will take to recover the extra money you will be spending on top of line unit. Will you actually save enough money on your utility bill to pay for it. Second replacement parts for variable speed mtr etc will be much more expensive than standard mtrs. Make sure you have good contractor for install. Best units will suck with a bad install job.
Just my 2 cents.

I would go with a bottom of the line heat pump. The parts are much cheaper and probably more reliable. I put the second variable speed motor in my unit. It cost $750 just for the part vs. $90 for a standard unit. It will take me probably 10 years in energy savings to recoup this cost. by the time I do recoup the "savings" I will probably need 2-3 more $750 motors. also consider that the a/c industry claims the average life of a unit is 7yrs. do you want a simple unit that saves you money or a money pit fancy green unit with a high markup.

Scrape, how old is your unit? A lot of high end equipment has 10yr part warranties, you may wanna check into that. Also, if you've had to change your motor that many times.. I'd be having someone checking the airflow and static pressure to see if you're burning up motors due to lack of airflow. Is your motor a true variable speed or the "x13" motor? The x13s are crap and not a true variable speed, they have given the industry a lot of issue. The true variable speeds that I deal with can be diagnosed as either a bad motor or bad module, both doesn't necessarily have to be replaced. If under warranty it makes since to go ahead and replace both.

In some cases I've seen a few lower quality units not make it quite 10 yrs, but for the most part if it fails under 10yrs I would say majority of those failures are due to lack of maintenance and it being installed by a poor quality company from the beginning.

Jeff, I got your message. I'll give you a shout this evening.

travis it is a variable speed eon motor 8yrs old with 5yr warrenty thats supposed to be 10. the x13,s are 1/2 the price. the motor didnt burn up just the magnets came unglued and was beyond repair. sure you can get a 10yr parts warrenty but you are stuck paying labor from that one company. and who would want to pay $1000 dollars for a 10yr old motor after the warranty is gone. and thats just one specialty item on these units. my point to the op is that a fancy high seer unit does not save them money. if you want more than 3fan speeds and don't mind being at the mercy of one company. then they are the way to go.

Say what you want, I've got a whole list of customers who have had high seer rated units for the past 10yr that have witnessed savings on the energy usage of their HVAC equipment not to mention minimal if any repairs. Sure every once in a while youre going to have a unit that has a premature failure, but part should be covered in most cases.

If its "suppose" to have 10yr part warranty then why doesn't it? Why not use it and save several hundred dollars. Most any contractor can handle the part warranty with the supply house the unit was sold out of and labor on a motor change out would not be to awfully expensive at all.

If you've had several motors have magnets come unglued, you need to figure out what kinda voo-doo someone is casting on you. Our service department has seen that specefic issue maybe a handful of times in the last five years. As a service tech if its not under warranty, I will diagnose if its a motor or motor module that attaches to the motor, most cases both are not needed. Neither scenarior, charging customer part and labor would be $700 with any motor I've seen yet.

Hope your luck turns around!