j3grizz Posted April 15, 2006 CID Share Posted April 15, 2006 I have decided to follow Tommies lead and add a post for your HVAC problems. I have said earlier that I have been in the HVAC field for a little over 8 years now and have plenty of experience with it. I will answer any questions that you may have from saving $$$, to any technical questions you may have. Hope I can help ya'll out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommie gorman Posted April 15, 2006 CID Share Posted April 15, 2006 I was at a home show, and I kinda of wondered about the geothermal heating and cooling. Is it all it is cracked up to be? Is it pretty much a dependable system? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stank_Ho Posted April 15, 2006 CID Share Posted April 15, 2006 Ah yes, my annual ritual, turning on the AC. Again, this year the pipe outside froze up after about 90 minutes of running. Oh well. I'll have a service call in and get to pay $120 to see some service tech butt-crack for 10 minutes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommie gorman Posted April 15, 2006 CID Share Posted April 15, 2006 Heck I can probably answer that one. You probably have reduced airflow, due to the fact that you have not changed your $1 air filter all winter. Which means you have higher gas bills also. Turn it off while you run to the store and get one. When it thaws out and you have changed filter. Turn it back on and try again. If this is true, you can make the check payable to... Quit being a tight butt stank ho! If that is not it then you have probably have a low charge of freon(because I doubt it is high). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stank_Ho Posted April 15, 2006 CID Share Posted April 15, 2006 Change my filter. Hmmm. You must first assume I am ignorant to the fact that filters need to be changed. You must also assume that I don't change them every month. Thanks Tommie, seriously, I must have a freon leak somewhere. It did the same thing last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cholla Posted April 15, 2006 CID Share Posted April 15, 2006 Stank_Ho ;If you are going to have a repairman out anyway get him to use his electronic freon detector to find the leak & fix it.If he doesn't have the detector then send him on & call someone that does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justinlay Posted April 15, 2006 CID Share Posted April 15, 2006 I just recently bought a new home which turns 1 year old this month. it broke down twice last summer. the first time they found a leak in side the house. It ran fine for a couple of months then broke down again. This time They had to replaced the heat condising coil??? lucky i have a 5 year warenty on it. One more thing i notice on my paper work to the house it recommends a 2 ton unit, but it has a 4 ton is this good. It cools the house real quick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cholla Posted April 15, 2006 CID Share Posted April 15, 2006 justinlay; Since j3grizz is in the busineess he might be able to explain better but I will give it a try. The 2 ton recomended for your house might be just enough to keep it cool & the smaller unit would take less energy to run when it is running that the larger 4 ton. But it may run more of the time.The 4 ton unit that is more than recomended will bring the temp down faster but it takes more energy to do it.But it will run less time to do it. This means it willl run less time than the 2 ton . The only way to know for sure would be to have both ,run an electric meter on each of the units & see which one used the least energy.Not really practicle. My bet is the 2 ton would use less energy but wear out faster.The energy use difference wouldn't be that much & replacement sooner might end up being more expensive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deven Posted April 15, 2006 CID Share Posted April 15, 2006 I've had both and the 2 ton is cheaper to run, does better job. We had a big moisture problem with the 4 ton due to drain was under house. Once drain was relocated to yard everything is better. Replaced with 2 ton due to wearout and elec bill dropped about 20 to 25 dollors a month. Someone else may have had different outcome. I will say that it seams the 2 ton does run longer than the 4 ton did, but in my case it is cheaper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amc11890 Posted April 15, 2006 CID Share Posted April 15, 2006 Since we are talking about energy usage and what not, if u dont mind me asking, how much do u guys pay for elctricity on average? We pay about 300 dollars a month on average but most of the time it is lower than that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommie gorman Posted April 15, 2006 CID Share Posted April 15, 2006 amc11890 are you all electric? Mine on COOP(country electric) which is usually high is at most in summer(July Aug.) only about $190. 1400 sq. ft. Propane 93% furnace, and 3 ton 14 seer A/C. How old is your unit Stank Ho? Sorry about comment, but with rentals... Most people(my tenants especially) don't really know that. In my house I lived in before, it was cheaper to replace the whole line set and a-core instead of hourly rate leak checking. Here an a-core ran $220, plus line set about $40, plus labor about 4 hrs. justinlay as far as I was told, you should not go more than 1 size larger. 2 ton being 2 1/2 ton. Or 15,000 BTU being 18,000. I could be wrong. And you know everybody wants them fixed at same time, and everybody turns them on with in 2 days of each other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amc11890 Posted April 16, 2006 CID Share Posted April 16, 2006 amc11890 are you all electric? Mine on COOP(country electric) which is usually high is at most in summer(July Aug.) only about $190. 1400 sq. ft. Propane 93% furnace, and 3 ton 14 seer A/C. How old is your unit Stank Ho? Sorry about comment, but with rentals... Most people(my tenants especially) don't really know that. In my house I lived in before, it was cheaper to replace the whole line set and a-core instead of hourly rate leak checking. Here an a-core ran $220, plus line set about $40, plus labor about 4 hrs. justinlay as far as I was told, you should not go more than 1 size larger. 2 ton being 2 1/2 ton. Or 15,000 BTU being 18,000. I could be wrong. And you know everybody wants them fixed at same time, and everybody turns them on with in 2 days of each other. Yes we are all electric with teco energy in Tampa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommie gorman Posted April 16, 2006 CID Share Posted April 16, 2006 How many square feet amc11890 ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amc11890 Posted April 16, 2006 CID Share Posted April 16, 2006 How many square feet amc11890 ? 2500 sq ft, 5 tvs and 5 computers and the ac runs most of the year because we live in hot and humid tampa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justinlay Posted April 16, 2006 CID Share Posted April 16, 2006 i usually keep my house around 78 degrees i also have 2 computer that run almost 24/7 i bill has never been over 200 a month for a 1600 sq foot house Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j3grizz Posted April 16, 2006 Author CID Share Posted April 16, 2006 Ok, I was at a home show, and I kinda of wondered about the geothermal heating and cooling. Is it all it is cracked up to be? Is it pretty much a dependable system? Ok Tommie, we do not deal with much geothermal heating and cooling around here but I do have some friends that have it. There are some people that would disagree (Manufacturers, Some Contractors etc..) but in my opinion the ghp system is not all it is cracked up to be. First off, I will admit that they do use less energy but it isn't the 40 to 60% they claim. We have ran our own tests on some of the units and for the money it takes to get these puppies installed I will stick with my air cooled heat pump! Yes the system is dependable, but only about as dependable as your regular HP. I have to say again though that these findings are only on a few units that I personally was able to test. We are always the last to do anything different in Georgia! lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richcornucopia Posted April 16, 2006 CID Share Posted April 16, 2006 Anyone have opinions on window unit ac's? Just in general... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amc11890 Posted April 16, 2006 CID Share Posted April 16, 2006 Anyone have opinions on window unit ac's? Just in general... Yeah i was on vacation in Virginia a few summers ago and all the house had was window units and one of them in one of the bedrooms left a gap from the outside allowing mosquitos in the house and man it was crazy i dint realize it at first but when it started getting dark the bugs just started pouring in the room:even some grasshoppers were in their. it was odd and we ended up just putting a towel where the gap was but other that the rooms stayed pretty kool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j3grizz Posted April 16, 2006 Author CID Share Posted April 16, 2006 Ah yes, my annual ritual, turning on the AC. Again, this year the pipe outside froze up after about 90 minutes of running. Oh well. I'll have a service call in and get to pay $120 to see some service tech butt-crack for 10 minutes. LOL! Ok Stank_Ho, I would pay $120 not to have to see the techs butt crack!! Seriously though, are you using the same company every year? Do they really only take 10 minutes? If so it sounds like you have a very small leak and all they are doing is coming to recharge your system. Have they told you if it is a leak, if they can/can't find it or if they just don't want to try. If you are using the same company try a different one and when the guy is finished inquire as to what the problem is. If it is a leak tell him you want it repaired. With all that said there are some things that you can do to help your system out. Always keep your filter clean!! You can go to a local HVAC store and buy their brand of coil cleaner, it is much better than the coil cleaner picked up at Lowes and Home depot. Follow the mixing directions and put it in a pump sprayer (I prefer the pump sprayer because it has more force but you can use a squirt bottle). All you have to do now is turn the power off and spray the coil down very good, let it sit for about 5 to 10 minutes and spray it off with a water hose. If you have a split system, meaning you have part of the unit in your house there is a coil inside that can be cleaned as well. Do the same thing to it just be sure to keep the water from getting all over the place! A clean coil means that the unit is able to remove heat more efficiently from your house and it will take less time to remove it!!! I hope this gets you closer to getting it fixed right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j3grizz Posted April 16, 2006 Author CID Share Posted April 16, 2006 Stank_Ho ;If you are going to have a repairman out anyway get him to use his electronic freon detector to find the leak & fix it.If he doesn't have the detector then send him on & call someone that does. Cholla is right about getting the leak repaired. Although I do not like the electronic leak detectors simply for the fact that I haven't found one that works better than Big Blu which is just (Soap bubbles-just better) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j3grizz Posted April 16, 2006 Author CID Share Posted April 16, 2006 I just recently bought a new home which turns 1 year old this month. it broke down twice last summer. the first time they found a leak in side the house. It ran fine for a couple of months then broke down again. This time They had to replaced the heat condising coil??? lucky i have a 5 year warenty on it. One more thing i notice on my paper work to the house it recommends a 2 ton unit, but it has a 4 ton is this good. It cools the house real quick Hi justinlay, I am guessing they found the leak in the coil and tried to repair it. If this is a correct assumption then I can tell you that repairing a coil is a little tricky and could have failed very easily. So if they did try to fix it in my opinion they did you a favor cause most people would have ordered a coil to start with. Which is $$$. I have repaired many coils that are still in use today but the tricky part is the tubing in the coils is very thin. So when you are repairing one you must be very very careful. Most techs don't even attempt it. Now that the coil is replaced you shouldn't have any more problems. As to the units size, I do not like oversizing a unit that much. Depending upon climate, house location, many many variables, you can have some houses that develop mold on the inside that is bad to your health! I am not saying to start tearing out sheetrock but I would inquire as to why they oversized the unit by 2 tons and mention the fact that it can cause mold. Hope this helps you out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkandra Posted April 16, 2006 CID Share Posted April 16, 2006 I turned my AC on two days ago. As for the electric bill it has been around $130. In the summer time the AC does not turn off except at night when it is cooler. It has been in the lower 80's here in northern Kentucky. I dread this summer. I think it is going to be a real hot one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j3grizz Posted April 16, 2006 Author CID Share Posted April 16, 2006 Since we are talking about energy usage and what not, if u dont mind me asking, how much do u guys pay for elctricity on average? We pay about 300 dollars a month on average but most of the time it is lower than that I am around $150.00 a month @ 2000 Sq. Ft. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deven Posted April 16, 2006 CID Share Posted April 16, 2006 He's right, I did have a mold problem with the 4 ton. I was told it was the water was venting under the house. Also had to replace the outside fan 3 times in 7 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j3grizz Posted April 16, 2006 Author CID Share Posted April 16, 2006 He's right, I did have a mold problem with the 4 ton. I was told it was the water was venting under the house. Also had to replace the outside fan 3 times in 7 years. I hate to hear that I was right, so did you get the problem under control? I hope so. Yea, they should have known better than to oversize it that much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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