Unless the law is new and in Maryland only, he is full of Sh*t. The law only requires the condensing unit to be upgraded to a 13 SEER The airhandler only comes into play when the SEER is over 14 or is a variable speed blower. Evaporator coils are not rated for SEER.

To insure you have a 13 SEER capable machine, you need to change your entire system, but it is not law. Last year thousands of systems were replaced and consumers were told this lie to make the sale. We had many people on this forum that believed this was the truth and told customers the same lie.

Get other bids. Call your local building inspection office to verify my comments. Maybe the local government is also living the lie.

Evaporator coils are not rated by SEER. They are rated by Btu's. By chnaging the metering device to a TXV valve, you can usually increase the SEER by 1 point. This is because a TXV valve works like fuel injection and only allows what is needed for correct operation, wheras a cap tube metering operates at a fixed rate, like the carburators of yesteryear.

At anyrate, thousands of systems are sold during the dead of summer with unrated coils when Carrier and TRANE run out of rated coils. The same goes for other brands. Especially since the new law started in Jan 06.

Hoodmeister,what the tech was saying is the old evaporator coils depending on which one you have will not operate properly with the new 13 seer outdoor unit weather you use a TXV or not,they simple do not match up.Once again Bob, you are talking out of your azz with this statement.(At anyrate, thousands of systems are sold during the dead of summer with unrated coils when Carrier and TRANE run out of rated coils)please dont comment about Trane any more you dont have a clue what your talking about.

13 years sounds a little premature by a few years. ive seen some last well over 20 with proper maintenance.

i'll second what bama_dude is saying...
these systems are engineered to work together.
i.e. outside unit mated to matching evaporator coil and TXV as well as proper refrigeration line sizes.

Thanks for the responses. I think what I heard from my guy was that I had 10SEER units and the Federal Law requires the 13 or better SEER units. And as you guys say, the 13SEER unit won't work well with the air handler I have. Is there any way one could find new 10 SEER units or are they so obsolete they don't exist? He also said the ones I have "typically" last about 15 years. I haven't done much maintenance except to keep surfaces clean and change filters a lot. The big heat pump has now cooked two defrost boards in 13 years. Other than that, they have been excellent machines. thanks again.

Hoodmeister:

My 20+ year-old 7 SEER Trane Weathertron Executive heat pump is still going strong. I now have it off and I'm running on emergency heat because temps are in the teens to mid 20's, and my old heat pump is not cost effective at these temperatures. I live in the Baltimore area (Bel Air to be exact).

Actually BD,
I was thinking of the supply problems of TRANE last summer. If you don't know what you are doin, dont lie to the customer. Just don't say anything. Evap coils are not rated for SEER. They are rated for Btu's. If a coil has a recommended system, then it has a combined ARI rating for Btu's. In Dallas, a very large manufacturer of coils never rates the coil for SEER, only for Btu's.. Ratings are the problem of the supplier and not the manufacturer. If you think that a particular coil never is sold out, you live in an alternate universe. Until last year, the typical stock ratio was about 1 coil for 3 condensors. Or to make is simple, every system stocked had 2 extra condensors. Installer started a myth that the entire system needed to be replaced by law, which caused supply problems. This was not just in Dallas, but nationwide. I have spent many hours trying to locate HVAC gear during the summer, every year. Even Goodman factory sales runs out of hot sellers.

I am confused, I thought the emergency heat kicked in as needed with the heat pump. What exactly is heatong your home.

Also, does the SEER rating impact heating costs? I plugged some numbers in an online spreadsheet to project costs of a 15 SEER vs a 10. I clicked that I lived in FLA and I saw a rather large savings using the 15 SEER. I then changed it to PA (where I am at now) and the savings was negligible. I am confused?

Andre:

"Emergency" heat for an all-electric house is the resistance elements in the air handler. In "emergency" heat, only these elements heat the house and not the heat pump compressor. In "auxiliary" heat, the heat pump compressor runs in addition to 1 or both of the resistance elements.

SEER (seasonal energy efficiency rating) is for the air-conditioning mode. HSPF (heating seasonal performance factor) is the figure for winter mode. The reason why your savings drop in winter is because the heat pump needs auxiliary heat when outside temps drop below 30 F. The heat pump still provides heat at outside temps below 30, but cannot keep up with the heat loss of the home at these bitter cold temperatures.

So............is it not then a sort of scam to sell anything above a 13 SEER in this area since no matter what you put in the savings are negligible...unless there are separate charts for the HSPF....here was the chart I referenced....

http://www.energystar.gov/ia/business/bulk_purchasing/bpsavings_calc/Calc_CAC.xls

I also notice that on all the brochures here in PA I do not see the HSPF mentioned (or at least not as prominently as the SEER) Maybe I can understand why now....

i will third what bama dude is saying.also an old evaporator hooked to an old 10 seer condensing unit could be o.k.to use with 13 seer condensing unit.ARI does rate evaporators for seer.ARI data can tell you if a cetain evaporator is compatable with a 13 seer condensing unit or not.ARI can also tell you if adding txv can make a cetain evaporator compatable with a 13 seer condensing unit.very important though that a match is obtained.agree that some 15 year old systems can be made to last many more years,like old cars.federal law applies to equipment manufacture.no more less than 13 seer condensing units.i think the law exemps some commercial units.matching these 13 seer condensing units to existing evaporators is a matter of ethics and any contractor should educate themselves and advise his customers accordingly.wouldnt hurt to call trane with model numbers of your air handlers and ask if they are compatable with 13 seer condensors.i would most definately not have my brand new 13 seer condensing unit hooked to a 13 yr. old or one year old evaporator that is not compatable.oh yeah,quite a few of our customers that have upgraded with the 13 seer systems have been verry pleased with total performance including decreases in utility cosumtion.hope this helps.

Once again the SEER of a system has nothing to do with real life. It is an arbitary rating for a mythical climate that is exactally perfect in temmperature. The rated system only runs for 6 minutes of 10 minutes. The system is then cooled down and run again several hours later. The rating comes from the best of several tests averaged together. In the real world, anythying more than a 14 is wasted without the ducts designed for the system. Furthermore several manufacturers claimed a higher SEER than the system produced, and were required to reduce the SEER in thier sales information. This act suggests that the test is not a real world test, but is an alternate univwerse wish.

People that use science to sell crap annoy me more that the ignorant person lying thru his teeth. The comments by people on this list, that knock my truths with faulty science, deserve to fry in the 8th circle and 8th bolgia of H*ll.

Good luck with your project.

Bob ,give it a break the more you talk the more people realize your full of sh#t.

The new Federal Standard requires that your unit, makes at least 13.0 S.E.E.R.
What that means is that your indoor coil be matched to a air handler or coil that will meet that rating.

So, if you are thinking of changing your heat pump condenser to 13.0 S.E.E.R. then I would NOT recommend that you use a 15 year old air handler to try and meet the rating. Even installation of TXV would not bring that old of air handler into 2007 ratings.

Here is a link that might be useful: hvac-talk

those great big 13 seer condensors as opposed to those little bitty 10 seer condensors gotta have something to do with something.same as with the larger 13 seer rated evaporator coils.not real sure about hoodmeisters indoor section.if hoodmeister was my customer i would check with trane and make sure that indoor section and outdoor section matched in every way,ductwork also,before commencing with any alterations.

As I recall, some manufacturers simply kept the same coils they had before and changed the specifications. For example, a 2-1/2 ton coil is now a 2-ton coil. But Trane redesigned their coils and they are very fussy about which coil you use with which OD unit. Now they insist you replace the coil at the same time as the unit. (Not only that, they are switching to aluminum coils.)

The law as I understand it is that manufacturers may not produce any more 10 SEER's. You can install them if you like. If there are any available, none will be 2-ton to 3-1/2 ton. They are all gone. You might find a 1-1/2 ton or a 4-ton, after a search. You will more easily find a 5-ton, which is seldom recommended for residential apps. But I submit the only reason for installing 10-SEER now is if you are desperate to sell a property, in which case your time will be better spent to other advantages.

my 10 yr 3 month train heat pump is shot local tech says train sucks he is considered the magiver of train. recomends a lux unit over train