Updating the heating and A/C in my home

13 years ago

I recently purchased and moved into a home in a small town in Nebraska. This house is a very old three story home that definately requires a lot of work. I understand the heating and air conditioning won't be as efficient as possible due to the fact that the house needs to have a lot of updates to help with energy efficiency. The insulation and windows definately aren't helping matters. My question is this: The home has window A/C units for cooling and still has a very large and I'm sure unefficient heating oil furnace in the basement. The first thing I want to do with the house is upgrade to better heating and cooling. Would a heat pump be best so I can have more efficient heat and at the same time add central air to the home? Or do each seperately? If I do each seperately what would I install?

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (3)

tigerdunes
13 years ago
is nat gas service available?

what updates if any do you plan?
neohioheatpump
13 years ago
can you get discount electric with a heatpump?
You may live in an area with extremely harsh winters (so I've heard of in Nebraska).

A heatpump may be good, but probably won't be the only source of heat you need when it gets extra cold. Especially since your house is old and drafty.

A heatpump shouldn't cost much more than a reg. A/C. I think its always worth it to upgrade from a reg. A/C to a heatpump. If you have natural gas, then get a 95% furnace with it.

If natural gas isn't available then a heatpump may be a better option than oil. Again, you need to find out what electricity costs.

How old is you house? How drafty is it? You might want to first think about insulating or atleast fixing leaks.
Related Discussions
Help Choosing Correct Heat Pump System for my house
Q
Comments (98)
Hi Tiger,Ryan and Gary Happy 4th guys. Hope you're out there partying!! The Infinity system is running just great. Its so quiet inside the house that I can barely tell its on. I am so so happy with it. Its a real sweet baby. The temperature in Sacramento has been very nice these past two weeks, just in the 80's. Its kind of weird because last month we hit the 100's. I am confident though that this baby can handle it when we go back up to the 90's and 100's. As for the ducts Ryan, the flexi is attached to metal, but I don't know if its the insulated kind. But it is very quiet. I don't hear noise from the vents. I did take a peak into my attic from the ladder and the flexi is nicely layed out, no spagetti up there. Also all direct from the airhandler and no Ys. Well i've been partying all week Gary. I love this baby. But the real big party will be in the winter when its real cold outside and my living room will actually feel warm. For me that will be the biggest test because I can't handle the cold and like it very warm in the house. My old heat pump always blew in cool air when its below 45 degrees outside. If any of you will be in the Sacramento area in the future, let me know and we'll have an Infinity party or we can party Infinityly!! You guys take care and thanks again for all your help. I'll be travelling quite a bit on the job from mid July until late September, so if you post something and I don't get back to you please know that I'm on the road. Demi
...See More
Heating my new house is KILLING my wallet, any HVAC experts?
Q
Comments (14)
skin, I think you are right. I bought a cheap infrared heater for my bedroom and flipped the whole system off (to top it off it has one of those crappy 80s mastertrol zone systems with the gold dial) used 10kwH/day, turned it back on yesterday thermostat on 64, granted it was very cold here yesterday, in the 30s, I used 130KwH!!!! The mastertrol panel is going, I have ordered a honeywell hz311 to replace it bc the thing is just pure nonsense and confusing. When I rewire that I am going to open the air handler and make sure all of the connections coming out (and going to the zone panel/thermostats) are right. Maybe I will luck out and they just screwed up and put a wire on an auxiliary heat resistor that should be on regular heat... Or maybe this confusing piece of crap from 1981 is messed up and it is calling for auxiliary heat when it should be calling for regular heat... My question is. If I am indeed constantly using the strip heat, what is missing for the "normal" heat pump heat? As I mentioned I know very little about these systems, don't they run the outside compressor in reverse for heating to pull the cold out or something? My 2017 compressor is capable of doing that, right? I mean I have all the equipment for this to work, it's just wired and slapped together piss poorly is what your'e saying? Or, am I missing some other component that they neglected to save money? If my rewiring of the zone controls and thermostats makes no difference, how expensive of a repair am I looking at to get the heat pump to actually pump heat?
...See More
What are my home heating options
Q
Comments (4)
Old oil boilers are relatively expensive to run, but in most cases they were sized larger than really needed, so you may be able to add a couple radiators and improve the heating in additional rooms. If possible, converting to a modern natural gas boiler would help a lot. If a NG boiler is not possible, you could add an electric heat pump system using mini-splits or a standard ducted HVAC system if you are not too far North in NY. Modern heat pumps are efficient down to about 15 degrees, but then usually have to use electric resistance heat (much more expensive to run) to keep up. However, its really hard to tell the best solution unless we know the design of your house. For example, a ducted heat pump HVAC system might be straightforward to install if you have access from the basement to run ducts. Another task is to improve the insulation and air sealing in your house. Start out with adding insulation to the attic, and get prices on having additional insulation blown into the walls. Bruce
...See More
Big "C" update in my area . . .
Q
Comments (76)
I listened to Osterholm discuss the hospitalization statistics. I think it was because one of his listeners posed a similar question. It's not like anyone is trying to manipulate us. It's just that capturing hospital Covid data by "for" or "with" isn't being done. Sometimes it's not clear which it is - for example if someone is hospitalized for cardiac symptoms and is found to have Covid - do they have the cardiac problem because of Covid? Or pulmonary disease - has a problem arisen because of a case of Covid the person didn't know they had? He also pointed out that either way, if someone tests positive there's still an extra burden for the hospital because of the need to isolate these patients and for those caring for them to take additional precautions. So I would surmise there isn't enough benefit to expend the additional effort to try to separate this data, particularly in hospitals that are so overburdened as it is. If patients have Covid, whether they knew it or not, they have to be monitored and cared for as Covid patients. I think number of Covid patients in ICU gives somewhat of a read on how seriously ill they are and if that number is trending down it's a good sign even though the hospital may still be overwhelmed caring for less serious cases.
...See More
countryboymo
13 years ago
I upgraded from a builders grade system that was on the bottom tier of builders grade to a 15 seer 10hspf Ruud system that is really great in comparison. I did take advantage of the tax incentive and also a utility rebate in the process. The real motivator for me was the company I work for had a program that was zero interest for up to five years and was going to be dropped. I am saving money on electricity and the comfort level is a lot better.

I would have saved more money on bills if I would have went further with sealing and insulating and plan to later. I just could not pass up the zero interest to get rid of the no name unmatched system.

I did put a honeywell visionpro stat on the old system with outdoor temp sensing and figured out how to stage the strips and lockout the heat pump and or strips which saved a huge amount of electricity and made the comfort level 100% better. I also went from R13 to probably R30-38 in the attic and did a ton of sealing in the basement before upgrading the hvac.

I have to admit that a mediocre system with a GOOD stat with outdoor sensing and staging along with some sealing and insulating will go a very long way.

I got the stat on Ebay new for 50 bucks and outdoor sensor for 12 which is cheaper than most any stat at home depot or lowes. For those thinking of a stat upgrade... there are new 120.00+ stats that can be had for half price or less.

I don't regret my new system... I guess I just didn't see the drop in usage that I figured I would.

I spent 65 or so on the stat setup.... 400.00 or so in attic insulation and probably 300.00 in duct mastic, foam, caulk and recessed light sealed trim rings with the old system and notice a HUGE difference in savings. I spent less than 1k.

The new system was approaching 7k and didn't see near the savings.

The moral of this story is really think before you jump. A good majority of people out there could probably invest 1k into sealing and insulating and get it back in a few years. Skipping the initial sealing and insulating and dropping 5-7k on a new system might take a while.

Updating the heating and A/C in my home

Comments (3)

tigerdunes

neohioheatpump

Related Discussions

countryboymo

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US