Air Conditioning for my house

[Eride]

Gavin has his own company. I had a 4 ton Tempstar installed for $4400.

[Zero102]

Not to hijack the thread too badly, but does it matter what brand of furnace you have? I have a ~10 year old carrier furnace and want to add air conditioning, but I don't know, do I have to buy a carrier air conditioner in order to have it fit in the plenum properly? If not it looks like complete kits can be had for under $2k, and I can fit it all myself I would just need somebody to charge it. For a $1500-$2000 price difference I think I would be fine with being my own warranty.

['93 SR-V]

Originally posted by Zero102
Not to hijack the thread too badly, but does it matter what brand of furnace you have? I have a ~10 year old carrier furnace and want to add air conditioning, but I don't know, do I have to buy a carrier air conditioner in order to have it fit in the plenum properly? If not it looks like complete kits can be had for under $2k, and I can fit it all myself I would just need somebody to charge it. For a $1500-$2000 price difference I think I would be fine with being my own warranty.

It shouldn't matter. I have a york a/c and a carrier furnace personally. I believe all that matters is having the coil fit inside the plenum and it needs to be properly matched in size for the size of the a/c unit. I would guess most people who put a/c in after the fact don't have matching brands. That said I don't claim to be an expert!

[G]

Gavin is installing my 3 ton Tempstar tomorrow.

Thanks for the referral Jordan.

[95teetee]

Originally posted by G
Gavin is installing my 3 ton Tempstar tomorrow.

Thanks for the referral Jordan.

congrats

I don't know how I ever lived without central air- last month when mine broke down for a few days I was ready to kill someone. It was even too hot first thing in the morning when it was only like 18c outside (just because I couldn't get my house down to the preferred 19 or so before bedtime lol)

[black_2.5RS]

How did you guys know how what size of AC unit you needed? I got a 2400 sq. foot home and not sure what size I need to get.

[Darell_n]

Originally posted by black_2.5RS
How did you guys know how what size of AC unit you needed? I got a 2400 sq. foot home and not sure what size I need to get.

It is calculated by square footage, air infiltration, insulation value and sun exposure. Hopefully your furnace has enough CFM to do the job, unlike mine. Whoever is installing the a/c will size it for you.

[G]

Originally posted by black_2.5RS
How did you guys know how what size of AC unit you needed? I got a 2400 sq. foot home and not sure what size I need to get.

Usually it is 1 ton per 700 sqft.

[Maxt]

Originally posted by G


Usually it is 1 ton per 700 sqft.

The residential rule of thumb is 600 sq ft/ ton.. Even that is borderline in some instances, in some of these shacks with commercial fridges, theatre rooms, make up air units etc. And then as Darrell says hopefully the furnace has enough oomph to handle that tonnage. Every major manufacturer offers a high cfm model of a given btu furnace, but don't count on your house having it, unless you spec'd it when it was built.
http://www.docs.hvacpartners.com/idc.../58mcb-6pd.pdf
In that link you can see how you can order a 80,000 btu or whatever furnace with high or low cfm...
I don't do residential in my business, but in the ones I have done for friends, I have had to change the furnace as well, to really do the job properly in most of the installs.. Being here that our ductwork is generally in the floor, you need a lot more CFM to cool a house than heat it, if you end up with no velocity, the cool air never mixes in the room and the a/c just runs all the time doing nothing but cooling the carpet.
If you can find your furnace CFM online, divide the CFM by 400 and that is the cooling it will support, in tons. If you insist on stretching it with low CFM, the cfm/ton relationshipis is more important that than the ton sq/ft relationship, from an operational perspective.
As the cost of power increases, I think multi-head minisplits are going to become a better option than central air.

[max_boost]

Central air has been so useful this summer. Oh man. So awesome. Sorry /brag

[Darell_n]

I agree. Normally my a/c will run for 2 weeks per year. This year it's been running for 2 months. While my family was helping move furniture into my house 8 years ago, I was installing the a/c. I will be installing a couple of power attic vents this fall as it will likely eliminate my need for a/c next summer.

[ZeroGravity]

Originally posted by Maxt

The residential rule of thumb is 600 sq ft/ ton.. Even that is borderline in some instances, in some of these shacks with commercial fridges, theatre rooms, make up air units etc. And then as Darrell says hopefully the furnace has enough oomph to handle that tonnage. Every major manufacturer offers a high cfm model of a given btu furnace, but don't count on your house having it, unless you spec'd it when it was built.
http://www.docs.hvacpartners.com/idc.../58mcb-6pd.pdf
In that link you can see how you can order a 80,000 btu or whatever furnace with high or low cfm...
I don't do residential in my business, but in the ones I have done for friends, I have had to change the furnace as well, to really do the job properly in most of the installs.. Being here that our ductwork is generally in the floor, you need a lot more CFM to cool a house than heat it, if you end up with no velocity, the cool air never mixes in the room and the a/c just runs all the time doing nothing but cooling the carpet.
If you can find your furnace CFM online, divide the CFM by 400 and that is the cooling it will support, in tons. If you insist on stretching it with low CFM, the cfm/ton relationshipis is more important that than the ton sq/ft relationship, from an operational perspective.
As the cost of power increases, I think multi-head minisplits are going to become a better option than central air.

Reviving an old thread as I'm considering my options... so it seems from the thread most seem to have either went with Gavin or A&E HVAC...

Any idea what the possible city by law of not allowing these central A/C units to be installed between the houses will have on existing installs?

Multi-head minisplits units... don't see much of these at all here in Calgary. Any recommendation on where to get these locally?

[ExtraSlow]

I would guess and hope that any change to the bylaws would not be retroactive.

[Darell_n]

Originally posted by ZeroGravity

Multi-head minisplits units... don't see much of these at all here in Calgary. Any recommendation on where to get these locally?

They can be 2-3 times the price of central a/c and require a drain line for every zone, that's why they are not popular for residential use. I installed a 4 zone Fujitsu in a friend's house that was heated with a boiler and had no forced air. My wholesale cost was around $4k for the unit. For a regular customer I would charge at least $8k. (more because I don't do residential work). In comparison my own house cost me $850 all in.

[ZeroGravity]

Originally posted by Darell_n


They can be 2-3 times the price of central a/c and require a drain line for every zone, that's why they are not popular for residential use. I installed a 4 zone Fujitsu in a friend's house that was heated with a boiler and had no forced air. My wholesale cost was around $4k for the unit. For a regular customer I would charge at least $8k. (more because I don't do residential work). In comparison my own house cost me $850 all in.

wow... didn't know that. Thx for the info.

[hampstor]

bump... yes, I realize it's fuckin cold outside but just getting a head start on this.

Friend and I with mirror cookie cutter homes (2200sq ft) in the same cul-de-sac looking to go ahead w/ AC this year (figured we'd try and leverage this for any savings). Any recommendations or hookups?

[npham]

I need to get AC this summer as well, is Gavin the guy to go to still?

[ExtraSlow]

Gavin was great for me as I 've said. He also provided some after-installation support. Solid guy, good price.

Go ahead and get some other quotes.

[Ntense_SpecV]

I used A&E Hvac. They did good for me.

[hampstor]

As an update - ended up with Friessen's installing it. 3.5 ton Trane unit - total cost including GST was $4,125. The other option was a 3.5 ton Goodman which was $3900 (including GST) as well.