Changing the Old Ac System: Factors and Considerations

Sooner or later, every homeowner and business owner has to face replacing their HVAC air condition and heating systems. The vast majority of people never plan for the time when their HVAC air condition and heating system reaches the end of the road. As well as being uncomfortable temperature-wise it also becomes uncomfortable financial-wise. They end up calling a contractor or two and getting the cheapest system quoted. Many ask for the cheapest system not taking into consideration the future power bills they will have to pay. A major financial publication had an article listing the major appliances and expenditures the average homeowner will face owning a home. They listed how much the homeowner needed to set aside to replace these things when the average life of the appliance (or roof) ended. The average life expectancy for HVAC air condition and heating systems, according to this article, came in at 13 years. This is a fair assessment from my experience in the field (my opinion is 15 years) plus you have to consider the technological leaps that systems can take in thirteen years especially in efficiency standards. Think about a 15 year old car and how efficient they were, plus how many people keep a car for fifteen years? The article gave a figure of thirty to forty dollars a month set a side would make replacing a system financially feasible for anyone. The range for saving $30.00 to $40.00 per month over thirteen years is $4,680.00 to $6,240.00. That also seems like a fair assessment for replacing an older system with a newer system. It all depends on what you replace in the retro-fit and what you replace it with. The homeowner above who didn't plan could save that $30.00 to $40.00 per month in energy savings alone by purchasing the more efficient model (which costs more to install). The homeowner who saved the $40.00 per month could replace their entire system with a higher efficient model (duct work included) give or take a thousand bucks and save money on their power bills. Energy efficiency for the conscientious pays.

January of 2006 was the month and year the Department of Energy (DOE) raised the bar by amending the rules for air conditioning & heat pump equipment raising the SEER rating 30% from 10 SEER to 13 SEER. The same thing happened to furnaces in the nineties. Manufacturers have to sell furnaces that have an efficiency rating of at least 78%. Of course with the higher efficiency equipment comes a higher replacement cost for the homeowner/businessperson. After all, someone has to pay for all that research, development, plant retooling, government regulation, re-training technicians and everything involved with making the new hi-tech systems successful.

The new 13 SEER air conditioners forced homeowners, business people, and contractors alike to change the whole HVAC system. Before the new rules from DOE, contractors could sell you a new condenser and replace just the condenser. That won't work any longer. A 13 SEER condenser won't be 13 SEER if you leave the evaporator coil in place from the old 10 SEER system. It causes mechanical problems that will either cause the system to not work at all or lead to premature failure for the new condenser. If a 10 SEER condenser is condemned the indoor coil along with the outside condenser needs to be replaced. No longer will the contractor just be able to replace the condenser.

Looking a few years into the future, this same scenario will occur because of a different law (or protocol rather). In 2010 the production of the refrigerant R-22 will begin a phase out period. A good guess is probably more than 95 percent of homes (not sure about businesses but a good guess is more than 75 percent) use equipment that has R-22 in it. As of this writing (April 2006), refrigerant manufacturers are retooling their plants to begin producing the newer refrigerant (HFC R-410A) that is legal to produce (without production restriction as R-22) even after 2010. After 2010, the stocks of R-22 are going to dwindle which will cause the price to skyrocket. The cost of a pound of R-22 will most likely exceed the cost of the service call labor rate at the end of the phase out period. History proves this will happen. R-12, and other CFC's, were phased out in the nineties. The price jumped to very high levels. How high? Some people were caught attempting to smuggle it across the border with Mexico because it was a lucrative, aside from going to federal prison, operation. It is a good time now, especially if your system is due for replacement, to consider replacing the old R-22 system with the newer R-410A systems that are currently available. Like the 13 SEER systems, the R-410A system will require replacing the evaporator coils. Additionally, the line-set (the copper pipes leading from the outdoor unit to the indoor unit) needs replacing. The oil used to lubricate the compressor of the R-22 system, which migrates throughout the whole system, does not mix with the oil used to lubricate the compressor of the R-410A system. The residual oil left in the line-set from the R-22 system can cause premature failure of the new R-410A compressor. These are the costs of government rules and regulations and they are based on the Montreal Protocol (Article 2F: Hydrochlorofluorocarbons) amended by a group of nations, including the U.S., in the early nineties.