PING: All you AC/HVAC experts

Carrier or Trane. Easier to find qualified techs as well as parts when needed. My family was in the A/C business for many years until retirement and those brands became the standard.

Reply to
miles
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As Mike and many others have said, bigger is not always better. What size is the one you have now and how long does it run on each cycle during the hottest part of the day? As I'm sure that you know, the bigger they are the more power they are going to use so unless your existing unit is running almost non-stop (like mine) then up-sizing it will save you nothing. Now going to a higher SEER rating will save you some money. It's just a matter of how long it will take to pay you back with the cost of installation and the unit itself. That is the one advantage of a gas-pack unit that my house uses for the first floor, it is self contained and installation costs are minimal. As for the manufacturer, I really think that is a matter of personal opinion. While Miles mentioned Carrier, IIRC, Steve (an HVAC installer and business owner) was not a huge fan of them. I would say that any of the major manufacturers such as Rudd, Rheem, Carrier, Trane, all have there advantages and disadvantages and your best bet would be to pick up the phone book and see what is the most popular in your area because that will give you the best chance of getting parts if and when it breaks down and possibly the best price due to competition.

Reply to
TBone

hee hee

It's subsidized by the Mexican government and they move the subsidized amount from 75 KWH to 300 KWH during the summer... Our bill for May, the 1st "summer rates" month, was $33 US because we didn't run the AC that month..

We never used the central air in the house in the states and still averaged about $250 a month for electricity..

mac

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Reply to
mac davis

hmm... I'm geographic impaired, so I have no idea if it's hot & humid there this time of year?

mac

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Reply to
mac davis

That MIGHT cover a "starter" system that you'd hate, Larry..

My brother in CA is having a $60k system put in, but after rebates and tax credits, he figures that the net will be about $35k... He'll also save about $300 a month on electricity..

(His system doesn't use batteries, and they add to the cost and take up space)

mac

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Reply to
mac davis

Larry... you might want to figure out how many years the new unit would take to pay for itself in power savings...

Also, have you considered mini-splits, or are they not usable with your type of construction?

We love ours because with 4 units of different sizes, we only cool the area that we're in... That usually means not running the 1 ton unit in the guest room, (your fault), or the 3 ton in the great room...

OTOH, the 1 ton in our bedroom runs damn near 24/7 and the 2 ton in the shop runs all day... A central unit with selected room vents closed saves some, but you're still cooling the ducts and stuff, I would think..

mac

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Reply to
mac davis

$15k will buy some nice equipment and get you well on the road to eliminating your electric bill, depending on usage.

Unless your brother lives in a mansion with HUGE electric needs, he is getting ripped off.

In TX, a $60k system has batteries, hybrid wind/solar setup with a gas/natural gas generator backup and it is off the grid on a normal sized home.

A grid-tied system is *easy* to implement. Little or no maintenance and they're fairly cheap too (< $10k to get started and add panels as you can afford it), if you are willing to do some of the work on your own.

Larry strikes me a DOY'r, he'd get off to a great start with $10-12k, and could add panels little by little after that, provided he purchases a nice sized inverter ($3k - $5k).

Craig C.

Reply to
Craig C.

Trico, it would cost me about 15k to get everything that is needed for a single home installed and running. I would get about half of that back in "rebates" and tax breaks.

Reply to
azwiley1

You don't *have* to use Trico. You can do it yourself.

However, 7.5k net isn't bad. Just make sure you get a high quality, over-sized inverter so that you have the option of adding more panels later in case your need increases.

There are many brands of grid-tie inverters. I use Xantrex. Just make sure that it is large enough or larger than your highest usage month (I'm assuming that is August in AZ).

Craig C.

Reply to
Craig C.

I currently have a SEER 10 unit but not sure of size. I had my old one replaced last year. If I had gone to a SEER 15 unit every A/C person I talked to said that unit would be larger. The coolant lines would be much larger, larger compressor and the exchanger (I have a heat pump) much larger. Estimated bills would be cut 25-50% but unit would cost about $5000 to install vs. the $2200 it cost to stay with a SEER 10. Most of that difference was because the higher SEER A/C unit would require replacement of my exchanger with a much larger unit. So in my case a higher SEER larger unit would be better...but much more costly.

Reply to
miles

I was not referring to the SEER rating where bigger is almost always better (and more expensive to start out with), I was referring to the tonnage in which bigger is not always better and in some cases, much worse and more expensive to operate.

Reply to
TBone

From what little I heard, (it wasn't really my thing and several folks had more interesting subjects), his is a grid system and he expected to run his house and shop without drawing from the grid...

There is a big solar community here in Baja and most folks wish they'd gone for bigger panels and better batteries when they were having the homes built...

Some folks brought in better units from the states, but the solar area becomes a ghost town in the summer because few people want to run a generator for AC..

mac

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Reply to
mac davis

That sounds like a great deal, Larry...

Did you buy this place??

mac

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Reply to
mac davis

One of the many reasons that we moved out of the States, especially out of CA...

mac

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Reply to
mac davis

I work with a lady who's going to follow you to Mexico when she retires. She's got me thinking about it also. I know several people who would be retired if not for health insurance costs.

Reply to
BigIronRam

So, what happens to your property and assets if/when Mexico decides to nationalize like they did in the 70's?

Craig C.

Reply to
Craig C.

Not yet mac, but if we are going to, some of these issues are going to be addressed/fixed before we do. Than if/after I buy, I will look harder into the solar issue and maybe by then the prices will come down a little.

Reply to
azwiley1

Possible but don't count on it. Pricing on PV stays pretty constant. What does change is the appearance. You can get flexible PV in a roll now. I have seen some that look very much like shingles.

The most bang for your buck is wind power, if you get any wind in AZ.

Craig C.

Reply to
Craig C.

I could just pay Denny to come down, stand out side with cases of WC!!

Reply to
azwiley1

In response to azwiley1 's post. I thought everyone should know:

hell the tower for the wind turbine would have to be twice as strong as they normally rate them if you did that.

then of course there are the *OTHER* factors to consider..............

Reply to
Chris Thompson

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