Replacing our heating and cooling system in our house has been on the list since we bought the place just over 2 years ago. Old and inefficient, it gets quite costly to run in the summer and any cold snaps. We had gotten complacent with it, with the attitude. "well it is still running, let it be". Until last week when it was obvious the house temperature creeped up and the AC could not bring it down. Curse our complacency! We called a company to come out and give us a quote on a new system, as we were not interested in repairing. Parts of our system is 30 years old and the other parts are 20. At first we were interested in participating in our electric utility's rebate program on installing a new high-efficiency unit. When the service guys started doing the baseline test on our old system, it was failing to complete it without doing couple hundred dollars in repairs to get it functioning well enough in the baseline test for the rebate program. Which in the long run, the repair would wipe our any rebate savings we would have gotten with a new system.
We went with a 14 SEER rated unit. The service guy told us our old system probably operated at a 7, when it was in its prime. Even though it is a expensive purchase, it is well worth it for peace of mind and energy savings. It is also a lot quieter too. We probably should have done this sooner. I am actually looking forward to the energy bill when it comes again, to see what our average usage will be going forward. So far, by checking our energy consumption online by day since we replaced it, its dropped quite a bit, roughly 45%. I am glad it perished now, instead while we were out of town or July/August in the peak of the summer heat. We had a few sticky days around the house before we got our replacement, but it could have been a lot worse. Our cats even liked laying in the fan breeze while we were without AC.
It feels good to mark this big item off the master to-do list for the house. Although we had no DIY at all with it, it is a big milestone for getting the house complete.
That cinder block wall behind the tree is a project Zachary is in the middle of, a short wall and garden gate to the backyard, that spans the gap between our house and the neighbor's fence. More on that later.
