However, this unit was a 12 year old Rheem and the natural gas heater didn't work. It was really rusty and usually every year it had to be hit with a hammer on the rusty burners to get it to work. But last year hammering didn't work and I busted a sensor fiddling around with it. But that's ok this is Florida and the heater is only needed once or twice a year anyway and I made it all last winter with out a heater.
But there was another problem, the Freon leaked. It seemed to get worse with the Hurricane. I called the insurance company out but then I realized that $5000 deductible would have to be paid by me and they were in no way going to pay because they thought the damage was less then the deductible.
The type of Freon used in the unit was the old Freon known as R-22. R-22 has been mostly phased out in new equipment in the United States and has been replaced by other refrigerants with lower ozone depletion potential. For more info on R-22 see this Wikipedia link. Currently R-22 is about 500 dollars for 30 lb on eBay. To use that stuff you need a license to handle Freon, which I don't have so I rely on the AC guy to come and add some every two years at a cost of $300 for 3 lbs. At $100 per pound if you have 4 ton system that uses R-22 you may have to pay $1200 to put 12 pounds back in. Since the Freon leaked the AC would get more an more inefficient and the energy bill would sky rocket.
The new Freon which is R-410A costs about $140 for 30 lbs on ebay. Usually when the whole amount of the R-22 Freon needs to be put back in the system, the AC guys tries to sell you a new $15000 top of the line 20 seer variable compressor HVAC unit.
My HVAC was fixable. At least it didn't look like the picture below which is the result of a copper thieves: See link.
Before I decided on getting a new system I wanted to know if the indoor coil or the outdoor coil was leaking. If it was the indoor coil then I could save some money and not replace the outdoor unit. To get a leak test you can pay $75 for an AC guy to come out. However for less than $75 dollars you can buy one of these and do a leak test your self.
I bought one and took the cover off my outdoor unit and pretty quickly found the leak.....keep in mind that there all kind of shock hazards in the outdoor unit and a pretty hefty cap that can shock you even when the breaker is off. Do it your selfer beware! The leak was in the main outdoor unit coil. It is possible to repair the coil but an AC guy usually wants to replace it for 1 to 3 thousand dollars. That's when they try to sell you a brand new AC unit and introduce you to a new ball and chain to strap on your ankle called a $15000 loan. There really is no choice is there? What live without AC in Florida? That's crazy talk!
Now it is possible to legally put in your own AC unit without a license because they come filled with Freon. Check out this site for example where you can get some really good prices on a Rheem. To do so you have to braze the Freon pipes when their empty and then pull a vacuum and test them for leaks. Once the system has proven to be leak free the valve is opened on the compressor which allows the Freon to get into the rest of the system. This should be enough Freon to run on but if there is not enough Freon you can get the AC guy to put in the right amount. Don't forget you have to get the Freon out of the old unit in an environmentally friendly way with a collection system. Without a license you can call a AC guy to collect it for you. Other skills include navigating the permit process, electrical skills and duct work skills.
Does it sound hard and like a lot of insurmountable work? Not really. My dad actually put in the AC unit that was being replaced in my house and he is not an AC installation professional. It worked great for many years.
Anyway, I wanted to have AC for my boat house completion party and felt I would not be able to complete it on time. So I called the pro in.. And he installed it in about three days of part time work. It is interesting to note that he had such trouble getting the old unit out it caused the AC guy to say, "your dad over engineered it and it would probably survive a cat 5 hurricane" and it also caused him to rupture the Freon lines causing it to all leak out into the atmosphere. Since it was an accident it wasn't illegal said the AC guy.
Anyway, the drain on my AC unit was directed into an old washer drain. The problem with this is that sewer gas could go into the HVAC drain and into the air handler and into house. There was no trap on the drain. Then you got stinky sewer gas smell in your house. I never really noticed a smell. It was not to code so it had to be fixed.
I knew the perfect way to get the drain from inside the garage to the yard which would fix the drain issue. The AC guy was not up to the task and a plumber would have to be called. Instead I took on the task myself. In a previous blog I had fished some electrical conduit into the garage which held the boat house wiring. My plan was to fish the drain along the same route as the conduit which was under about 10' of patio slab. Once again I used the walkway tunnel kit from Lowe's and it worked like a charm.
Below is picture of the drain on the inside of the Garage. In the picture on the right the drain is not yet connected to air handle. On the left the drain is visible coming out of the air handler and is completed
Notice the big hole I had to tear in the Garage floor with my harbor freight jack hammer. It is about 2 feet deep so that the pipe that was jetted under the slab could pass under the house footer. The hole was actually still there from the boat house project....so glad I hadn't filled it up with cement yet.
There was one problem though. Typically a drain from the AC sits above the ground. In my case it would be a tripping hazard since it would come out right in a high traffic area. I decided to make a below ground drain. To do this I used the drain grate from home depot at this link and some 6" pvc I found at Lowes. The 6 inch PVC is not to common in this area as Home Depot didn't have it and Lowes only stocked 2' sections. But 2' is all I needed.
The 3/4" pvc drain resides in a cavity created by the drain gate and the 6" PVC pipe and comes up vertically and then makes two 90 degree turns so that the water drops directly down to the ground in side the 6" PVC pipe.
Remember once the water comes out of the air handler it relies on gravity to find its way to the outside drain. So the air handler drain outlet has to be higher than the outside drain. If for some reason the drain gets clogged then water will back up into the air handler. Luckily the AC guy but a shut off switch on the drain for the AC similar to this one so that a backup will not cause any problems.
The outside drain is shown below,
In the end the AC guy did a very good job installing the unit and I'm very happy with the installation.
Funny thing is there was such a nice breeze for the party that I left the doors open and turned the AC off. I didn't really need it.
I did save money by doing the leak test myself and not calling a plumber for the drain. But the great savings to be had by installing the AC myself was not had as I let the AC guy do the job.
I did save money by getting more than one estimate. I had estimates from $14000 to $6000. Some the high estimates were for AC units with all the bells and whistles but I went with a lower end model. For the lower end models there was about $3000 variation in installation price. I went with a Trane 16 seer model which was 2 seer better then my old unit. Trane units have good reputation of being one of the best HVAC units and I got it for the lowest quoted price. I have already noticed lower electrical bills.
Some other savings that can be had, is Florida gives a $500 rebate for installing a natural gas appliance (since my heater uses natural gas) and since the unit is an energy star rated a tax credit can be obtained when filing the federal income taxes.
Also worth mentioning, there is a product used on HVACs that is often used on boats to prevent electrolysis damage. Its a zinc anode and on the HVAC system it is known as corrosion grenade. Since I'm near the beach I decided to get the AC guy to put one on. It can be found at this link.
That's all I got for now.
Happy Building
The Dr.
No comments:
Post a Comment