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EP6 Choosing the Right Equipment
116 Plays3 years ago
A guide for homeowners to choose the right type of AC for their home
Recommended
Transcript
Choosing the Right AC Company
00:00:15
Speaker
Thanks again guys for joining us here at the comfort zone, you know every episode that we've kind of done so far has been
00:00:23
Speaker
really focused on choosing the right AC company and how to do that and how to really dig deep on the internet and find what you're looking for.
00:00:30
Speaker
You know, we're going to shift gears here a little bit and we're going to talk about some of the equipment options that may pop up.
00:00:36
Speaker
Now, there are more options today than you've ever had in the history of air conditionings and most homeowners are just not familiar with what's out there, right?
00:00:48
Speaker
That's right.
Evolution of AC Efficiency
00:00:49
Speaker
You know, in the 70s, we started on a path of achieving higher efficiency.
00:00:53
Speaker
And the basic concepts for HVAC that we use today were developed over 100 years ago in 1900s, early 1900s.
00:01:01
Speaker
And until the late 70s, that industry operated by and large, free of any government intervention.
00:01:07
Speaker
In the late 70s, we had our first energy crunch.
00:01:10
Speaker
And there were lines to get gas.
00:01:12
Speaker
And there was a lot of pressure on the US to be more efficient with AC usage.
00:01:17
Speaker
In 1965, only 10% of households had central air.
00:01:21
Speaker
By 2005, that number was 87%.
00:01:25
Speaker
But into the 70s, yeah, it exploded.
00:01:28
Speaker
Not many here in Houston, right?
00:01:30
Speaker
Not anymore.
00:01:30
Speaker
It's 98% in Houston.
00:01:31
Speaker
Nobody lives there.
00:01:39
Speaker
But we'll talk about SEER later, but they came up with a system to evaluate how efficient air conditioners were and manufacturers had to make things to meet these standards.
00:01:50
Speaker
And in 1987, that was a 10 SEER.
00:01:53
Speaker
That was the minimum standard that was set.
00:01:56
Speaker
Today, you know, we're up to 16 SEER would be, well, if I'm using...
00:02:02
Speaker
That's the minimum I'd put in anybody's house.
00:02:04
Speaker
That's the minimum anyone should put in.
00:02:07
Speaker
So that's about 60% more efficient.
00:02:09
Speaker
And to achieve those kinds of efficiency gains, a lot of innovation had to happen, which leads to where we are today with all these choices in HVAC equipment.
Guidance on HVAC Options
00:02:19
Speaker
You know, and our role as a comfort advisor is an HVAC educator.
00:02:25
Speaker
You know, we need to point out these choices and make it as simple for the homeowner to understand because, you know,
00:02:31
Speaker
Not everybody even cares really, you know, and they don't know what's out there and replacing your air conditioner.
00:02:36
Speaker
It's just not an everyday task for a homeowner.
00:02:39
Speaker
And so we're going to talk about some of those options today.
00:02:41
Speaker
Now, full disclosure, we work for a company that installs train and Dykin equipment.
00:02:47
Speaker
You know, we are a train comfort specialist and a Dykin comfort pro, and we're proud to represent those companies.
00:02:53
Speaker
So for the examples today, we're going to use a little bit of training.
00:02:57
Speaker
But the differences in equipment types, I mean, it applies to all the manufacturers.
00:03:02
Speaker
We'll talk about different manufacturers in a later episode, but it's kind of outside the scope of what we wanted to talk about today.
Importance of Correct AC Sizing
00:03:08
Speaker
So the most important step is always what, Brian?
00:03:13
Speaker
Getting that AC size correctly, right?
00:03:15
Speaker
Get it sized correctly.
00:03:17
Speaker
And we've talked about this several times and we will continue to talk about it.
00:03:22
Speaker
But today's episode is a lot about homeowner choices and sizing is not one of those choice.
00:03:28
Speaker
There's only one right answer when it comes to that.
00:03:31
Speaker
No, I mean, I'm telling you about that house I did the other day.
00:03:34
Speaker
They had 12 tons of air conditioning in their 3000 square foot house.
00:03:40
Speaker
And after doing all the sizing, we came right at five and a half tons.
00:03:44
Speaker
You know, they were extremely oversized and they were wondering why they weren't comfortable.
00:03:48
Speaker
Bigger isn't always better when it comes to air conditioning, you know, and we discussed the heat load calculation on another episode, but you're kind of relying on that AC company to perform a load calculation.
00:04:00
Speaker
Sometimes you'll hear it called a manual J or a block load, you know, and we use a company called RightSoft when we do ours.
00:04:08
Speaker
And in all fairness, it's pretty basic.
00:04:12
Speaker
When we do some of the new construction stuff, we get really in depth.
00:04:16
Speaker
But this is for us to just have a better idea of what we're looking at, what we're dealing with.
00:04:21
Speaker
And this is where we diagram the house.
00:04:23
Speaker
We take all the construction factors into account, and we calculate the right size of the AC for your house.
00:04:28
Speaker
It's kind of like the baseline for everything that we do.
00:04:32
Speaker
I'm not going to even propose a system to you until I know what size you need, right?
00:04:38
Speaker
Yep.
00:04:39
Speaker
And I ran into that too this week, another home that was grossly oversized and causing issues and trying to explain to the homeowner that their problems aren't because they don't have enough AC, it's because they have too much AC.
Understanding AC Equipment Types
00:04:52
Speaker
Well, you know, some of the things you can see are very high humidity in your house.
00:04:58
Speaker
You know, the primary purpose of your air conditioning is remove heat and remove humidity, but if it's not having these longer run times, it's not going to work on the humidity.
00:05:06
Speaker
You know, you start to
00:05:08
Speaker
create an environment for microbial growth here in Houston.
00:05:10
Speaker
That's not what we're really looking for, right?
00:05:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:16
Speaker
But back to kind of- So what are we going to look at next?
00:05:20
Speaker
We're going to just to kind of dig into why we have all these different types of HVAC equipment today.
00:05:31
Speaker
We talked about that increasing pressure on the HVAC companies to be more efficient, but we also are getting that from homeowners now, and we're also getting a higher degree of comfort expected from homeowners.
00:05:43
Speaker
So to meet demands, you're going to see we've moved from single-stage AC to two-stage to variable AC.
00:05:55
Speaker
But let me just say, before we talk about all that stuff, if you've had a single stage AC in your home and you've been there for a while, long time, you've loved it, you're happy, you don't have to do anything beyond that.
00:06:09
Speaker
Maybe a single stage is the AC for you.
00:06:11
Speaker
And that's exactly right.
00:06:14
Speaker
And that's part of what we do as comfort advisors.
00:06:17
Speaker
We ask those questions, you know, have you been comfortable?
00:06:21
Speaker
Do you have any inconsistencies in temperature?
00:06:23
Speaker
And sometimes people say,
00:06:25
Speaker
I want a unit that's going to blast full speed air on me.
00:06:29
Speaker
I like to feel that other people don't, you know?
00:06:32
Speaker
And so the first style of unit that we've kind of talked about is going to be the single speed air conditioning, right?
00:06:38
Speaker
Just it's on or off.
00:06:40
Speaker
That's it.
00:06:42
Speaker
You know, for most homeowners, that's what you currently have.
00:06:44
Speaker
If you're going to have, um,
00:06:46
Speaker
a new house built that's usually what the builder's gonna call it and put in there.
00:06:50
Speaker
And it's exactly that, it's either on or off, it's full blast or nothing.
00:06:56
Speaker
When we have our conversations with homeowners, we're trying to evaluate your level of satisfaction with that style of unit.
00:07:01
Speaker
And when I say level of satisfaction, I'm kind of talking about a lot of factors, your comfort, even temperatures throughout your electricity usage, your noise, all of those factors.
00:07:11
Speaker
And single speed is gonna be the highest in all those factors.
00:07:16
Speaker
It's going to use the most energy.
00:07:18
Speaker
It's going to be the loudest.
00:07:20
Speaker
And you are going to have the most inconsistencies because that unit does turn off, you know, and every thermostat in today's market has a five minute delay system on it.
00:07:29
Speaker
Well, depending on where that sun is blasting in your house, those five minutes can change a lot in a room.
00:07:34
Speaker
And 99% of the time that thermostat has no idea what's going on in there.
00:07:38
Speaker
Right.
00:07:39
Speaker
So that's kind of what we're looking at here on the screen.
00:07:40
Speaker
This is just trains brochure.
00:07:43
Speaker
We use the XR 15, which is the SEER 2.
00:07:46
Speaker
which is new ratings just started this year, which would have been a 16 sear last year.
00:07:51
Speaker
It's just same piece of equipment, different sticker on it, right?
00:07:55
Speaker
It didn't magically get less efficient from one year to the next.
00:07:59
Speaker
Okay.
00:08:02
Speaker
When you say that these temps are tightly controlled,
00:08:08
Speaker
It really has two minutes.
00:08:10
Speaker
On a single stage AC, the temps can vary by one degree higher or lower at the thermostat.
00:08:16
Speaker
So let's look at a diagram.
00:08:18
Speaker
Let's see.
00:08:19
Speaker
This kind of shows...
00:08:21
Speaker
the swing and temps that this purple line, if you're just listening, we have a purple line and it's going about a degree higher than your set temp.
00:08:30
Speaker
So for example, if you had your temperature set to 75 on the thermostat on the high end, it may get up as high as 76 and it may come down to 74.
00:08:40
Speaker
So it's always doing that going up and down.
00:08:44
Speaker
And in real time,
00:08:47
Speaker
It's actually going to be even more than that, Brian.
00:08:50
Speaker
It's probably more like a three degree.
00:08:53
Speaker
You know, most thermostats are set with a three degree dead band.
00:08:56
Speaker
And what that is, is you might have it set to 75, but it has to cool down to 72 before it turns off so that they can heat back up.
00:09:04
Speaker
And then by the time it clicks on at 75, now it's working and it's starting and it's ramping up and now it's 76, 77, 78.
00:09:12
Speaker
And now it's got a cool button.
00:09:14
Speaker
So you're just constantly playing catch up.
00:09:16
Speaker
That's all it is.
00:09:17
Speaker
It's constantly playing catch up.
00:09:19
Speaker
And I've seen some literature from manufacturers that put that dead band at one and a half higher or lower to meet your three degree that we were talking about.
00:09:28
Speaker
But I think the bottom line is that you're getting a good bit of temp swing from a single stage piece of equipment.
00:09:34
Speaker
And a lot of homeowners will set it way below what they need it to just because of where it's going to come up to at the high end.
00:09:42
Speaker
So that's what I'm sure you said.
00:09:45
Speaker
Yeah, no matter what temperature you set it to, it's going to blow the same
00:09:50
Speaker
55 to 58 degree air, just how long is it going to run for?
00:09:53
Speaker
That's it.
00:09:54
Speaker
Yeah, that's right.
00:09:57
Speaker
So what's the second style of unit that we're looking
Benefits of Two-Stage and Variable Speed ACs
00:09:59
Speaker
at here?
00:09:59
Speaker
Our second style is the two-stage here.
00:10:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:05
Speaker
So, I mean, we want you to be happy with any decision that you make, right?
00:10:09
Speaker
And a two-stage air conditioning is usually a very middle of the road in today's market.
00:10:15
Speaker
It's been around for about 50 some odd years.
00:10:17
Speaker
And there's a lot of homes that we go to where
00:10:19
Speaker
The homeowners are not happy with what they currently had in their house.
00:10:24
Speaker
And these next two options really help resolve those issues or at least make it a little bit better.
00:10:28
Speaker
That middle option is the two-stage unit.
00:10:30
Speaker
So it can run at high speed, just like your single speed unit, but it's always gonna start at a lower speed, which depending on brand can range anywhere from 60 to 70%, give or take.
00:10:43
Speaker
And that is the compressor speed.
00:10:45
Speaker
Typically the fan can adjust
00:10:48
Speaker
And I've seen them go all the way down to 30%.
00:10:51
Speaker
And even on the train two speed, I've seen them run at 45% depending on the humidity needs.
00:10:57
Speaker
And so with those two speeds, you get an average of about a 40% power consumption difference over a single speed unit.
00:11:06
Speaker
You know, what we get with this style of ACs is longer run times, which uses less electricity.
00:11:10
Speaker
So each time your air conditioning turns on is the most power that's ever used in your entire home.
00:11:18
Speaker
Your single speed might do that three to five times in an hour, where a two speed might just run once in an hour and kind of hover at half speed.
00:11:26
Speaker
It's very similar to the AC in your car.
00:11:29
Speaker
Yeah, when you get in, you ramp it up full blast, but five minutes later, you're on half speed and you're comfortable even when it's 100 degrees outside.
00:11:37
Speaker
It's a lot easier to maintain that temperature than it is to constantly try and get to that temperature.
00:11:43
Speaker
And so with these more efficient units- That's a great analogy.
00:11:46
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the comfort's enhanced because our temperatures are more tightly controlled.
00:11:51
Speaker
You get much more even temperatures throughout the house because the unit's running more often.
00:11:55
Speaker
You get less off time.
00:11:57
Speaker
And then you don't have that air blasting full speed on you.
00:12:00
Speaker
I'm a big fan of the two speed.
00:12:02
Speaker
I feel like at night, you know, on a single speed unit, it cranks on, it's 55 degree air, you're freezing, you sleep good, and then it turns off.
00:12:10
Speaker
And within the snap of a finger, it's 20 degrees warmer.
00:12:13
Speaker
And then you're about to sweat.
00:12:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:16
Speaker
And right before you go to turn on, change the temperature on the thermostat, it kicks back on with a two speed.
00:12:21
Speaker
You really avoid that and you get much more even comfort throughout the home.
00:12:25
Speaker
It's also quieter.
00:12:27
Speaker
It's more efficient.
00:12:29
Speaker
You get a little bit better humidity control.
00:12:31
Speaker
Big fan.
00:12:32
Speaker
Big fan.
00:12:34
Speaker
Yep.
00:12:34
Speaker
I am as well.
00:12:37
Speaker
Well, that's a great point.
00:12:40
Speaker
Additionally, the tips won't fluctuate like they do on a single stage.
00:12:44
Speaker
A single stage AC is designed to be perfect on a 95 degree day.
00:12:49
Speaker
But we don't, we're not at 95 degrees all the time.
00:12:53
Speaker
We're maybe 1% of every hour would we be at 95 degrees.
00:12:58
Speaker
So that's why this two stage is really important because when you need a smaller AC, you've got it.
00:13:05
Speaker
It's a smaller one.
00:13:07
Speaker
Well, think about this time of the year, you know, in Houston.
00:13:10
Speaker
It's 82, 85 degrees in the afternoon.
00:13:13
Speaker
It's 70 at night.
00:13:16
Speaker
I don't need full blast AC all the time.
00:13:19
Speaker
I wouldn't buy a car if that's all I had was full blast AC, full blast heat.
00:13:24
Speaker
You know, I want to have options.
00:13:26
Speaker
I want to be able to ramp it all the way down, just have a little bit of air.
00:13:31
Speaker
you know so i like flexibility i think that's what we're going to get and i think we're going to get away from single stage ac at some point down the road yeah but it's not it's not designed for every home though right and that's partly why we come out there and see kind of what's going on if i have these massive long runs of duct work i've got to maintain that velocity i got to move this air really far
00:13:58
Speaker
It just depends on how you're using it and how long you're going to be in the house, you know, because it does take a little bit longer to see a return on your investment.
00:14:05
Speaker
But you will see a return on your investment.
00:14:09
Speaker
And I'm talking about the difference on your initial investment from a single speed to a two speed.
00:14:15
Speaker
And when you see these things, single speed being a 15 Sears, two speed being a 16 Sears, you're like, well, it's only one 15th more efficient.
00:14:26
Speaker
Aha, it's not.
00:14:28
Speaker
because CER only measures how efficient a unit is when it's running at full speed.
00:14:32
Speaker
And a two speed unit is gonna be running at its low speed, probably 70% of the time, unless it's an upstairs unit.
00:14:39
Speaker
And that's where your efficiency kicks in.
00:14:42
Speaker
There's just not even a way to measure that yet.
00:14:44
Speaker
There hasn't been anything that I've seen at least.
00:14:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:49
Speaker
Well, let's maybe take a look at the variable lineup.
00:14:56
Speaker
So Brian, he's the pro with these variable ACs and here they are at the top of the train.
00:15:04
Speaker
brochure here it's the XV 18 it's been around for a while and they also have an XP 20 there's a lot of secrets that train doesn't want let out but essentially the XV 20 is the XV 18 with the weather guard top so.
00:15:19
Speaker
Unless you come up to us and you tell me, you know, I want the biggest, baddest, most expensive thing you have in your shop, I'm going to say, yes, ma'am, yes, sir, and I'm going to put that XV20 in there for you.
00:15:31
Speaker
But to me, it's not worth the extra money.
00:15:34
Speaker
And I'd probably recommend going with the XV18.
00:15:37
Speaker
So, you know, these things can operate anywhere from 100% of their maximum capacity all the way down to 30% with
00:15:46
Speaker
What I consider to be infinite speeds, they say that it can move up in one tenth of a percent increments.
00:15:52
Speaker
So we hear different numbers right that kind of comes out to 700 but I've heard.
00:15:56
Speaker
Less it just depends on how that unit is programmed it depends on the area of the United States that this thing is being installed, and so you can see here you got your purple line green line orange line.
00:16:09
Speaker
These variable speed units are designed to maintain within a half a degree of what you have set.
00:16:15
Speaker
This is the ultimate in comfort.
00:16:18
Speaker
This is the ultimate in power consumption difference.
00:16:21
Speaker
I believe from train's website, it's an average of a 52% power consumption difference over a brand new single speed system.
00:16:29
Speaker
That's massive.
00:16:31
Speaker
If you have just one AC and no pool, you know, your air conditioning is 80% of your power bill.
00:16:35
Speaker
If you could drop 80% of your power bill by 52%, you just cut 40% off of your power bill.
00:16:43
Speaker
You know, so you can see how tight it really does hug that temperature.
00:16:46
Speaker
We hear from homeowners all the time how much better they sleep with these units.
00:16:50
Speaker
The air is always moving.
00:16:52
Speaker
It's always being filtered.
00:16:54
Speaker
It's extremely quiet.
00:16:56
Speaker
Sometimes people cover up when the AC is blasting them in cold air on a single speed, then the AC shuts off.
00:17:01
Speaker
And again, it goes back to keeping these even temperatures throughout the home.
00:17:06
Speaker
When was the last time you turned the AC off in your car, Brian?
00:17:12
Speaker
Never.
00:17:13
Speaker
It never goes off.
00:17:14
Speaker
Never.
00:17:15
Speaker
I always have it on something.
00:17:17
Speaker
And that's what the variable speed system does.
00:17:19
Speaker
It goes all the way down to 30%, just trickles out a little bit of air at a time.
00:17:25
Speaker
you know, and it makes it a lot more comfortable.
00:17:27
Speaker
A lot of times you can walk by some of these outdoor units, see the fan spinning and hear the air moving, but you don't hear the equipment.
00:17:35
Speaker
That's how quiet these things are, man.
00:17:38
Speaker
But I always talk to homeowners and I tell them, this is very different from what you've had before.
00:17:45
Speaker
This AC is going to run for a lot and a 24 hour time in the summer,
00:17:53
Speaker
It's probably going to run 20 out of 24 hours.
00:17:55
Speaker
Now it has a compressor that's built to do that.
00:17:59
Speaker
It's made by a company called Danfoss.
00:18:01
Speaker
It's an American company.
00:18:02
Speaker
They make...
00:18:04
Speaker
Refrigeration equipment, so something in a grocery store that might be responsible for keeping $100,000 worth of product frozen or refrigerated, you don't trust that to just any kind of equipment.
00:18:17
Speaker
It's got to be something high quality like what Danfoss has, and that's what they kind of compressor they use here.
00:18:26
Speaker
And you got to know that you're not going to get that blast of cold air.
00:18:31
Speaker
It's just going to be the temps will be maintained.
00:18:35
Speaker
consistently.
00:18:36
Speaker
There's not going to be that up and down that you're going to get with a single stage or, and even a little bit lesser, you get that with a two stage.
00:18:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:46
Speaker
It's just, you know, every single person in America has a variable speed unit.
00:18:51
Speaker
It's just that they use it to drive.
00:18:53
Speaker
It's in their car.
00:18:54
Speaker
You have it.
00:18:55
Speaker
You've already experienced this, right?
00:18:57
Speaker
And we kind of go back to efficiency.
00:19:01
Speaker
If you and I, Brian, were racing,
00:19:04
Speaker
to Dallas side by side.
00:19:07
Speaker
And I got on the freeway and I put my speedometer at 70 miles an hour and put it on cruise control.
00:19:13
Speaker
You decided to drive a hundred miles an hour, but take every single exit and slam on your brakes at the stoplight and then speed right back up to a hundred miles.
00:19:22
Speaker
We'd get there at the same time, but you're going to use three times the amount of gas.
00:19:27
Speaker
And then the damage that you're going to be doing to your rotors and calipers and starters and all this stuff.
00:19:33
Speaker
And
00:19:34
Speaker
It also goes back to where do you get the best gas mileage?
00:19:38
Speaker
Is it starting and stopping through the city?
00:19:41
Speaker
Or is it when you're going 70 miles an hour on the freeway on cruise control?
00:19:46
Speaker
Variable speed is the Tesla of cruise control.
00:19:51
Speaker
It's going up and down with the temperature, ramping up and down.
00:19:55
Speaker
And then it says, oh, well, let's do our lane control.
00:19:58
Speaker
Let's work on the humidity a little bit.
00:20:01
Speaker
And it's just the adaptive cruise control, speeding up and ramping down and kind of going left.
00:20:06
Speaker
Let's work on the humidity a little bit.
00:20:07
Speaker
All right, let's come back to the temperature.
00:20:09
Speaker
And keep in mind, these are not whole home dehumidifiers.
00:20:13
Speaker
They do need to be on.
00:20:14
Speaker
But, you know, you know a lot.
00:20:18
Speaker
They do this stuff with pool pumps, too, nowadays, right?
00:20:21
Speaker
Yeah, they absolutely do.
00:20:23
Speaker
I guess last June, I believe it was,
00:20:27
Speaker
That was the last time they could manufacture pool pumps that weren't variable speed.
00:20:32
Speaker
And the whole point of that was to save energy.
00:20:35
Speaker
And if they felt that they could save a reasonable amount of energy just with people with pools, think how much energy could be saved.
00:20:43
Speaker
Just everybody with an air conditioner, which is pretty much everybody in the United States.
00:20:48
Speaker
So I think that we're going to get to that point where a single stage will go away.
00:20:54
Speaker
But let me just make sure that I clarify that if you're, if you've been happy with a single stage AC, there's nothing wrong with going that route.
00:21:04
Speaker
There's nothing wrong with that.
00:21:06
Speaker
It's still what people to understand what most people are used to.
00:21:11
Speaker
It's what most homeowners can afford.
00:21:14
Speaker
If you're considering only the initial investment,
00:21:18
Speaker
Because when you see a two-speed and variable speed, yeah, it's a lot more.
00:21:21
Speaker
And it does take time to see that return on your investment.
00:21:25
Speaker
If you're going to be in a house for two years and it's a standard three-bedroom, two-bath house, well, let's not outdo the neighborhood.
00:21:32
Speaker
Let's not pay for the next homeowner to have a variable speed unit.
00:21:35
Speaker
Wait until you get in your forever home.
00:21:38
Speaker
That's where you do it.
00:21:39
Speaker
But I can promise you this.
00:21:40
Speaker
Once you've experienced two-speed or variable speed, you'll never go back.
00:21:44
Speaker
To single speed.
00:21:45
Speaker
Once you fly first class, you don't want to sit back there with the peasants and coach.
00:21:52
Speaker
Is that what you're talking about?
00:21:54
Speaker
Yeah, man.
00:21:55
Speaker
I don't even fly anymore.
00:21:57
Speaker
I can't afford it because I have to fly first class.
00:22:01
Speaker
That's it.
00:22:02
Speaker
It's first class or bus for you.
00:22:03
Speaker
Or nothing, man.
00:22:05
Speaker
Or nothing.
00:22:07
Speaker
We spend so much more time in our homes, Brian, than even just five years ago.
00:22:12
Speaker
You know, we're going in and people are realizing a lot different issues than we're coming up when people were working 10 hour days, come home, cook dinner, go to bed.
00:22:23
Speaker
You know, we walk into houses and dining room tables are turned into classrooms and master closets are turned into offices and the spare bedroom is a gym.
00:22:34
Speaker
You know that in every house is different.
00:22:36
Speaker
You might have an aquarium or a terrarium and you got pets and kids and all and
00:22:42
Speaker
You know, these houses are built tighter and tighter and tighter and allergies are getting worse and worse and worse.
Advanced AC Systems and Indoor Air Quality
00:22:47
Speaker
You can do a lot for your indoor air quality too, man, with these two speeds or variable speed systems.
00:22:53
Speaker
When you get that humidity under control, you're constantly filtering that air.
00:22:57
Speaker
Man, it makes a massive difference in your indoor air quality.
00:23:02
Speaker
So as much time as we spend in our homes nowadays, it's really worth entertaining some of these other ideas and just seeing what else is out there.
00:23:12
Speaker
Yeah, none of this indoor air quality stuff is happening when the AC isn't running, for the most part, you know.
00:23:17
Speaker
Correct.
00:23:19
Speaker
We talked about SEER a little bit earlier.
00:23:22
Speaker
Now, they used to have the old system of SEER, and this year they came up with a new version called SEER 2.
00:23:30
Speaker
Can you speak to that a little bit?
00:23:33
Speaker
Okay, so, which is seasonal energy efficiency rating in it, it changes for whatever kind of area in the United States, or you might be in the southwest region, you might be in the Gulf Coast region, you might be up in the northeast region and the units are kind of made to tailor to that like for us, we are pretty much the number one cooling hours in the United States at 20 209 hours per year.
00:23:59
Speaker
SEER was a way that they measure how efficient a unit is.
00:24:03
Speaker
Well, turns out how you do that in a laboratory versus what's really going on in the real world are two different things.
00:24:11
Speaker
And on the previous way of measuring how efficient a unit is, a lot of companies were kind of fidgeting with their testing parameters and changing voltages and lowering blower speeds and testing it at 50% humidity.
00:24:26
Speaker
When was the last time you saw 50% humidity, Brian?
00:24:30
Speaker
maybe for 30 minutes the other morning, you know, it's not real world stuff.
00:24:35
Speaker
And so I've heard stories of people getting a 16 sear air conditioning system and their power bills actually went up with their brand new air conditioning.
00:24:45
Speaker
So they figured out a way that nobody can mess with these testing.
00:24:51
Speaker
This is it.
00:24:52
Speaker
It's this voltage.
00:24:53
Speaker
It's this amp draw.
00:24:54
Speaker
It's this temperature.
00:24:55
Speaker
It's this humidity.
00:24:56
Speaker
And they made it a standard across the board and everybody has to do that now.
00:25:00
Speaker
And it used to be, I think, 13 used to be the lowest you can install in a house.
00:25:06
Speaker
And I think in 2020, it changed to 14.
00:25:10
Speaker
And I think you can still do 14, but all the single speed is all 15 CR2.
00:25:15
Speaker
So it's just a new way of measuring how efficient.
00:25:18
Speaker
It's not some magic new unit.
00:25:20
Speaker
It's not anything like that.
00:25:21
Speaker
It's the same units with a different sticker on it.
00:25:23
Speaker
That is all it is.
00:25:25
Speaker
We didn't start using more energy at the beginning of the year.
00:25:27
Speaker
We were using the exact same amount of energy that's measured in a different way.
00:25:32
Speaker
Well, let me ask you this.
00:25:34
Speaker
If someone had a four ton unit that was a 15 seer, let's say, and they could get a four ton unit that's a 16 seer, does the 16 seer make more air?
00:25:47
Speaker
Is it a more heavy?
00:25:50
Speaker
That's a good point.
00:25:51
Speaker
So, no.
00:25:54
Speaker
your air flow and your cooling capacity is gonna be based on your tonnage.
00:25:58
Speaker
You're one, one and a half, two, two and a half, three, three and a half, four or five ton air conditioning system.
00:26:06
Speaker
The sear is how efficient is it doing that?
00:26:09
Speaker
How much power is it using to get that job done?
SEER Ratings and Professional Installation
00:26:13
Speaker
So if you had an 18 sear versus a 16 sear, it is not gonna cool the house with more air.
00:26:21
Speaker
It's not going to cool it faster or anything like that.
00:26:24
Speaker
It's just going to use less power to do the same amount of work.
00:26:27
Speaker
That's all it is.
00:26:29
Speaker
I appreciate that.
00:26:30
Speaker
That always is something that comes up with homeowners.
00:26:33
Speaker
It does.
00:26:35
Speaker
And I expect questions like this from my home.
00:26:39
Speaker
It's a big investment.
00:26:41
Speaker
It's not like going and buying a refrigerator.
00:26:43
Speaker
You just open it up and expect it to be cold.
00:26:48
Speaker
You can't live without it.
00:26:50
Speaker
In Houston, at least realistically.
00:26:54
Speaker
I couldn't imagine being anywhere and not having it because I got to have the air moving.
00:26:58
Speaker
I got to have it moving.
00:27:00
Speaker
I got to keep it filtered, you know.
00:27:04
Speaker
I mean.
00:27:06
Speaker
Just as a guide for the SEER rating, I always encourage homeowners to look at that single two-stage variable.
00:27:15
Speaker
Look at equipment from that lens as opposed to what's the SEER rating.
00:27:19
Speaker
Correct.
00:27:21
Speaker
If you are looking at SEER ratings in general with the SEER 2, the newest ratings that they just came out with for 2023,
00:27:28
Speaker
A 15 sear unit is usually a single stage.
00:27:32
Speaker
Now you have different manufacturers out there.
00:27:34
Speaker
So this isn't, you know, a hard and fast rule, but generally a 15 sear is single.
00:27:41
Speaker
A 16 sear will be a two stage usually.
00:27:46
Speaker
And anything 17 on up probably going to be variable.
00:27:51
Speaker
17, I guess, could be a two stage variable.
00:27:54
Speaker
But those are just guidelines to go those.
00:27:57
Speaker
But that's what I would do.
00:27:58
Speaker
Yeah, you're exactly right.
00:27:59
Speaker
So there's three options, single speed, two speed, or variable speed.
00:28:03
Speaker
And there are variable speed systems that can be 17 SEER.
00:28:07
Speaker
Some can be 25 SEER.
00:28:10
Speaker
But again, it only measures how efficient these units are when they're running a full blast.
00:28:14
Speaker
So if the power went out because a hurricane came in and the next day it kicked on at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, yes.
00:28:22
Speaker
then that 25 sear would be a lot more efficient for those few hours at cooling it back down.
00:28:29
Speaker
But in reality, they're gonna be using pretty much the same amp draw.
00:28:33
Speaker
You're talking pennies on the dollar of regular operating time.
00:28:39
Speaker
These are designed to run at low speed.
00:28:41
Speaker
They're not pulling full blast.
00:28:44
Speaker
If you have a variable speed system, you should never be running at full speed, ever.
00:28:49
Speaker
Most of my homeowners, even in Houston, in the heat of the day, on a single story or a downstairs system, average in the heat of the day running about 55 to 60%.
00:28:59
Speaker
Upstairs, totally different ballgame.
00:29:01
Speaker
You're surrounded by heat, man.
00:29:03
Speaker
It's got to run up there.
00:29:04
Speaker
But, you know, we hope that we helped you guys out and we tried to keep it as generic as we can.
00:29:11
Speaker
We should do an episode just on single, an episode just on two-speed, an episode just on variable, because there's that much you could really go into.
00:29:19
Speaker
Yeah, maybe we do.
00:29:20
Speaker
I mean, my rule is if you're not going to be in the house for a while, put a single speed in there.
00:29:27
Speaker
If you're worried about money, put a two speed in there.
00:29:30
Speaker
And if you're blessed and you can and you want to experience what true comfort is and never thinking about touching that thermostat ever again because you're just comfortable, go variable speed.
00:29:40
Speaker
Now, that comes with a caveat, right, Brian?
00:29:43
Speaker
Brian?
00:29:44
Speaker
Who installs those systems is going to be very important too.
00:29:49
Speaker
So it goes back to doing your research on companies.
00:29:53
Speaker
You don't want your brother-in-law doing this.
00:29:56
Speaker
I promise.
00:29:58
Speaker
No, I've seen installed crews who can take a $20,000 air conditioning system and it's going to fail in two years.
00:30:07
Speaker
And I've seen crews that can take a $5,000 air conditioning and it'll last 20 years.
00:30:12
Speaker
So.
00:30:13
Speaker
who is more important than what you install, right?
00:30:16
Speaker
So thank you guys.
00:30:19
Speaker
We'll see ya.