So the air-conditioning company sent over a fine young gentleman, the quality of whom has not been seen in these parts in years. About 20 years ago, SDXB and I had the luck to snag an AC guy who combined the rare qualities of honesty and competence with the even rarer quality of a desire to do good work. This new gent is one of those. Who’d have thunk there were any left in the world?
Before long AC-Dude got the heat pump to working again. He replaced a defunct part — covered on the Goodman 10-year warranty — and he discovered the refrigerant was low. He thinks there’s a pinhole leak that’s allowing the stuff to leak out. He refilled it but would like to keep an eye on that. Apparently this is something that can add up to some big bucks in repair bills… Charming.
Well, it was a cheap unit to begin with…the main reason I got it was Goodman’s 10-year warranty, which saved about $280 on this trip. But obviously it will crap out soon after the warranty expires — DOE estimates 15 to 20 years for a central AC unit, but another site, which I can’t retrieve just now, says it’s more like 13 years. These things being made in China, I’m inclined to believe the 13-year estimate.
While he was here, I asked him what he thought about the ductless AC units we mentioned in an earlier post. Well…the kid’s eyes lit right up! He said he really likes them and that in a given room, they’re amazingly efficient. Then he went on to say his company is working for a guy who’s building a gigantic compound out in the wilds of Scottsdale, huger than huge and complete with a separate gymnasium to go with the tennis courts. He says the client is not having central AC put in at all(!!), but that he’s installing mini-split throughout the mansion.
He said the advantages are that they really will cool a room and that they run extremely quiet. The big disadvantage, he felt, is cost: you have to install a separate compressor outside for each of the things, and you have to run conduits from the compressor up the exterior wall, drill through the wall, and connect to the hanging unit on the inside. Some people don’t like the aesthetics on the outside of the house.
However, he thinks it makes a lot of sense to put one of the things in a room where you spend most of your time and then adjust the temperature accordingly for the central AC — or even turn it off, depending on the weather conditions.
The Department of Energy has a nice article on the subject that essentially says much the same. DOE points out that one condenser can run as many as four mini-split units. The compressor can be as far as 50 feet from a unit. If that were the case, I could easily air condition and heat the family room/dining room/kitchen space with two units (would only one be needed???) and also run one into the living room. And I could air condition my office and my bedroom with another. That would leave only two rooms without AC. In fact, I could probably make a compressor on the bedroom end of the house cover both the office and the adjacent bedroom that serves as kitchen, freezer, and crafts storage, as well as my bedroom. That’s only three room units…
If that were the case, two compressors would air condition this house and leave only one room un-airconditioned: a room I never use anyway.
That is really an interesting idea. Even though it would cost more than a new Goodman (maybe not, given the reports we’re hearing on costs and given that AC units do not last 20 years, the way they used to), because you wouldn’t be using every unit all the time, you wouldn’t have to replace units for the entire structure at any one time.
What would you do with the existing ductwork? Grow a mushroom farm in it?
Duct vent covers, of course, can be closed. They’re not air-tight, though, so heat and cold would seep through them. I imagine if you really wanted to commit yourself, you could have a drywall guy come and fill in the holes.
Something to think about…
Images:
1. DepositPhotos, © Stas_K
2. © Milad Mosapoor, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17680013
Glad you found a good guy….Did he bounce any numbers around as to cost and longevity?
My neighbor did this – it is an absolute eyesore. All the conduits on the exterior wall are very ugly, and unfortunately that wall is the view from my kitchen window. I think it will affect the value of our home – it is that bad. No feedback on how well it works indoors – we haven’t even met these neighbors. They are rarely home.
Whoa! THAT is interesting to know. AC-Dude did remark that some people dislike the way it looks on the exterior.
Can you plant a tree between the houses, so the mess isn’t visible, or at least is not SO visible out of that window?
One wonders why one would build an eyesore into a multi-million-dollar compound. Probably, since most construction here is stick-styrofoam-and-stucco, they can build the conduits so they’re inside the wall and disguised by the stucco.
Interesting. Depending on the material of your exterior, you might be able to enclose or somehow mask the conduit. I would suppose it’d be harder for a brick home but for stucco or something, it could be doable.
I wonder how long those individual units and the compressors are thought to last compared to your 13 year estimate on the current unit.
My house is solid block, so about the best one could do would be to paint the conduit the color of the wall. But if it’s as unsightly as Deedee says, that might not suffice.
Don’t even know if these systems have been around for 13 years. The newer regular air conditioners now are all made in China. They present you with regular repair bills, and they’re engineered to crap out at the earliest date, just as household appliances that used to last as long as your house stood are now engineered to die in 7 years. My old AC unit was well over 20 years old and still going strong when the hailstorm took it out of commission. The only reason it was junked was that the company that made it had gone out of business and so the damaged part couldn’t be replaced.