To make a long story short, the A/C system in our house was completely shot when we moved in. The unit itself was undersized by 1.5 tons for the square footage we have making it extremely inefficient, and the duct work was cheap, torn, and generally just falling to pieces. On top of that, the pipes were never plumbed correctly so all of the water runoff was soaking into the ground underneath the driveway/garage and causing the foundation to deteriorate. We knew we'd need to replace it before we could ever turn it on and risk further damage, and in Texas you need air conditioning pretty consistently until November (it's 90 degrees today, the last week of October).
So, last week we decided to bite the bullet and replace the entire HVAC system. It wasn't cheap, but at least there's a $1500 tax credit for buying a high-efficiency A/C system in 2010.
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All of the new duct work! Super exciting...and super messy!
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The most drastic change was the size of the A/C unit. Our old one was dinky (way too small for the size of the house) and thus very inefficient, and it was completely exhausted from being run 24/7 due to the shoddy installation of it back in the late 90's. Behold the new, high efficiency unit!
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| Left: The behemoth! Right: Adios, teeny. |
The good thing about ordering a new A/C unit at the end of October is that the companies are much less busy than during the 110 degree summer. They sent two crews over to work on the system, and they finished it all (ripping out everything old, installing new vents, new returns, new ducts, everything) in two days. We love being cool!
Wow! That's a huge difference! And "yay" for tax credits :-)
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