Strange Heating System Installs
I have seen some pretty weird heating system installations. Some make me wonder why the installer put all the effort into short cutting when it would have been faster to do it right. This is one of those.
The existing York furnace was sitting on an overly complex steel angled frame. So much effort was put in to this angle iron frame. Half that effort could have been put into making a simple transitional base can. But, it’s in place now and it is what we have to work with. Professional installations should be simple and functional, with no more than the necessary parts and pieces.Many times, when we find a messy, complex, or non-standard install we know that the previous installer was not a true professional. These systems are usually less efficient and less reliable than they were designed by the manufacturer to be. Saving a few dollars on an install can often cost much more over the years.
Simplify for the Win
We adapted the new American Standard 95% efficiency 2-stage variable-speed gas furnace into the existing duct system. Some simple modifications were made to the supply and return plena. A new PVC vent pipe and a new condensate drain line were run. Everything else simply bolted right up, and it worked great when we were done.
It is incredibly satisfying to walk in to a mess of complexity and inefficiency and leave behind a beautiful, clean, and simple heating system that the owner will enjoy for many years.
Heating And Cooling Skagit County
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler, Ductless, Mini-Split or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.
This older Lennox 80% Furnace had a control board that went beyond having a hot spot. The existing board actually caught fire and caused some alarm in the home.
When your furnace gets beyond 10 years of age we usually(based on expense) like to give our customers the option of repairing or replacing. And in this case you have to consider the cost of the control board and any other unknown electrical part that has failed.
If you have not figured this out by now by reading our posts is that the American Standard 95% 2 stage Variable speed gas furnace is our favorite furnace to install. We have had almost zero warranty issues caused by the manufacture. That being said we have had installation issues .. .primarily getting a good slope on the drain line when existing the right side of the cabinet. Its very hard to do with all the components in the way. BUT as you can see the furnace slipped right in to place with very little modifications. Venting changed and a condensate line added.
Heating And Cooling Skagit County
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler, Ductless, Mini-Split or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.
My new customer was referred to Alpine by several sources … referrals is properly 90% of our business, its nice to know quality still pays off in such slow times.
As you can see the existing York 80% furnace sits on a base can located in the garage. The weird part of the existing system was that the sheet rock came all the way down to the top of the furnace. It made for a little uncertainty when bidding but realistically you can pretty much tell how the ducting ran.
After removing the existing furnace and part of the base can we cut the sheet rock up to allow for the new American Standard 95% 2 stage variable speed furnace, heat pump coil and Honeywell 4″ filter bank. By adding a heat pump coil at this point and time it allows my customer to add on a heat pump or AC at a later date without making major modifications to the existing ducting.
Heating And Cooling Skagit County
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler, Ductless, Mini-Split or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.
This Payne 80% gas furnace was flooded out by a water leak from the floor above. Because of the extend of damages my customers insurance company decided to replace the unit.
The new American Standard 80% gas furnace slipped right into place with only some slight modifications to the supply ducting, everything else bolted right up.
We did add a filter access door in the existing return ducting to make it a little easier for the home owner to replace their filter. I really hate having to access a filter from inside the furnace.
Heating And Cooling Skagit County
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler, Ductless, Mini-Split or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.
This particular customer is simply upgrading from a junky old oil furnace to an American Standard 80% furnace so he could increase the value of the home so he can get ready to sell it.
The existing oil furnace was framed in and somewhat concealed in the home, normally this would be a big problem, but in this case the wall is going to be removed making it fairly simple to replace.
Above you can see where the existing oil furnace is somewhat framed in. This type of oil furnace is called a lowboy, big and bulky is what they should call it.
As you can see above the old oil furnace has been removed, the back wall sheet rocked and the new American Standard 80% gas furnace installed. We included a Honeywell 4″ pleated filter bank and lined the existing chimney for proper venting of the unit.
Heating And Cooling Skagit County
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.
This older Carrier gas furnace was starting to cost the home owner more money than what the furnace was worth, honestly it should have been changed out years ago but a dollar here and a dollar there doesn’t seem so much until you add it all up.
The existing Carrier furnace sat in a utility room downstairs next to the hot water tank. So the furnace being a upflow model was not very surprising, but very helpful.
Because the existing gas furnace was vented with PVC it made swapping over to an American Standard 95% gas furnace very easy. We simply had to make a small supply transition for the top of the furnace and then reconnect up to everything else. We did add a filter access door on the return duct for better filter access.
Heating And Cooling Skagit County
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.
Its not very often we get to install an American Standard 95% furnace in a manufactured home, mostly in part due to the sizing constraints of the equipment. A typical manufactured home furnace closet is not sized deep enough for the 95% gas furnace.
One of the challenges of this particular project was keeping the air conditioning system. The existing furnace had a built in coil cabinet, the new American Standard 95% does not have this feature. So we had to make a custom AC coil cabinet that also doubled as a transitional base can.
Above you see the new American Standard 95% single stage gas furnace. Because we are in a manufactured home both the venting and combustion air has to be piped to the outside, this is optional in a standard home. The condensate line was tapped into the existing AC drain line. We added a Honeywell F100 4″ pleated filter bank for a filtration system and to top it off with also added a Honeywell Vision8000 thermostat.
Even though the furnace sticks out slightly into the utility room I think the payoff in savings and comfort will be worth it.
Heating And Cooling Skagit County
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.
Our customer felt it was time to replace his existing Trane 80% furnace for something more efficient that also could make his home more comfortable for his family.
The new American Standard (manufacture of Trane) 95% fully modulating gas furnace is in my opinion the best furnace you can purchase in the industry today. Even though my favorite to install is the American Standard 95% 2 stage variable furnace, the fully modulating model is very impressive and quickly growing on me.
Even though you can not tell the physical differences between the two models you can defiantly tell the difference in performance. American Standard has a fully modulating gas valve with a variable speed blower. The communicating thermostat makes less than 1% adjustments in the gas valve to maintain setpoint and has real time adaptive intelligence. No more under or over shooting the thermostats setpoint…. makes for a very comfortable heating system.
Heating And Cooling Skagit County
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.