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Sedro Woolley Furnace Replacement
Sedro Woolley Furnace Replacement.
Here we are again, decision time for another one of our customers.… do we put money into our older gas furnace or replace it. I try to be as honest as I can with people when making this decision. I look at age of the furnace versus the cost of the repairs and then the cost of the future repairs based on my experience. And in this case it was time for this Sedro Woolley furnace replacement.
Where did the quality go
I certainly see a lot of the York Diamond 80% in Skagit County, in fact I use to be a York dealer back when this furnace was actually installed. At that time York made a very good furnace. I personally have sold, serviced and installed 100’s of them, but today, based on actual field experience and experience with many other different brands I would say York and or Coleman all made by Johnson Controls have taken a big hit in the quality of their product.
The American Standard 80%
The new American Standard 80% gas furnace did require a little bit of modifications to the return ducting, as well as eliminating the angled base-can that the customer kept stubbing their toes on. We also added a Custom 4″ filter bank to the system, we just had to make a custom door for access because of the venting. Overall this Sedro Woolley Furnace Replacement project went fairly smooth.
Conclusion
Like I have stated on many occasions in Alpines blog before, American Standard is my choice of equipment to install, this is based on the fact I have sold, serviced and installed many other brands. I only like to install equipment that gives me the least call backs … American Standard is that equipment.
Anacortes Boiler Replacement
Anacortes Boiler Replacement, Iron Fireman To Navien
This Anacortes Boiler Replacement project involved this monster of a boiler, this boiler was burning massive amounts of fuel oil to keep my customers home heated, costing them dearly. They felt it was time for a change to something way more efficient and reliable.
A Test Of Time
When ever I remove a old unit like this I try to imagine what the installers where like, where they young or old? And or perhaps how much effort went into installing such a beast back then. At that time this was cutting edge equipment and they where probably extremely proud of the installation.
The Navien Combi/tankless Unit
As you can see the new Navien CH-240 Combi/tankless unit takes up very little room compared to the older monster of a boiler ... and not only does it heat the home, it heats the hot water as well. I have installed a few of these now with very little issues. They work exactly how they are advertised. The only draw back with this Anacortes Boiler Replacement is that it takes a little longer to get hot water compared to the standard Navien NR-210a tankless.
Conclusion
This Anacortes Boiler Replacement turned out great for our customer, the Navien heats both the home and the hot water(endless) and is super efficient. This is one of my favorite installations and I highly recommend doing this for anyone in the same situation.
Mount Vernon WA Church Furnace
Mount Vernon WA Church Furnace
There are certain types of heating and cooling projects that really appeal to me, these projects generally have the biggest impact or affect for the customer and are usually the most challenging. This Mount Vernon WA Church Furnace project was for the Church Of Christ in Mount Vernon, their oil furnace was from 1951 and it was a monster. Time for a upgrade!
The Monster In The Room
The furnace was located in the church basement in a room about 9′ by 9′ and it consumed most of that room. I had to stand back out of the room just to take a good picture. One of the biggest challenges with small community Church’s is the furnace sizing. A lot of small Church’s only get occupied say 1 to 2 times per week and the rest of the time the furnace generally stays off. So you have to consider raising the temperature say from 50 degrees to 70 degrees just for a few hours, and within a short period of time. And of coarse keeping the noise level down. Perfect for the American Standard 95% 2 Stage Variable.
American Standard, To The Rescue.
One of the complaints from the church was the down stairs always seemed cold, and even though they had damper controls to help with this issue it never seemed to work correctly, therefore they abandoned that part of the system and went to space heaters. The American Standard 95% Variable 2 Stage furnace with a Honeywell 4″ pleated filter system (above) was installed to deal with just the down stairs, fortunately the existing duct work was zoned to do just that. As you can see the foot print is much smaller than the oil furnace.
Conclusion
Churches have a very unique situation when it comes to heating and cooling demands. In this Mount Vernon WA Church Furnace project an American Standard 95% gas furnace worked out perfectly.
Bow Wa Heat Pump And Furnace
New Bow Wa Heat Pump.
One of my favorite places in Skagit County is the Bow area. Most of the homes are scattered out and seem to have a fair amount of land. The town of Edison is close by and the Padilla Bay Shore Trail is a great place to take your dog for a walk. This is the area for our Bow Wa Heat Pump project.
Heat Pump VS Lp
Currently propane fuel(LP) is like the most expensive way to heat your home or business, out side of the fact that its a nice hot heat I can not think of any reason why you would choose a propane(LP) furnace over a heat pump. My customer in this case wasn't really thinking about a heat pump, but after educating him a little on the benefits and him doing his own due diligence.... he was sold.
American Standard, The Perfect System?!
I know I know ... I brag a lot about American Standard equipment, there are very good reasons why. Besides of all the countless pieces of equipment that we have installed that have had very little to no issues, American Standard has been listed either #1 or #2 for many years in Consumer Reports, competing only with Trane, and for your information American Standard makes Trane. So if you're not going to take my word for it, look it up in Consumer Reports.
Conclusion
American Standard is in my opinion the best piece of residential equipment on the market today. Matching up a LP furnace and a good efficient Heat Pump will save you tons of money and give you years of great service.
Commercial Daikin Ductless
New Commercial Daikin Ductless.
Daikin in my opinion makes the best ductless mini split system that's currently on the market today. That being said because of my customers unique lab environment and the massive heat gains that are produced they are in need of some serious air conditioning. With so many heat gain variables within the space we elected to add a Commercial Daikin Ductless system in stages.
Adding Stages As Needed
The concrete pad was poured large enough to accommodate more identical Daikin units. Therefore they could easily add more units next to this one as their facility grows.
For the indoor unit we have chosen the Daikin matching cassette unit. The indoor unit delivers the air conditioning exactly where we want it, it is practically flush with the ceiling and its super quiet. I find that it is a little harder to install than a typical mini split wall head ... but in this case its perfect for our customer.
Conclusion
This New Commercial Daikin Ductless system is going to work out perfect for our customer, and as they grow they will be able to add even more units/stages.
Bow Wa Boiler Replacement
Bow Wa Boiler Replacement.
When it comes to boilers we really don't have a favorite brand or model, we actually look at the situation and then pick a boiler that will actually work the best. That being said, we do have a list of favorite boilers we like to use. In this Bow Wa Boiler replacement the Burnham ESC boiler fit the bill.
Maintenance was the key
Our customer actually had a fairly new high efficient boiler already installed, the problem was it kept breaking down. So much so that he decided to have it replaced with a much simpler boiler. As it turned out we had found that the top of the heat ex-changer was almost totally plugged and the gas pressure going into the boiler was not properly set. All of this was overlooked for years by the company doing his maintenance, and that company was the original installation company.
The Burnham ESC
In this situation we had picked the Burnahm ESC boiler, reason being they are very basic, durable, easy to install and you can add modules to them. The boiler is great in low temperature applications, like for in-floor systems or it can easily handle high heat base boards applications as well.
Conclusion
Make sure when your having maintenance done on your boiler system (especially high efficient systems) that its done properly. A good installation company is not always a good service company.
Clear Lake Heat Pump
New Clear lake Heat Pump.
I live in Sedro Woolley and of coarse I get to travel all over Skagit County, Clear Lake seems like the secret cut off road from Sedro Woolley to Mount Vernon for local travelers. Honestly I wouldn't mind living in Clear Lake because its like the center of everything. And so is this Clear Lake Heat Pump project.
Heat Pump VS Lp
Currently propane (LP) is like the most expensive way to heat your home, out side of the fact that its a nice hot heat I cant think of any reason why you would choose a LP furnace over a heat pump. In this case my customer is already educated on Heat Pumps, its just a matter of what system he wanted and how much he wanted to spend on his Clear Lake Heat Pump project.
Sometimes It Boils Down To Experience
I can not even begin to tell you how many projects I have been awarded because of experience, and I don't mean because of me bragging to the customer on how many projects we have done. But because I can see things others can not because of my vast field experience. Most sales people in this industry are sales people that where hired away from other industries, with very little HVAC training.
Rheem Combined With American Standard
In this case my customer has a high efficient 90% Rheem furnace. Most companies would want to pull the furnace and sell matching brands. Or at the very least pull the Rheem and install a cased coil under it. But what I see is a fairly new furnace with just enough space to slide in a uncased coil into the existing base can under it. In fact we had 1/2" to spare when we where all said and done.
Conclusion
When you start getting salespeople coming out to give you bids, ask there background, ask how many decades they have installing these types of equipment. You might be surprised to find out that their last sale was a used Ford pickup.
Subway Roof Top Replacement
Subway Roof Top Replacement.
I honestly like subway sandwiches ... my favorite subway sandwich is the Subway Club with spicy mustard. But like most people I hate being in a hot restaurant, after all sitting in a nice air conditioned space is part of enjoying your meal.
Always warm at Subway
Subway has had problems from the first day they opened their doors, the space was always hot and uncomfortable, especially during the summer months . Turned out the RHEEM Air Conditioning unit was slightly undersized. And at this point worked so hard it finally gave up. I'm actually surprised it took this long seeing how poorly it was installed.
Rheem to Rheem
In all my years of replacing all types of HVAC equipment around Skagit county I have never in my wildest dreams thought I would see a roof top unit so far out of level. The installer had to be one of the luckiest guys around, considering the drain sloped towards the lower end of the unit. That being said the reason I went back to RHEEM for a replacement was because of the foot print and weight. We try to match up as close to the same dimensions and weight as possible, saving the customer time and money.
Curb modifications
As you can see in the photos we try to have very little roof or curb modifications as possible. If we would have added a curb adapter and or increased the size of the unit dramatically we would have pushed the limits of the engineered trusses. The trusses originally where designed for the weight and size of the existing unit.
Conclusion
In this Subway Roof Top Replacement installation we where able to replace the RHEEM roof top unit with a very close match to the existing units weight and dimensions. We improved on the efficiency and we where able to provide more air conditioning to the space.
