There are certain types of 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 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!
Existing Oil Furnace
The furnace was located in the 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(above). 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.
New American Standard 95% 2 stage Variable
One of the complaints from the church was the down stairs is always 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.
Attic Ducting.
Now for upstairs I decided to move the furnace location to the attic, as you can see in the picture above there was plenty of room. This of coarse required some duct modifications.
New American Standard 95% 2 stage Variable
The new American Standard 95% Variable 2 stage furnace and Honeywell 4″ Filter installed like a dream. I had to convert some of the ducting to return while keeping the rest supply air. I also installed a Heat Pump, seeing how they wanted air conditioning I convinced them a Heat Pump is the way to go for added cost savings. As you can see I installed an emergency drain pan under the unit just in case we have a leak. The LP tank you see is for temporary back up heat until we get gas to the building.
New American Standard Heat Pump
Here is the new American Standard Heat Pump, funny how they always seem to match the building color. The refer pipe had to be installed on the exterior of the building and travel up to the attic, so we used a gutter pipe to conceal this piping. Works very well.
New Honeywell Thermostats
And to control the 2 furnaces we installed 1 Honeywell VisionIAQ and a 1 Honeywell VisionPRO 8000. Both the thermostats where located in the mechanical room and both where installed with remote sensors in the occupied spaces. By using remote sensors no unauthorized fingers can adjust the temperature.
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? I install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.
This heat Pump was kinda a head scratcher for me, not because the Carrier Heat Pump we replaced was only 10 years old, but the company that put this in is usually very customer orientated and for some reason let this one fall to the way side. The customer had been having issues with the system since day 1, and for some reason this company could not fix the problem. Maybe the technicians that had been coming out every year after year trying to remedy the problem did not understand air flow …or maybe the head office did not want the burden of dealing with the real problem. Never the less they lost a customer!
Existing Carrier Air Handler
I must apologize for the picture above, I forgot my camera so I must resort to a picture my technician took when we he was called out. Everything he found on the system suggested they where trying workarounds, meaning not dealing with the real issue. The real issue being lack of airflow, the system could not deliver the air needed for the heat pump.
New American Standard Heat Pump
The solution above, an American Standard variable speed air handler. Even though the existing air handler was rated for the job, it could not push the air needed through the existing ducting. BUT this air handler is designed to do just that.
New American Standard Heat Pump
The American Standard heat Pump above is a perfect match for the indoor handler and existing home. The existing refer lines where flushed clean to switch over to the R410a refrigerant.
Alpine Heating And Cooling Vans
Later in the day the sun hit my vans just perfect for a picture. After all it was a perfect day, I gained a happy customer, the customer got a quality matched system with no air flow issues and I got home on time 🙂
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? I install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.
Yet another Rheem 80% being replaced with an American Standard 95%. This unit was getting to costly to repair so the owner decided it was time for a new furnace, good choice. I hate seeing good money being spent on bad equipment.
Older Rheem 80% Furnace Location
It was early and cold when we arrived and I had forgotten to snap a “before” picture before we started, but got a picture just after the unit was removed. What reminded me was seeing the poor seal job the previous installer did on the take offs in the base can.
Existing Base Can.
As the picture shows above, there are gaps around the takeoffs and no sealant used, meaning a lot of hot air escaping into the crawl space. Id say about 50% of the base cans look like this when you pull the furnace. VERY wasteful.
New American Standard 95% Variable 2-stage
And above we have the new American Standard 95% Variable Speed 2 Stage gas furnace installed with a new Honeywell F100 4″ Filter bank On top of it. And yes we sealed the takeoffs before setting the new furnace.
Alpine Heating And Cooling
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? Or a complete heating system? We install them and all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.
This customer had a retail store that really did not need a furnace. The store had enough heat being generated from lighting that a furnace was not really needed in the last few years. BUT he felt it was time to replace the furnace that was removed several years ago and in today’s economy you can get a good running high efficient furnace at a good price. The Coleman TG9S 95% fits this application perfectly.
Previous furnace location.
Now your looking at the picture above wondering “Where does it go?” You have to look past the box’s … the space was converted over to storage room after the furnace was removed.
New Coleman 95% Furnace
With a little finesse, a new Coleman 95% furnace and some new return/supply ducting additions the building once again had a reliable heating system.
Alpine Heating And Cooling
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? Or a complete heating system? We install them and all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.
RHEEM furnaces have got to be my #1 furnace replacement, combining the fact there are so many in this area as well as there problematic inducers and pressure switchs. Its not hard to make a case to replace them. In this case the customer already replaced the inducer a month ago ..now looking at a circuit control board, they elected to replace the furnace. Good choice.
Older RHEEM 80% Furnace
A big issue with RHEEM when doing a replacement is the size of the unit, their about 6″ shorter than the American Standard, but fortunately they have the same footprint.
New American Standard 95%
This particular replacement to the American Standard 95% 2-Stage Variable speed furnace was fairly easy. The condensate drain line was already in place, the existing duct work was easily modified, the furnace location was in the garage and the customers(including their dog) where very pleasant to be around.
Alpine Heating And Cooling
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? Or a complete heating system? We install them and all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.
The American Standard 95% 2-Stage Variable speed is by far my favorite American Standard furnace to install to date. And in this case it was a perfect fit. The original furnace was located under the home… not unusual in homes without garages that have limited space, but I couldn’t understand why it was located under this home.
Furnace/Duct Under Home.
Above is a picture of some ducting …behind that ducting is the original furnace. I took this picture so i could get a feel of where I had to connect up to with the new ducting.
New Furnace Location.
Above you can see where I wanted to place the new furnace in the garage, and of course its right where the book shelf is.
New Furnace Overall picture.
Because there was no attic to speak of we ended up doing a sidewall return air inlet into their family room, the supply duct easily went into the crawl space from the garage. We ended up redirecting the existing ducting into a new trunk line.
American Standard 95% 2-stage Variable
Above is a closer picture of the new furnace in the garage, where furnaces really should end up. We ended up re-using the existing EAC filter, converting it over to a 4″ pleated filter bank. Now this furnace is easy to maintenance and repair if needed. And as you can see, plenty of room to the right for the HWT in the future.
Alpine Heating And Cooling
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? Or a complete heating system? We install them and all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.
