Central air conditioning - Page 9 - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

ken0042 · 04-18-2016, 08:30 AM

All I can say is given the choice, go for the 2.5 tonne. We only get a handful of really hot days, and with an undersized unit you will be fighting an uphill battle. Add to that you will also be limiting your cooking choices on those days.

Then there's the other days where it was supposed to get to 24, but it actually got to 28 and now you need to turn on the AC to recover. Or the biggest reason, a day like yesterday where it wasn't that hot out, but my bedroom was 24 degrees. Turned on the AC and got it down to 22 right away.

What is the price difference? A few hundred dollars?

GreenLantern · 04-18-2016, 01:02 PM

The price difference is that $1500 because they need to install a new coil to upgrade to a 2.5 tonne, however I've decided to go with the bigger unit anyway. For a topic I knew nothing about going in I am glad I was so hands on with this because I actually learned quite a bit. Thanks for the input guys.

jeffporfirio · 04-19-2016, 04:15 PM

Question for the CP knowledge base.
How important is the anual service checkup?
I have two Trane units I purchased through Costco (service experts), and get the service call every year, dont know if I should do it or not ($100 per unit).

rain_e · 04-26-2016, 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeffporfirio

Question for the CP knowledge base.
How important is the anual service checkup?
I have two Trane units I purchased through Costco (service experts), and get the service call every year, dont know if I should do it or not ($100 per unit).

My rental home has had an AC unit for about 5-6 years. Never covered in the winter and never had a service. Still going strong. *knocks on wood

rhythmmachine · 05-23-2016, 09:04 PM

Any current deals out there? I got a couple of quotes last year for a 2.5 tonne for our upstairs, but haven't seen any specials lately except for a couple places offering discounts if you buy a furnace and AC...

DoubleK · 07-18-2016, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yellefan

I just had the XC-14 2.5 ton installed yesterday through Arpi's (Costco). Came to 4110 plus tax and got a $650 Costco cash card back.

Service Experts(A1 Chesney) just quoted me the same unit for $6400 + Tax.

Does Arpi's not do quotes for Costco anymore?

Canehdianman · 07-18-2016, 04:02 PM

Every time this thread is back at the top, it reminds me that I move into my new house (with central a/c!!!!) soon.

27 days and counting!

GreenLantern · 07-19-2016, 11:05 AM

When we were shopping around Costco was definitely the best deal, they had a promo with cash back for every thousand spent plus sign up for the Exec membership and get a few hundred back that way. We ended up going with Trail through a family member that got us 'family pricing' but even then Costco was very competitive.

DoubleK · 07-20-2016, 12:34 AM

I'm going to book a second appointment through Costco and see what the price difference is. I can't believe that the price has gone up that much. As a data point, I had a quote from Sears in 2013 that was $4000. I refuse to believe that prices have increased 50% for the same unit in three years.

Sliver · 07-20-2016, 07:16 AM

Canadian dollar probably isn't helping. Weren't we around par in 2013?

EldrickOnIce · 07-20-2016, 07:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeffporfirio

Question for the CP knowledge base.
How important is the anual service checkup?
I have two Trane units I purchased through Costco (service experts), and get the service call every year, dont know if I should do it or not ($100 per unit).

Can DIY, if that is your thing. It amounts to
Furnace filter washing/replacing.
Washing out AC (heat pump) heat exchanger fins with pressure washer. They may catch something that is minor repair, instead of major - but unlikely.

CroFlames · 07-20-2016, 08:38 AM

What would I be looking at for a newer 2200 sq ft home, unit + install?

I haven't even begun to scratch the surface yet of the project, but if there is a ball park figure, at least I can begin planning.

EDIT: Or buy a new truck

GreenLantern · 07-20-2016, 08:50 AM

My house is 1575 and I needed a 2.5 ton unit, majority of the quotes were around $4500, Costco was at $4100 I believe. 2200 square feet I believe you would need a 3 ton unit, so closer to $5500-$6000 I think would be accurate. I am sure if you phoned any company they could ball park it for you over the phone.

ken0042 · 07-20-2016, 10:27 AM

I paid about $5000 last June (2015) for a 4 tonne unit for my 2200 sq foot new build. I did get a "friend" price break, but it can be done for that much if you look around for a deal.

CroFlames · 07-20-2016, 10:54 AM

I thought it was going to be closer to $3-$4000. Thanks for the info though.

I suppose if you live in your house for 10 years it works out to about $1.30 per day for the unit and install at the $5000 price level.

ken0042 · 07-20-2016, 11:09 AM

Yeah, I looked at it as about 1% of the cost of the house. And I do plan on living in this house long term.

I also paid $6K to make my garage bigger, so this wasn't the worst thing I spent money on. In fact we probably overspent an easy $30K on things we didn't really need; just to make the house the way we want it. So now we are in a position to enjoy our house, without a desire to want to move onto something else.

squiggs96 · 07-20-2016, 11:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ken0042

I paid about $5000 last June (2015) for a 4 tonne unit for my 2200 sq foot new build. I did get a "friend" price break, but it can be done for that much if you look around for a deal.

Can you explain how your AC unit runs throughout your house? I'm having a house built for me, and it's three levels (main floor, upstairs, and basement). I am wanting AC on the main floor and the upstairs. My house is 2,800 SF, with the main and upstairs taking up about 1,800 SF of that. I went to Costco and they had the Lennox guy there (I'm in Vancouver), and he quoted me around $17,000. My contractor of the house said he was getting similar numbers. Are they just trying to make off like bandits here, or are they giving me a complex system that I likely don't need? Thanks.

REDVAN · 07-20-2016, 12:02 PM

My house is just shy of 2500 sq ft, with a zoned ducting system and I have one single 3 ton A/C unit.

I paid about 4000 for it a year ago from Action Furnace.

Seems to work just fine on even the hottest days.

ken0042 · 07-20-2016, 12:03 PM

My basement and main floor are 900 sq ft. Upstairs is 1300 sq feet. I have a single furnace with about 9-10 registers upstairs, 5 or 6 on the main floor, and 2 in the basement. In the summer I close both the registers in the basement, and have 3 open on the main floor.

The only way I know to isolate floors is to install separate furnaces; is part of that quote adding an extra furnace? Typically they would have one furnace for the upper level, and the other for the main floor and basement. I also have a friend who only installed A/C upstairs, and lets the cold air trickle down as needed.

MacDaddy77 · 07-20-2016, 12:30 PM

the best way to do it with one furnace in my opinion is find all the heat runs that come right off the plenum of the furnace and put dampers in them, that way there isn't air pushing all the way to the registers and allows more pressure build up to push to the further registers upstairs.

Of course your limited in this ability with a developed basement, you can only reach the runs that are exposed in furnace room but every bit helps force the cold air to the further areas of the house