Keeping a house cool in the summer

[Canehdianman]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

I hate the regular programmable thermostats that were in my house when I bought it with every fibre of my being. Every time the batteries die, which is often, I have to program every day and time again, which takes forever. Plus, it seems to auto change to things I don't want pretty regularly. With two furnaces (and thus two thermostats) I bought nest for the time savings not the money savings.

Back on to an AC topic (new baby = getting central AC). We have one furnace for upstairs and one for the basement/main floor. I assume putting central air only upstairs should be fine? The main floor never really gets hot, but the upstairs gets very hot.

Any recommendations for someone with a decent price/quality right now?

I have never changed the batteries in my thermostat. Been going 4 years now.

It's just a standard honeywell 7-day programmable.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Canehdianman

I have never changed the batteries in my thermostat. Been going 4 years now.

It's just a standard honeywell 7-day programmable.

It's possible I just got a couple duds. I didn't buy them, they were in the house when I bought it.

[photon]

Originally Posted by Ryan Coke

On this topic, how much temp gradient to the upstairs is normal? As soon as it started getting warm out last week it started getting too hot on the top level, and the change through the 3 levels is pretty significant.

I've assumed it is just the way it is, but I wonder if other houses are the same or if our house might've been poorly insulated in the attic.

Yeah my house it's a 8 degree swing per level, basement 18, main floor 26, top floor 33 (or higher, 36 is common on really hot days). My house is south facing walkout with big windows on all 3 floors tho.

It used to be worse before I got blackout blinds in the basement, I should put in a door between the basement and main floor.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

I hate the regular programmable thermostats that were in my house when I bought it with every fibre of my being. Every time the batteries die, which is often, I have to program every day and time again, which takes forever. Plus, it seems to auto change to things I don't want pretty regularly. With two furnaces (and thus two thermostats) I bought nest for the time savings not the money savings.

Back on to an AC topic (new baby = getting central AC). We have one furnace for upstairs and one for the basement/main floor. I assume putting central air only upstairs should be fine? The main floor never really gets hot, but the upstairs gets very hot.

Any recommendations for someone with a decent price/quality right now?

I think nest and Honeywell have some solid products for smart thermostats. I personally would go with the Honeywell ones. Much cheaper ($100-200 ish? vs Nest at $250) and some have additional options the nest doesn't have (and vice versa). IIRC, both have them have options to be controlled via a smart phone. Gives you the option to make sure you turn it on or off when vacationing I guess. Works in winter too, not just summer. They both have tutorials on Youtube for installation and apparently installation is super easy.

[bizaro86]

BUMP. With summer coming and a new baby, central air is officially a need according to my wife. First quote was 3600 including electrical/install for a 2 Ton, 13 SEER unit rated at 74 dB. Since I like my neighbours, I'll pay the extra $100 for the sound blanket, which they say gets you down to 70 dB.

Couple of questions, does that seem like a reasonable price, and how loud is that really going to be? There is a sweet old lady next door, who I don't want to unnecessarily annoy.

[Northendzone]

to me $3,600 seems like it is in the ball park, are you getting other quotes?

to me it would be hard to create 74 db's of sound to test. Does your neighbor have any windows that are near where you intend to put the unit? if so, does she open the windows on a regular basis?

[REDVAN]

Any advice on brands and installers specifically? I'm looking at install in August for a 2500 sq ft house.

[Northendzone]

Originally Posted by REDVAN

Any advice on brands and installers specifically? I'm looking at install in August for a 2500 sq ft house.

Why not consider waiting for a few months, and trying to get an out of season deal?

[REDVAN]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

Why not consider waiting for a few months, and trying to get an out of season deal?

Because it is for a new house and I want it set up before I move in.

[ken0042]

Moved posts to the current thread on the subject.

Originally Posted by Northendzone

Why not consider waiting for a few months, and trying to get an out of season deal?

A/C season is just starting. I could see you saying this if it was the middle of August; but you are basically suggesting going another year without A/C for the sake of saving a bit of money.

We are building a new house, and our appliances are coming from Trail. They also gave us a quote for central A/C that was quite competitive. Redvan- you might want to check them out.

[scottish_flame]

Buy a dyson cooling fan, they look cool

[BigNumbers]

I've had AC for less than a month? And I've used it 14 times - mostly at night to take the edge off the build up of heat for big west facing windows... Makes the night serene!

Growing up no one ever had AC because "it's Calgary, you only need it two weeks out of the year", so we'd just suffer through it... Never again. Sure you NEED it 2 weeks, but $#*$% is it awesome from late May through (I expect) October to take the edge off for a few AC cycles...

Sorry for the random comment - just $&$$*&'ing IN LOVE with central A/C.... Can't believe I've gone this long without it in my house.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

BUMP. With summer coming and a new baby, central air is officially a need according to my wife. First quote was 3600 including electrical/install for a 2 Ton, 13 SEER unit rated at 74 dB. Since I like my neighbours, I'll pay the extra $100 for the sound blanket, which they say gets you down to 70 dB.

Couple of questions, does that seem like a reasonable price, and how loud is that really going to be? There is a sweet old lady next door, who I don't want to unnecessarily annoy.

Did the $3600 option, was action furnace. They came last week, and I have two comments.
1) Central A/C is awesome
2) The sound blanket was a good call, it made a huge difference and the sound is really not that bad.

They seemed generally good, no real complaints. City inspector hasn't come yet though.

[Tiger]

These guys have the lowest quotes I ever got and have great service. used them on my current house and already have them booked for my new house.

http://harmonyheating.ca/

[calgarygeologist]

I might have to pull the cover off my A/C tomorrow if the forecasted high of 29 for Wednesday is correct. I hope that beast works. It came with our house when we purchased it in November. Because of the weather our home inspector obviously couldn't really do much to check the unit. It is a newer unit between 5 and 10 years old (probably installed at the same time as the replacement furnace.)

Is there anything that I should know or check before turning the A/C on?

[Regulator75]

Ensure the unit is clear of debris. Also, if the breaker is off, turn it on a day before. (don't know why, as I was told that on separate occasions by different technicians).

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Regulator75

Ensure the unit is clear of debris. Also, if the breaker is off, turn it on a day before. (don't know why, as I was told that on separate occasions by different technicians).

I fired up the AC after dinner last night to see if it was operational. It was a thing of beauty. It cooled nicely for the three hours that I left it on and I was actually quite surprised at how quietly it ran. I was a little concerned about potential noise especially if I were to leave it on overnight because the AC is located very close to my neighbours ground level bedroom. I don't think it will cause much of a disturbance though.

[Calgary14]

Originally Posted by REDVAN

Because it is for a new house and I want it set up before I move in.

How much does the builder charge to put central AC into a new build?

[BigNumbers]

Originally Posted by Calgary14

How much does the builder charge to put central AC into a new build?

We are in the beginning stages of building our place (two furnaces) it was $6K per furnace. The builder suggested we go with a 3rd party (post-build) HVAC company as builders are not competitive on pricing for some reason.

I'd expect $5-7K per furnace from a builder.

[Vox]

Originally Posted by BigNumbers

We are in the beginning stages of building our place (two furnaces) it was $6K per furnace. The builder suggested we go with a 3rd party (post-build) HVAC company as builders are not competitive on pricing for some reason.

I'd expect $5-7K per furnace from a builder.

We're replacing an old unit tomorrow, as are our neighbors, and we got quotes from Arpis and Central Air. A 3 ton high efficiency (16 seer) Lennox AC was about $5200 installed, and a 3 ton 13 seer unit was about $4000. Both companies were very close in their quotes. This included removing the old unit and disposing of it and the old coolant. I would expect a new unit to be about $400 less, as one of the quotes broke that out for the disposal component.