Central Air Conditioners

[Al in Ohio]

Never thought of it, but that doesn't stop the comment

My first thought would be some thin oil sprayed/misted on them. Probably synthetic 0W.

Oil would cut down your heat transfer and also attract dirt which would then further reduce your heat transfer.

 

[Sunset]

Oil would cut down your heat transfer and also attract dirt which would then further reduce your heat transfer.

I wonder if the salt spray coating also cuts down on heat transfer , I think it might as it is a coating as well.

Oil would allow dirt to stick, so might have to hose it off with soapy water and reapply 3x per year.

Even if oil made the heat transfer less effective, it might still be worth it as the life could be extended by perhaps a lot, since oiled things tend not to rust.

 

[Music Lover]

If it doesn’t go where it’s needed it’s not efficient or as effective. You will run it more to make up for those differences. It’s a different kind of loss.

We're taking about a conditioned space, not an unconditioned attic. 100% of duct leakage in a conditioned basement remains in the house. It's not a loss if the heat or cooling doesn't leave the house and the losses do not exceed what can be adjusted via the dampers.

For example, my basement (finished living space) has 4 HVAC ducts. There is some loss but that's remedied by closing 2 of the dampers during heating season. As a result, in winter the basement and upstairs are both a comfortable temperature.

In cooling season I close all 4 ducts sending almost all of the AC upstairs. The minor duct leakage along with the natural natural tendency for cool air to fall means that both upstairs and downstairs are comfortable. But...if I had excessive duct leakage then in cooling season too much AC would find its way to the basement and energy costs would rise when trying to keep upstairs cool enough.

 

[Amethyst]

What about an inverter system, instead of traditional heat pump/ac system?

We also live 2 blocks from the Atlantic in a one-story home built around a swimming pool. We recently had a Gree inverter mini-split installed to serve our garage and the bonus room over the garage.

The small company that installed it, also does the bi-yearly maintenance on the builder-grade Goodman central a/c, installed by the previous owners. It was poorly installed (found that out when we had it repaired), performs in mediocre fashion compared with the heat pumps we had in MD.

I asked what they'd recommend to replace it one of these days. The first thing off the top of the owner's head - no sales pressure - was a Trane inverter system. He said it would use the existing ducts, be quieter and more efficient.

I've been reading to figure out how this type of system differs from the traditional and what is really involved. Unlike other mechanical things, I find HVAC specs and descriptions hard to understand. Insights and advice would be appreciated.

 

[OldShooter]

I'm with the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." crowd on this one. About 4 years ago we had the service company out -- needed to refill the freon -- IIRC it took three pounds and many $/# for recycled old "evil" freon. At that time we got the "end of life" consutlation. This from a company we have used and trusted, not hucksters. The next year we fired it up with some trepidation, which we have done every years since and the AC is still running like a champion.

In contrast, last fall the induced draft fan in our high-efficiency furnace started making serious bearing-dying noises. I had the fan module replaced as a cost of around $400 because I didn't want to have the bearing seize in the middle of winter. But where I can't live with no furnace for more than a day or so in winter, having a dead AC for a week would not be a big deal for us. But we're in a northern-tier state, so YMMV.