Katsmeow
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2009
- Messages
- 5,308
We recently moved into our new house in the DFW area. The conventional AC and gas furnace is 16 years old. It is functioning. However, we got our first electric bill which was $265 for 21 days. We used over 120 kwh per day which was a lot more than we were using at our last house which was larger. New house was built in the mid-80s and is one story, 2300 SF.
Anyway - we have gotten 2 quotes. I lean strongly to wanting a heat pump which is common here.
First person was recommended by my real estate agent. He quoted conventional systems and heat pump. He is not really a heat pump fan. He has one in his home and says he will go back to conventional when that one is done. However, he acknowledged that the heat pumps are popular enough that some HVAC people in this area sell nothing else. He things that the heat pumps don't last as long as they run year round.
He quoted a Trane XR14 (16 SEER rating) conventional system for $7980.42.
He quoted 3 Trane heat pump systems. The one I am interested in is the XR 16 which is a single stage, 17 SEER unit at $8830.72. He did not quote any two stage units. The other two he quoted were the XR 14 and XR 15 (16 SEER - $8402.32).
His quotes were very bare bones. Basically the model number and price which is a turnkey price. He says that our electrical panel may need to be upgraded and we are getting that checked out today.
Then we got a quote from another guy. This was a company that came out to do a minor repair on our AC (capacitor went out) and we had them come back and give a quote.
This guy sells American Standard (which I know is owned by the same company that owes Trane). His position was that American Standard is better than Trane. He had a very detailed quote that he did, saying exactly what they would do. That said -- I don't think that he is necessarily doing anything else that the first guy wouldn't have done. That is, the 2nd guy had things like put in a new concrete pad for the outside unit because the new heat pump is bigger than the 16 year old unit. The first guy didn't mention that at all but just quoted the system. DH assumes that his quote would include things like doing a new pad if needed but we would check to make sure we are comparing apples to apples.
Anyway - second companies quote:
Silver 16 - 16 Seer - $9868
Gold 17 - 17 Seer - 2 stage - $11538
Platinum 18 - Seer - variable speed = $12,541 (this one would require using their thermostat rather than our existing Nest. I don't really want to get rid of the Nest which works with our security system controls).
FWIW, this guy was very high on heat pumps and didn't even quote a conventional system.
I must admit that I had expected the American Standard system would be less expensive than the Trane. The two quotes are a little different in that the first guys quotes topped out with the 17 SEER single stage system and he didn't quote any 2 stage systems.
The American Standard unit for 16 SEER single stage is $1400 more than the 16 SEER single stage Trane unit and $1000 more than the 17 SEER single stage Trane.
That seems like a significant difference.
My sense is that the extra cost for the 2 stage unit is not really worth it (first guy didn't even quote one although I am sure he would if we asked him to).
How do Trane and American Standard compare? Any reason to spend $1000 more for a 16 SEER American Standard as compared to a 17 SEER Trane?
We can, of course, get more quotes. This is not super urgent to get replaced but both of these guys did feel that replacing the old unit with a new higher SEER unit would make a significant difference in electric cost. Neither guy was hard sale and we liked both of them.
Anyway - we have gotten 2 quotes. I lean strongly to wanting a heat pump which is common here.
First person was recommended by my real estate agent. He quoted conventional systems and heat pump. He is not really a heat pump fan. He has one in his home and says he will go back to conventional when that one is done. However, he acknowledged that the heat pumps are popular enough that some HVAC people in this area sell nothing else. He things that the heat pumps don't last as long as they run year round.
He quoted a Trane XR14 (16 SEER rating) conventional system for $7980.42.
He quoted 3 Trane heat pump systems. The one I am interested in is the XR 16 which is a single stage, 17 SEER unit at $8830.72. He did not quote any two stage units. The other two he quoted were the XR 14 and XR 15 (16 SEER - $8402.32).
His quotes were very bare bones. Basically the model number and price which is a turnkey price. He says that our electrical panel may need to be upgraded and we are getting that checked out today.
Then we got a quote from another guy. This was a company that came out to do a minor repair on our AC (capacitor went out) and we had them come back and give a quote.
This guy sells American Standard (which I know is owned by the same company that owes Trane). His position was that American Standard is better than Trane. He had a very detailed quote that he did, saying exactly what they would do. That said -- I don't think that he is necessarily doing anything else that the first guy wouldn't have done. That is, the 2nd guy had things like put in a new concrete pad for the outside unit because the new heat pump is bigger than the 16 year old unit. The first guy didn't mention that at all but just quoted the system. DH assumes that his quote would include things like doing a new pad if needed but we would check to make sure we are comparing apples to apples.
Anyway - second companies quote:
Silver 16 - 16 Seer - $9868
Gold 17 - 17 Seer - 2 stage - $11538
Platinum 18 - Seer - variable speed = $12,541 (this one would require using their thermostat rather than our existing Nest. I don't really want to get rid of the Nest which works with our security system controls).
FWIW, this guy was very high on heat pumps and didn't even quote a conventional system.
I must admit that I had expected the American Standard system would be less expensive than the Trane. The two quotes are a little different in that the first guys quotes topped out with the 17 SEER single stage system and he didn't quote any 2 stage systems.
The American Standard unit for 16 SEER single stage is $1400 more than the 16 SEER single stage Trane unit and $1000 more than the 17 SEER single stage Trane.
That seems like a significant difference.
My sense is that the extra cost for the 2 stage unit is not really worth it (first guy didn't even quote one although I am sure he would if we asked him to).
How do Trane and American Standard compare? Any reason to spend $1000 more for a 16 SEER American Standard as compared to a 17 SEER Trane?
We can, of course, get more quotes. This is not super urgent to get replaced but both of these guys did feel that replacing the old unit with a new higher SEER unit would make a significant difference in electric cost. Neither guy was hard sale and we liked both of them.