Replace Old Heating and Air Unit With New Efficient HVAC …

Jeff Wilson replaced his HVAC system for the same reason most homeowners do: It broke.

Five years ago in the heat of summer, his air conditioner died and this was well before he embarked on an all-out Deep Energy Retrofit (DER) to green his 70-year-old Cape Cod. Still, he used this opportunity to upgrade the old, standard unit.

"We had to keep a little air conditioning on so we didn't have so much mold," Jeff says, describing a major pitfall of the home: high humidity that produced damaging condensation, causing woodwork deterioration and poor air quality.

Jeff got three bids for the HVAC project, ranging from $3,500 to trade the old HVAC unit for a comparable model to $12,000 for a state-of-the-art system. (These price estimates are from the time of installation in 2005.)

"We expected gas prices to go through the roof, which they did in 2008," Jeff says, weighing the options. "And we expected this new HVAC unit to last."

The 26-year-old unit Jeff replaced was 80 percent efficient not bad for 1979 technology. But we've come a long way since then. The standard option Jeff considered as a replacement would basically restore the system to status quo for $3,500. But Jeff was looking for more.

The midrange unit was priced at $4,200 and would boost the furnace efficiency to 90 percent, with a 16-SEER air conditioner. The lower the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rating (SEER), the more energy it takes to cool the home.

The high-end system would cost Jeff $5,800, but for that $2,300 more, he got more features and optimum, 97 percent efficiency. Because the Wilsons mainly used their air conditioning to defuse the thick humidity typical in southeast Ohio during summer, a variable-speed blower was worth the investment. This mechanism allows Jeff to set the humidity level on his thermostat. "Instead of cooling your house down to get humidity levels low, you can do a bit of dehumidifying [with the blower] to keep the temperatures lower," he explains.

Jeff could get this feature plus 7 percent more efficiency on the gas furnace.

"We were looking toward the future," he says of the price tag and, when comparing systems, the estimated five-year payback.

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