The air conditioner decision that comes due the week the oak pollen stops
Every April in Ormond Beach the yellow film washes off the cars, the first 88-degree afternoon shows up, and somebody in The Trails finds out their 2008 condenser didn't survive the winter.
The scenario: a 1977 house, a 2008 condenser, and a Tuesday in mid-April
Picture the call: a homeowner on her back porch. The house is a 1977 one-story in The Trails, block and wood, with a gas furnace in the garage that Peoples Gas has fed since the family moved in. The outdoor unit was replaced in 2008 and has been limping for two summers: a capacitor last year, a fan motor the year before. This week the compressor started tripping its breaker on a mere 86-degree afternoon, and the repair quote from the last company was a number nobody wanted to say out loud.
She wants to know whether to fix it one more time. We tell her what we tell most callers with a straight-cool system of that age in this town: the compressor is the one part that turns a repair into a replacement, and a 17-year-old condenser on the humid side of the state has given what it had.
What we recommend, and why it isn’t a heat pump
Because the house already heats with gas, the sensible replacement is another straight-cool air conditioner, matched to a new indoor coil or air handler, not a heat pump. A heat pump would give her electric heating she does not need and a slightly more complicated outdoor unit. The furnace stays. The new air conditioner takes over the eight months that matter.
For this house we quote a two-stage Lennox system sized from a load calculation rather than from the 2008 nameplate, because the original contractor had bumped the tonnage up “to be safe” and the house has short-cycled through the summers ever since. The return grille in the hallway gets enlarged while we are there, because a 1977 return starves a modern coil. The condenser moves eight feet east, off the low corner of the yard that held water after Milton.
Installation day
The crew leaves our Palm Coast headquarters early enough to be in The Trails by eight, which the 38-minute drive down I-95 allows even with the Granada exit backed up. By mid-morning the old condenser is recovered and off the pad, the new pad is set and level, and the line set is being brazed with nitrogen flowing so the inside of the copper stays clean. The indoor coil goes in above the existing furnace. The new return cut takes the longest; the system start-up, charge check and airflow measurement take the rest of the afternoon. She has cold air before the school buses come back down Nova Road. The FPL instant rebate is paid only through an enrolled Participating Independent Contractor, so ask where Cook’s enrollment stands before install day, so the rebate line on the proposal is settled rather than assumed. [[CONFIRM WITH JERRY]]
Living with it
The first thing she notices is that the system runs longer and the house feels drier at the same thermostat setting. The second is that the back bedrooms stop lagging. The things she has to do are small: change the media filter when we tell her to, hose the oak litter off the condenser coil each spring once the pollen quits, and keep the condensate line clear through the wet months. We set the first maintenance visit for the following March, because every Ormond Beach cooling season starts earlier than the calendar says and ends later. If the furnace ever quits, the air conditioner is already matched to a Lennox air handler that can take a heat pump outdoor unit later; nothing gets thrown away twice. Call 866-266-5709 for an estimate before the first 90-degree week makes the decision for you.
Air conditioner questions from this spring's estimates
Should the house in The Trails get an air conditioner or a heat pump?
If Peoples Gas serves the street and there is a gas furnace in the garage, a straight-cool air conditioner paired with that furnace is the cleaner choice. If the house heats with electric strips, a heat pump costs about the same to install and much less to run on the forty-odd cold nights a year.
How long does a condenser last under the oaks west of Nova Road?
The canopy helps with shade and hurts with debris. Fifteen years is a fair expectation if the coil gets cleared of oak leaves and pollen each spring; ten is more typical if it never does. A coated coil and a maintenance plan push it toward the longer end.
Can the new condenser go somewhere other than where the old one was?
Usually, yes, and after Ian we move more of them than we used to. A spot that is higher, shaded in the afternoon and clear of the dryer vent is worth a few extra feet of line set.
What does variable-speed cooling do for a 1,700 square foot ranch?
It runs long and low instead of hard and short, which pulls more water out of the air and keeps the bedrooms at the back of a long ranch from drifting warm between cycles. On a house this size the humidity benefit is the one you will notice.
Condenser didn't make it through the spring?
Free estimate on a new Lennox air conditioner. We drive to Ormond Beach every day.