mismatched system cannot be serviced?

[sigtauenus]

I recently bought a home and througout the summer noticed that the air conditioning was running continuously and the house wouldn't really cool down below 80 degrees, even at night. We normally keep the thermostat programmed to 78 day/82 night. Our electric bill is almost twice that of our neighbors who have about 50% more house than we do.

We called a HVAC service company and they told us that there isn't really a problem, that the heat pumps in our area are only designed to cool 15 degrees from the outside temp, and with a 95-100 degree day, 80 is all we can expect. They told us to hold off another month and they would do a fall "check-up" of the system, which we did.

We had them come out to service the system today for the regular maintenance inspection/service, and the guy told us that we have a mismatched system, ie, two different manufacturers.

Outdoor unit is a 2 ton Arco Aire HP5024A2C1. Indoor unit is a Janitrol model A30-10. the home is 25 years old, outdoor unit has questionable age, indoor unit is 5-7 years old.

I've already been told both of these are cheap builder units and one or both need to be replaced. I was also told that with a 1600 sqr ft house I should have a 2.5 ton unit outside.

I would like to know if these two units are truly incompatable, or if I need to call a different service tech to come fix it.

The tech also stated "superheat is operating at 0 deg indicating liquid presence in vapor line. Possible overcharge or mismatched capacities."

So, in addition to all this, we call the home warranty company and they said they could not cover it because the mismatched system is not their fault.

So, now I have two months in a row paying 300 each for the electric bill vice 150, I just paid 76 for a tech to tell me he couldn't do anything but offer a replacement system, and the home warranty company says they can't cover it.

So, any suggestions?

I know I'm going to hear dump the Janitrol (Junkitrol, whatever) and buy a Trane or other high quality unit, but I just can't afford that. Same goes for you get what you pay for. The economics of the situation says I'll do what I can with what I have and fork out the least amount of money in the process.

Is there anything I can do to get the system I have working?

If I have to replace one or the other, I'd like to replace the outdoor unit and buy a compatable 2.5 ton unit. Would the Goodman CPLJ30-1 Heat Pump work for this application?

A sincere thanks in advance for any input that is offered.

[imported_PLUMBER RICK]

can't advise you on the hvac problem, but i can tell you that most of the home warranty policies are a waste of money.
on the plumbing side of the business, i would say that 75% of the people who call me for service have given up on the warranty co. plumber. if there is a way to void the coverage, or charge an extra, they find it. also the techs that come out are typically right off the street. most people tend not renew their policy. the only policies that are decent are the one's that allow you to call your own plumber. not the flunkies the insurance co. sends out.
good luck.

rick.

[spacebluesonoma]

We had a Home Warranty when we bought the house did not pay a dime for it, and had to use them. Needed a plumber to replace the water heater. Could have done it myself but had a 100 dollar deductible. He put a 300+ dollar tank in.

He was a local guy owned his own business and was a one man show. old timer probably retired and making some money on the side.

Does good work!

They are not all bad

[ToUtahNow]

Rick,

Don't be so quick to judge. A plumber who use to work for me started a service business and only does home warranty work. He doesn't have to do any advertising and gets more work than he knows what to do with. He is an honest plumber and does a good job. When it's time to take a vacation he tells the warranty company he will be gone for a couple of weeks.

Mark

[imported_PLUMBER RICK]

guys, you hit it on the button. i too am a one person shop. same reason why i don't need to advertise. in general the co's that do this kind of work are not the 1 man shops. they are the chain type co's. in fact one of the largest warranty co's out there is american home shield. the parent co. also owns rescue rooter. talk about a conflict of interest. why spend money when you can come up with a reason why it's not covered.
space remember your stoppage problem you complained so much about being overcharged. what happened with your home coverage?
utah, a company is only as good as it's reputation. the small shops have too much at stake to rip off customers. the larger co's are made of of some good and some bad employees. some on commission, some on a split. the more sold ,the more in their own pocket. as both of you stated, the good luck you had came from a sole proprieter.
as you know there are thousands of plumbing companies here in the big city. not every company is a company that you would recommend to your friends or family. out of all the companies that i do work for, there are only 2 that i refer when i'm out of town or overbooked.

rick.

[sigtauenus]

This is not the first issue we've had with the homewarranty company, they're toast. Definitely not renewing.

So, I assume there's a recommendation in there to find a local one-man show for the HVAC service?

Any advice on the system itself?

[slink]

A mismatched system generally means the inside and outdoor units are not of the same size.A mixing of brands doesnt = mismatched system.The fact your home is 1600sq ft doesnt mean you need a 2.5 ton unit outside.The size of the unit needed involves much more than sq footage.In order to properly size the system a manual J load calculation must be done.In all honesty a mismatched system or under/over sized will never function effeciently.

Insist before replacing any of your equiptment that a manualJ load calculation be done.Often times systems are oversized by using sq.footage guesstimates.An oversized system doesnt work better because its bigger than it needs to be it will actually operate inefficently.The same is true for an undersized unit.

A properly sized system will run efficent,(cost less to run) and will last longer.

[Quescodeplumb]

Hey sigtauenusey, no mean's am I an a/c expert just a old (middle aged) plumber who's trying to help. My take on you're situation has no truth to it except for personal experience. 1) When I bought my house the inspector who came in wrote down every appliance,water heater,and a/c unit on his report. Yes I bought the 1 year warranty and the insurance company who toke the policy needed that report so they knew what was here and what they were warrantying. So first of all I would find that report an make sure that's not listed. 2) The service tech who came to you're house probably did'nt even look at you're up stairs, or inside unit that you think is mismathed except to open up the closet and try to sell you a service contract. Yet the only thing he didn't lie about was youre unit size, just as a rule of thumb and this I got from an engineer is for every 500 square ft = 1 ton on a unit.So for a 1600 square foot home 2.5 tons is pretty close to right on. 3) I do know this that if you're seeing a 15 degree fluxuation in you're temperature that's crazy dude, no wonder you're eleteric bill is so bad. If the house is 25 year,s old that outside unit isn't I'll tell you that(usually the serial # has something to do with the age of the unit) take it down and if it's not aparantly obviouse like "ao976747th" meaning it was probably installed in 97 you can go to there web sight and check it out. 3) I live in south texas and my system is set up not to have anymore than a 4 degree diff up or down 24d 7d a week and sometimes it's 105 during the day and 62 when you wake up. The only reason I don't set it differn't for work and home is for my pet's, and I think energy efficient this way. 4) Have you changed you're filter lattely and if you have, do me a favor and take out the filter and look up, I mean look up inside the inside unit after taking out the filter and tell me if you see ice? If you do start the fan only mode on you're thermostate and get youre wife's hair drier and melt it down (this will probaly take about 2 hours untill all the ice and water are gone)and the house will get hot, and you will probably be buying youre wife a new hair dryer, but after you finish you're A/C work's she will be happy. The only maintainance after this is change youre filter every 3 month's and pour 1 cup of bleach down the primary condensate drain every 6 month's.5) Last but not least make sure youre not low on freone. Ran on more than I wanted to, hope it was worth the info. P.S. Most warranty's on those outside unit's last 5-10 years, check it out. Buy the way I was stationed in little creek back in the early 90's LOVED VIRGINIA BEACH" hope it get's cooler, and if you're on base grab a couple of seabee's and give them a 6 pack (a UT) if you can and let them fix it, just keep the beer flowing.

[ 10-05-2005, 12:35 AM: Message edited by: Quescodeplumb ]