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I suspect that the OP, having just bought an existing home, got an home inspection. Even the most balanced / fair-minded home inspectors will say something like "HVAC has an expected life span of XX years, since yours in is approximately XX+Y it may be assumed that increased operational costs and/or replacement may be anticipated". The less ethical guys will say "I'd ask the seller for $5-10K for a new system"...
Personally I agree with Mr. Rational -- payback for replacement is likely to be extend beyond one's expected use, which is a fancy way of saying "don't spend money expecting to get back through lower utility costs unless you expect the NEW system to last longer than the home inspector that the NEXT buyer hires and says "HVAC has an expected life span of XX years, since yours in is approximately XX+Y..." rinse, lather, repeat....
Mine system is as old if not older. The heat portion works fine but the AC is awful, air not cool enough and fan speed not high enough for efficient cooling. If I had the money, I'd upgrade. But if your system is working great, inwouodnt touch it
Just bought a home and both units are 21 years old.
Is there any meaningful financial benefit of replacing them with higher efficiency units? They are in great working condition and serviced a few months ago. Inspector didn't think anything was wrong with them but I am inquiring strictly from an energy bill savings POV.
PS: The home is very nicely insulated. Attic has a custom built insulation box at the opening, lots and lots of insulation pads (or whatever they are called) in the rest of the attic. House takes less than 10 minutes to cool down once the AC turns on.
Size: 2500 total sq ft and I plan on spending the next chunk of my life here.
How many days a year do you use them? For example, we use our furnace maybe two hours a day about 20 days a year and our ac probably 10 hours a day 10 days a year - in other words, not much. So I wouldn't replace it. Now, if you use your units 300+ days a year then it probably makes sense.
We put in a furnace in a home just about 20 years ago, 19 1/2. It was a 95% efficient model. Just because it's older doesn't mean it's not efficient. We replaced a furnace that was estimated to be about 60 years old and about 45% efficient though.
Wait until it dies . I just replaced one of my central AC units . It was 23 yrs old . I have another one the same age . I'm going to run it to failure .
I replaced my 31 year old furnace & my 12+ year old swamp cooler in June of 2010. I wanted to replace the furnace while it was working. Didn't want to have to replace that in January with ice/snow on my roof--which is where the intake/exhaust pipes would have to be routed. I also wanted to add a whole house humidifier and central a/c.
My 95% efficient gas furnace and my 15 SEER A/C unit seemed like a good idea at the time. But since I was switching from a swamp cooler, my power consumption as REALLY increased with central a/c. I've kept spreadsheets for yeeeeears tracking my usage and costs of all my utilities. I have yet to see much economic gain from replacing my old equipment.
Keep what you have as long as you're comfortable and have annual inspections/servicing to ensure proper working order. If you don't have to worry about extreme heat in summer or snow/ice issues in winter, you could probably replace when one goes out. Not really sure about efficiencies b/t old and new a/c units as I was replacing a swamp cooler.
We just replaced ours. We did a room addition, adding 484 SF to the home. We on,u had one unit for a 2400 SF home on one and a half stories. So, we decided to tear out the unit that came with the home (we were told it was from 1995, so 17 years old) and replace it with two heat pumps - 15 seer on the first floor with natural gas backup, and a 13-seer on the top floor. Logic being when the kids move out ( we have a first floor master), we will be able to really knock down the temp on that top floor.
I recently got my first utility bill from the electric company that has our new rate. (We have the budget billing option and this is the first time it wa sure adjusted since the change). Happy to say our bill went down about $25 per month. Will I recoup the cost soon? Probably not ( we Lso replaced all the ductwork), but felt this was the right move for us! Good luck in your decision!
Happy to say our bill went down about $25 per month. Will I recoup the cost soon? Probably not ( we Lso replaced all the ductwork), but felt this was the right move for us! Good luck in your decision!
How much did the replacement cost you? We had estimates for SEERS in that range for two units too, 2.5 and 3 tons for two floors and we're talking $12K+; meaning the breakeven point is about when North Korea and the US are major trade partners - a long, long time from now. So, we're sticking with our crappy 10 SEERS but like I wrote above, we only need to use them a few weeks a year. If we still live in Alabama we'd probably upgrade because you need AC or Heat about 11 months of the year.
How much did the replacement cost you?
for two units too, 2.5 and 3 tons for two floors and we're talking $12K+
Most homes will manage to get by at about half half that cost
Of course most homes will manage to get by with only one set of equipment too.
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