The house is bustling with activity

[Rattlecan ★]

New hvac system going in. The old one which is original to our 32 year old house finally gave up the ghost.

It had been acting up the last couple of winters and finally quit working all together.

At that age we figured getting it fixed was chasing good money after bad.

Two installers plus a trainee and another guy installing a smart smoke detector. 

[Parr8hed]

We did that about 5 years ago.  Hated to spend the money, but money well spent. 

My work building is in the process of going through it right now.  The quote to do the building was 140K.  It requires rooftop units, cranes, etc. 

[Razors Edge ★]

Ours made it 20 years before the AC side of things was becoming the potential $$$ pit.  We went with a new furnace as well at the same time, since that would likely be a PITA doing separately maybe 5 years after the AC and fan stuff got replaced. 

[Rattlecan ★]

17 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

Ours made it 20 years before the AC side of things was becoming the potential $$$ pit.  We went with a new furnace as well at the same time, since that would likely be a PITA doing separately maybe 5 years after the AC and fan stuff got replaced. 

20 years is considered a good service life these days.

The rep told us that 15 years is life expectancy. We got a 10 year warranty parts and labour.

[JerrySTL ★]

I bet that your utility bill goes down. Or at least the amount of kilowatts and gas usage. 

[Rattlecan ★]

1 hour ago, JerrySTL said:

I bet that your utility bill goes down. Or at least the amount of kilowatts and gas usage. 

Yeah I expect so. The old clunker drew a lot of power to run the blower.

[donkpow]

1 hour ago, Rattlecan said:

20 years is considered a good service life these days.

The rep told us that 15 years is life expectancy. We got a 10 year warranty parts and labour.

There is a federal report/study that assigns service life values to buildings and building systems. Being the largest facility owner in the US, the fed has to know this stuff. Mostly so they can raise taxes before it gets to be too late to spend money on unnecessary stuff before system failures create the need for emergency funding. 

Also, one of the contractor type associations keeps track of service life numbers.

[MickinMD ★]

4 hours ago, Rattlecan said:

New hvac system going in. The old one which is original to our 32 year old house finally gave up the ghost.

It had been acting up the last couple of winters and finally quit working all together.

At that age we figured getting it fixed was chasing good money after bad.

Two installers plus a trainee and another guy installing a smart smoke detector. 

I had an old gas furnace and window AC before the house fire.

State Farm approved a high efficiency central air unit and a 92% efficiency furnace - the fumes have to go out the side of the house, a foot or so off the ground, because they're are so cool that condensing water vapor would fall back down the pipes and chimney and into the furnace.

I'm now spending a lot less for heating and air in my new well-insulated and sealed house.

My avg. 2013-2019 December nat. gas and electric bill (for November usage) was $212.95.  This year it's $155.90 despite higher nat. gas prices, though the weather was unusually warm. Last year it was $151.07.  2020 I was in the apartment waiting for the house to be rebuilt.

[Airehead]

Are they done yet?