Seeking help with heat pump for my house
I would like help identifying an HVAC contractor in the triangle are of North Carolina who will help me sort out options, design and install a heat pump at my house.
I bought a house last year with a 14 SEER A/C system dating to 2021 and a gas pack and blower unit in the attic. I want to replace it with a heat pump system, taking advantage of the soon-to-be approved energy efficiency rebates as well as the currently available tax credits, but I’m having difficulty finding a contractor who will do anything but try to talk me out of making the change.
In addition to a general desire to continue the green building upgrades to the house like the enclosed crawl space, PV panels, and heat pump water heater we installed last year, we have also observed there is likely a hefty leak in the flex vent running from the attic to the crawl space to serve the lower floors. That area of the wall gets very warm in winter, and electric outlets in another adjacent wall blow cold air when the air conditioning is running. As you can imagine, it is difficult to get the lower floor comfortable without blasting the upper floor. Vent and damper adjustments don’t seem completely up to the task. Rather than putting money into a repair that likely involves tearing down interior walls to access that space, this is an additional reason to explore a heat pump system now, even though our current system is not very old.
Thanks for any HVAC contractor recommendations you can pass my way.
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Replies
To my ear it sounds like you bought a sow’s ear (typical production build home) and now want to make it be a silk purse (high performance home)
Yes, you can make it more efficient one expensive project at a time.
From a green point of view is it a good idea to remove almost brand-new equipment from service decades before it is likely to fail forcing it replacement to be needlessly mined, manufactured and transported simply so you can feel like you are not burning fossil fuels on site?
From a dollars and cents point of view is it a good idea to spend money needlessly buying new electric equipment that will never save enough money in fuel to recover the costs?
The way I see it almost everything about this house was optimized for market value. If you set about reoptimizing this house for energy performance almost every part of this house is total wrong and will need to be removed and replaced.
My guess is this house lacks the following must haves for your happiness,
R60 attic insulation
R 30 wall insulation
R20 crawlspace insulation
R10 sub slab insulation
High performance windows and doors.
Proper air sealing
Room inside the conditioned space for ductwork and equipment
Total electric IE no gas appliances.
A roof line oriented and optimized for solar collection
I think you are wasting your time and money trying to improve a home that will never really be what you want it to be. The smart move would be to sell as is and build what you really want from the ground up.
Walta