The Amana gas package unit on this home was still functioning and not that old, but the cost of replacing the indoor coil due to a refrigerant leak gave the homeowner pause. After weighing the benefits of repairing the old one or replacing she decided to update to a Trane hybrid dual fuel package, take advantage of the tax credit available, up to $1500, and reduce utility costs. AA-Air Company's maintenance program and Trane's 10 year warranty provided peace of mind.

This homeowner was already looking for a way to reduce utility costs. A crack in the heat exchanger of the old Carrier gas package sped up the process. The gas package was replaced with a Trane 14 SEER electric heat pump. Note the interesting use of guttering to replace a missing exhaust termination on the old gas package.

With an aging split heat pump on a 1970's era addition and a gas package that was even older on the original structure, the blue utility company envelope in the mailbox was a fearsome site. New units alone were not the solution. Replacing the leaky duct system with a new, sealed system was the key to reducing the utility bill. Even new units have to work harder and longer if part of the heat and air conditioning gets lost to the crawlspace.

Our solution was a Trane hybrid heat pump/gas package combination, a high efficiency split heat pump and new, mastic sealed ductwork.

Replacement of 20 year old Trane packaged heat pump. Installation technicians were challenged a bit to fit the dimensions of the new unit in the space between crawl space door, water faucet and electrical disconnect.

Before:

After:

What is possible?

We recently tested a home that was only one year old. The homeowner had answered "YES" to many of our questions. Yes, he had hot and cold rooms, high summertime humidity, lots of dust around the house and high utility bills. We found a laundry list of issues, from oversized equipment to undersized ductwork. Duct leakage was excessive, both supply and return side. This means bad air from the crawlspace and attic was being pulled into the ductwork and pushed into the house. Heated and cooled air was being lost from the supply ducts.

Installation techs spent several days correcting sizing issues and sealing ductwork. When finished we returned to the home to test for improvements. The difference in duct leakage was significant. Before we started, the ductwork leakage tested at 273 cubic feet per minute or cfm. For a visual, imagine that for every minute the heat pump ran, the amount of air roughly equivalent to what is inside 273 basketballs leaked from the duct system. After our techs performed their work, leakage was down to 25 cfm. SCORE!!