Often Overlooked

DATE: July 26, 2016

Last time, we indicated what you could expect if a contractor chooses to either follow industry accepted and recommended guidelines in properly sizing your new heating and air conditioning system.

A contractor who chooses to follow proper sizing techniques can also be confident that based on their customer’s specific requirements, the system they are recommending will not only meet those specific needs but will do so in the most cost effective and efficient manner. It is always a more costly process to return to a job and make corrections because the proper steps were not followed initially. And even if this does not result in any additional cost to the customer, it certainly results in higher cost to the contractor who must at some point going forward make up the shortfall.

Along with properly sizing the equipment for the space to be conditioned, there are other considerations that the contractor needs to take into account. These include, but are not limited to the following:

Electrical service: In a lot of instances, when your existing heating and air conditioning equipment is updated, the efficiency is much higher than your older equipment. Along with the higher efficiency, comes a lower operating amperage. In simple terms, the more efficient the system, the less electricity is required to provide the same amount of cooling. Now when a new system is installed, the contractor should check to see what the overcurrent protection (circuit breaker) is required. As often as not, this can be less than your older system. It is important to check and change, if indicated, this over current protection so that if there is an issue with the new system, it will ‘trip’ the circuit breaker. The circuit breaker is a safety device, and if it does not ‘trip’ at the proper level of amperage, it could result in unnecessary damage to your new unit.

Next time, we’ll discuss some additional issues that can result from a survey that does not take everything into account.

John L. Lloyd