Almost nobody replaces a furnace or an air conditioner because they wanted to. This page is written for the week you find out you have to.
The first question
There is no age at which a system automatically stops being worth repairing, which is why anyone who gives you one over the phone is guessing. It turns on four things, and a technician can tell you where you sit on all four in a single visit.
We will say so when a repair is the better call, including in the years when that means we do not sell you a system. That is not generosity — it is how the next call comes to us as well.
7:40 AM
Runners downbefore anything else.
Floor protection, a walked route, and the old unit isolated. The part of the day that decides what the house looks like tomorrow.
1:15 PM
Out, in,and commissioned.
Set, connected, charged and measured against the numbers it was sized to — not just switched on and declared working.
4:50 PM
The half nobodyquotes for.
Duct sealed, returns checked, registers balanced. A correct system on bad distribution is an expensive way to keep the same complaint.
The equipment
Three words do most of the work in a replacement quote, and most people meet them for the first time while being asked to choose between them. Here they are beforehand, without the model numbers.
01
On or off, at full output. The cheapest to install and the bluntest in use: it heats hard, reaches the number and stops. In a well-sealed house you notice that as swings rather than as a temperature.
02
A high setting and a low one. Most of the year it runs on low for longer, which holds a steadier temperature and moves far more air through the filter. The difference is felt in the rooms furthest from the equipment.
03
Modulates continuously instead of switching. The quietest option, the best at controlling humidity, the most expensive to install — and the one that most rewards being sized properly in the first place.
04
A heat pump does both jobs with one piece of equipment. Whether that is the right answer depends on your climate, the fuel already coming into the house and what is currently in it — which is a conversation about your house, not a recommendation anybody can make on a web page.
How it goes
Most of a good installation is decided before anybody carries anything into the house.
Not only the equipment. Ductwork, returns, insulation, and the rooms that have never been right. Most of the answer is in the house rather than in the box.
Room by room, to decide what this house needs rather than matching whatever happened to be here. It is the step most often skipped, and the one that decides whether you are comfortable in ten years.
What each one changes, in plain words, with the cost per month as well as the total. Nothing to sign in the room.
One crew and one point of contact. The old equipment leaves with us; everything the new equipment connects to is brought up to standard rather than reconnected.
Airflow measured, charge verified, controls set up, readings written down and left with you. A system nobody commissioned is a system nobody can prove is working.
The number
A replacement is usually decided on what it costs per month, so that is the figure we lead with — alongside the whole number, never instead of it.