Welcome to Alpine Heating And Cooling’s BLOG. If your looking for the main web site click here, otherwise please enjoy the various posts/projects in our blog. I will admit I am not a writer or even a good speller, but I do enjoy my trade and enjoy posting the various projects we do. I hope there is some useful information somewhere in here for you.
Gary Kirkendall
If your debating whether to wait to replace your existing 80% gas furnace you should first understand the new laws that COULD take place on May 1st 2013. As of that date you may not be able to purchase a 80% gas furnace, you may be forced to purchase a 90% gas furnace. By going from a 80% gas furnace to a 90% gas furnace you will be paying far more for the installation as well as the unit itself.
So If you want to replace your existing 80% gas furnace with the least amount of costs … do it NOW.
Call Alpine for details. 360-755-5146
Here is the document to help you understand the Energy Security and Independence Act.
Update 3/22/2013: Letter from my wholesaler regarding the DOE cut off date.
Email me a pic of your furnace and I will tell you if you have an 80% or 90% furnace. info@alpineheat.com
Here we are again … decision time … do we put money into our older gas furnace or replace it. I try to be as honest as I can with people when making this decision. I look at age and the cost of repairs and future repairs based on my experience.
York Diamond 80% gas furnace
I certainly see a lot of the York Diamond 80%, in fact I use to be a York dealer when this furnace was actually installed. At that time York made a very good furnace and I installed 100′s of them, but in today’s standards based on actual field experience I would say York or Coleman all made by Johnson Controls have taken a hit in the quality of their product.
New American Standard 80% Single Stage Gas Furnace.
The new American Standard 80% gas furnace did require a little bit of modifications to the return ducting , as well as eliminating the angled base can that the customer kept stubbing their toes on. We also added a 4″ filter bank to the system, but had to make a custom door for access because of the venting. Overall the project went smooth.
Like I have stated on many occasions in my blog, American Standard is my choice of equipment to install, I have been a dealer of or installed many other brands. I like to install equipment that gives me the least call backs … American Standard is that equipment.
Heating And Cooling Skagit County
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler, Ductless, Mini-Split or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.
Perhaps one of, if not the worst install I have ever seen in my entire career. I can not for the life of me figure out what the individual was thinking when they scabbed a system onto another system without realizing the air would be just going around in a circle.
Coleman and goodman pile of junk
At one point it appears maybe there was a Goodman heat pump system that was operational and then someone installed the Coleman 90% furnace into that system …. i couldn’t even imagine how poorly this system operated. And off to the side of the mechanical room we have a dead Lennox pulse furnace as well. Seeing all the different equipment tells me that there was on several different occasions someone that could have corrected this mess.
New American Standard Single Stage 95% Furnace
After digging in and removing all the junk we finally could see a clear path and had a good idea what to do. We installed an American Standard 95% single stage gas furnace with a Honeywell F100 filter system. There is no doubt that not only will we deliver more air flow but at a higher efficiency. Far less leakage and better filtration.
Heating And Cooling Skagit County
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler, Ductless, Mini-Split or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.
The 2 Payne 90% LP furnaces where getting costly to repair and my customer has decided it was better to replace rather than repair. I would have to agree based on the condition on these 2 furnaces.
Payne 90% LP Furnaces
Its not very often in a residential application I get to show a side by side comparison between an upflow and downflow furnace.The furnace on the left is an downflow furnace and the other is an upflow furnace. Meaning the direction in which the air is being delivered through the unit.
American Standard LP Furnaces 95%
The 2 new American Standard 95% LP furnaces where fairly easy to install with some duct alterations mainly to the upflow furnace. You can see the 2 new Honeywell F100 filter banks installed on the intakes of the furnaces. Adding the F100 filters really improves the filtering of these systems and gives the customer the option of converting them over to electronic at a later date if need be.
Heating And Cooling Skagit County
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler, Ductless, Mini-Split or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.
I find it rather amazing how far along the technology has gotten with these ductless mini-split units, from the DC motor inverter to the intelligent eye (infrared sensor) … truly amazing.
Daikin Mini-split Heat Pump
Above you see the outdoor section of the Daikin heatpump system that we installed in to a existing log home that is in a middle of a remodel. My customer really only wanted to deal with 3 sections of the home, a ductless mini-split system works perfect for this.
Guest room Indoor Daikin unit
Seperate Office Area Daikin Indoor
Master Bedroom Daikin Indoor
For each Zone we used a Daikin indoor unit with inverter technology. An added feature is the infrared sensor that lets the unit know when people are not present within the room being served, automatically switching to the high efficient mode.
Navien NR-210a Tankless Water Heater.
The Navien NR-210a tankless water heater fit perfect in to this log home application. We utilized an outdoor closet so no room was taken up in the home. Running both the vent and combustion air up through the existing roof. A few modifications to the existing gas line and we are ready for hot water. And because of the circulation pump option on the Navien my customer will have virtually instant hot water at the furthest point of the home.
Heating And Cooling Skagit County
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler, Ductless, Mini-Split or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.
Alpine Heating And Cooling was chosen to be the business of the month for the month of April 2013 by Keybank of Burlington WA. Alpine Heating And Cooling will have a unmanned display up inside of the entry way into Keybank. Stop by, take a look and fill out an entry form to win either a FREE Maintenance or a FREE Honeywell programmable FocusPro 6000 thermostat (not installed) your choice.
We will have an American Standard 95% Modulating Gas Furnace on display for you to look at.
Keybank Display
Thanks,
Gary
Heating And Cooling Skagit County
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler, Ductless, Mini-Split or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.
Heating And Cooling Skagit County
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler, Ductless, Mini-Split or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.
Yet another oil furnace being pulled out of a home that should have been converted over many many years ago.
Chrysler oil furnace
Here we have a old Chrysler Airtemp oil furnace build by .. you guessed it Chrysler Corporation. I may have seen a half dozen of these in the last 30 years … built like a tank. The home was built in 1951 and i’m willing to bet the furnace is original.
Furnace American Standard 80%
One of the biggest things to consider when changing from oil to gas is the old tank. If your tank is in the ground sooner or later your going to be dealing with that tank … better sooner than later. Have it decommissioned.
The American Standard 80% furnace is obviously a little smaller in dimensions and in this case as in most we down sized the furnace to match the home. We added a liner in to the existing masonry chimney and ran a new gas line from the new meter to the furnace. Pretty simple straight forward project.
Heating And Cooling Skagit County
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler, Ductless, Mini-Split or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.
Perhaps the most satisfying change outs to me currently is going from oil to natural gas. There’s always a dramatic change in the size of the equipment as well as the efficiency.
Older 80% Oil Furnace
This older oil furnace above is no exception, and to much to my surprise is the fact natural gas was available for more than 20 years … but yet here it sits.
80% American Standard Gas Furnace
The existing oil furnace was sized to large for the home making the smaller sized American Standard 80% gas furnace perfect. Now the home wont over shoot in temperature and the customer will start saving money. We did line the existing masonry chimney with a liner as well as install a Honeywell 4″ pleated air filter in to the return system.
Heating And Cooling Skagit County
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler, Ductless, Mini-Split or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.
I have ran across some pretty weird furnace installations, some that make you wonder why they put all the effort into short cutting when it would have been faster to do it right. This is no exception.
York 80% Furnace. P3CCD
As you can see the existing York furnace is sitting on a simple but overly complex-ed steel angled frame. So much effort was made in to this angled frame, half that effort could have been made into making a simple transitional base can. But its in place now and it is what we have to work with.
95% 2 stage variable speed American Standard furnace
Above picture shows us adapting a new American Standard 95% 2 stage variable speed gas furnace into the existing duct system. We made some simple modifications to the supply and return plenum. We also ran a new PVC vent pipe as well as a new condensate. Everything else simply bolted right up.
Heating And Cooling Skagit County
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler, Ductless, Mini-Split or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.
This older Lennox 80% Furnace had a control board that went beyond having a hot spot. The existing board actually caught fire and caused some alarm in the home.
Older Lennox 80% Furnace
When your furnace gets beyond 10 years of age we usually(based on expense) like to give our customers the option of repairing or replacing. And in this case you have to consider the cost of the control board and any other unknown electrical part that has failed.
New Variable Speed 2 stage 95% American Standard Furnace
If you have not figured this out by now by reading our posts is that the American Standard 95% 2 stage Variable speed gas furnace is our favorite furnace to install. We have had almost zero warranty issues caused by the manufacture. That being said we have had installation issues .. .primarily getting a good slope on the drain line when existing the right side of the cabinet. Its very hard to do with all the components in the way. BUT as you can see the furnace slipped right in to place with very little modifications. Venting changed and a condensate line added.
Heating And Cooling Skagit County
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler, Ductless, Mini-Split or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.
