What a Michigan Firefighter's Home HVAC Set Up Looks Like (Best Furnace and AC)

Cody from Valley heating here - Today we are in Saginaw Township at a local firefighter's home replacing his furnace and AC. Let's talk about what type he chose and why in order to help you make a more informed decision when you it comes to time for you to replace yours.

The Story

Madison was having some issues with his furnace and his air conditioner. 

What he had was a 40 year old old Carrier with "beautiful wood paneling" on it -which is probably a sign that your furnace is getting old if you see any wood paneling on it. LOL

Anyways, he kept having issue with it - having to restart it, then it would shut itself down, and he'd have to switch the power on and off. 

He gave us a call because we provide Free HVAC Maintenance for First Responders. So we looked into it and discovered that he did have a crack in the heat exchanger. Nine times out of 10 this is what makes a furnace overheat. Now, when it overheats it's going to shut down and you're going to have to restart it. Some will do it on their own - however, when the heat exchanger cracks it's just no longer safe. 

He already wanted to get rid of it and wanted to get something new with 1) a warranty 2) more efficient and 3) more comfortable but once he found that the heat exchanger was broken - he knew it was time.

So below you'll see the new furnace and coil we installed for him. We went with is a 96% two-stage so it's much more efficient than his old Furnace which will save him money. He's going to have all the nice benefits of warranty (10 year free parts and labor) so he's not going to have to worry about anything.

Why a Two-Stage Furnace is Better

I do want to touch on the staging a little bit so you understand how it works. 

So he's got a two-stage gas valve in this furnace and what that does is it offers you two modes of heat - you've got a low fire and a high fire. Now it sounds counterintuitive to a lot of folks but I promise you that the furnace is going to work better and make you more comfortable the longer you can get it to run so what this furnace does in conjunction with the thermostat is it's going to try and run for as long of a period of time as it can.

We often use the vinaigrette analogy - so your furnace fan and your filter and all that stuff is mixing the air inside your house. Imagine a bottle of vinaigrette sauce - your Old Furnace if it's single stage is going to move that air and shake up the house really fast and then stop - whereas a two-stage variable speed mode furnace is going to increase that run time. So imagine that you're shaking that vinaigrette sauce over a long period of time. What this is going to do is mix the air temperatures throughout the house and help eliminate some of those hot and cold spots that you traditionally see with older homes. 

It's also better for the furnace. The other analogy I like to use is the car analogy. A single stage furnace likes to start and stop a lot - we normally compare this to City miles on a car. You want the highway miles on your furnace - that is what a two-stage furnace does. You want the nice long smooth run times. This is going to help prevent some of the wear and tear that we see on a lot of the a lot of the commonly replaced components like the igniter, the inducer, the fan, and stuff like that.

Now, in regards to his air conditioner - on a really hot day the AC would run non-stop, never shut off and only get his house down to 72-74 degrees. So we got his new air conditioner sitting next to his old air conditioner as you can see below.

Bigger AC Coil = More Efficient

The new AC is quite a lot bigger, and it's partially due to the better efficiency. A bigger coil size makes a more efficient air conditioner. Basically, you can cool your home faster at a better cost. This air conditioner will cover up to 2000 soft, so it's going to cool down his house very well and he shouldn't have any problem keeping his thermostat at 68 or 70. 

Hope that makes sense and helps you make a better decision when choosing the right HVAC Set up for you.

As always here at Valley Heating and Cooling - everything we install with the Coleman name on it comes with a FREE 10 year parts and labor warranty - that means for 10 years you have peace of mind. If anything breaks or doesn't work - it's free to you. We think that's a pretty good deal and pretty good piece of mind.

So if that's something you're interested in give us a call - click the link below - and we' be happy to come out and give you a free quote.