Replace Your Old Heat Pump With An Energy Efficient Trane
When the time came for us to replace our almost eighteen year old heat pump we did a lot of reading about different brands. We read about Trane, Goodman, Carrier and Lennox. We read information on their on line sites and heat pump reviews on line. We also read about heat pump repair and maintenance. We like to be careful with our money and we wanted to make the best decision possible.
We read all we could about different ratings. We wanted a thorough understanding of what SEER, AFUE and HSPF means and how these things could help us save money. We found it interesting that the SEER rating only applies to the cooling unit of a heat pump. SEER stands for Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio and it's a measure of rating the cooling process of both air conditioners and cooling components in heat pumps. As with all the ratings the higher the number the better.
As we live in the NorthEast we are much more interested in the heating capacity and need a cold climate heat pump. The HSPF rating is the most important one for us. HSPF or Heating Seasonal Performance Factor rates the heating capacity of a unit. One thing we found out was no matter what unit we purchased it would be much more energy efficient than our old unit. We also knew that the addition of a digital thermostat would help us save money over our old and less accurate one.
We liked the Trane units and know about their quality from friends and family who own Trane heat pumps. They offer several different models. The Ultra Efficiency Units offer variable speed motors and warmer air on start up. The XL19i offers a SEER of 17.9 and HSPF of 9.0. The Trane XL16i offers a SEER of 17 and a HSPF of 9.2. Both of these units have Energy Star ratings.
As we don't use air conditioning in our part of the country as much as some others do we felt we could look at units that may be a bit less expensive, have a lower SEER but that still have a high HSPF rating. The Super Efficiency Units from Trane offer a SEER of 16 and an HSPF of 9. Very good ratings. We also looked at their Standard Efficiency Units XB13 with a SEER of 13.25 and HSPF of 8.4.
We contacted three different manufacturers and looked at all their offerings. We learned that ratings are based on optimal conditions in the house, meaning a home fully and well insulated and ductwork that is in very good shape. We also learned that proper heat pumps sizes depend on the size of the home it's going to be heating and cooling. Buying an oversized unit would only waste money. We called our local Better Business Bureau and called references given to us by the installer.
That was six very cold months ago. We love our new Trane heat pump. We're glad that we did heat pump comparisons so that we had no question we were getting good value for our money.
|
