Ever wanted to know what questions need to be answered when shopping for a new heating and air conditioning system?
How to buy an air conditioner Buying an air conditioner is just like buying any other home improvement. You need to do a few things, ask yourself a few questions, and then with those answers you can fashion a air conditioning system that will suit all of you and your family’s needs and wants.
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1. Why do I want a new air conditioner? Give at least 3 answers. |
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2. Where are the hot and cold spots in my home? (All homes have them) |
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4. How much money do I pay in my average winter gas bill? (December & January) |
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5. Does noise bother me at night? Day? Is my existing A/C annoyingly noisy? |
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6. How much money am I willing to invest in an HVAC system? |
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7. How much of a down payment do I have? (Answer even you don’t plan on financing.) |
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8. If I were to finance how much money could I invest each week for this system? |
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9. When do I want the new system installed? |
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10. How much longer am I going to live in this home? |
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11. How much money have I spent on average to maintain my current system each year? |
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12. What is the square footage of my home’s living area? Exclude the garage |
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It wasn’t that many years ago that an air conditioning system was just a box sitting in a closet in your home that blew out cold air. It turned on and off and made the home a little more comfortable. At the same time the heater, forced air heater or forced air furnace, was just, once again, a box that blew out warm air and also made your home a little more comfortable. |
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There are many items on the market now that have changed the way indoor heating and air conditioning is looked at. Your central heater and central air conditioner is no longer just a couple of boxes that blow out warmed or cooled air. They are vital to your indoor air quality and they are vital to your health as well as your comfort. Some of the items on market now that haven’t been in the past are:Humidifiers, steam and bypass.Air Cleaners, true-pleated, electrostatic, electronic, HEPA, AccucleanAir Purifiers, ultra-violet –ozone –non-ozoneRemote Control, temperature anticipating, smart thermostatsZone Controls, master – non-masterMini-Split Ductless systemsDucting, N-flex, Flex duct, High R’, Green DuctSafety Overflow Controls, condensation safety systemsHigh Seer (20+), High AFUE(95.5+)Quiet Blankets, Quiet Returns, Quiet RegistersBeing a homeowner you will not know all of the advantages and disadvantages to all these components of a properly sized, properly matched and satisfaction guaranteed home air conditioning and heating comfort system.
(The picture is a humidifier that can be installed on a central furnace or central heating system. This helps to lessen the severity of allergy and asthma problems as well as dry chapped lips and itchy skin in the winter.) |
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1. Why do I want a new air conditioner, new heater? Give at least 3 answers.A great many people want an air conditioner because they are unhappy with their old air conditioner. Guess what? The majority of the time that they are unhappy with their old air conditioner is because it was installed incorrectly, the ducting is leaking horribly, and the Freon has never been charged correctly. Many times we can save the homeowner, maybe you in this case, many thousands of dollars by simply repairing their air conditioning and heating system and making run the way it should. Why 3 answers are needed? To make sure that the real reasons for replacement are taken into account so that if you do need an new air conditioner or a new heater, we are designing one that matched perfectly to your heating and air conditioning needs. We don’t want to make the same mistake as the last guy. |
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2. Where are the hot and cold spots in my home? (All homes have them)This will help to pinpoint airflow problems quickly. We will spend all day at your home going over the system and will return later if you want, but most people want their free estimate for air conditioning or their free estimate for heating within about an hour and half. You are helping us out here and allowing us to solve your immediate problems. Many times homeowners don’t even know that they have airflow problems and they simple blame their old heating and air conditioning system for being uncomfortable. Your heating and air conditioning maybe running perfectly, but if the air doesn’t get to the right areas, how can it possibly be expected to work correctly? |
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3. How much money do I pay in my average summer electric bill? (July & August)This goes directly to the money issue and how much your air conditioner is going to cost. When we start factoring in the costs of operation of the old system versus the new system and then work that into the investing price for the new system many people are very surprised. The efficiency of new air conditioners can often pay for the entire cost of the home improvement, just in utility savings. The new air conditioners are that efficient. The higher your electric bill, the higher SEER rating you should have. It is a wiser investment. |
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4. How much money do I pay in my average winter gas bill? (December & January)This goes directly to the money issue and how much your central heater is going to cost. Factoring the utility savings with a new heater helps to offset the investment amount and the new heater, much more efficient, drops in relative expense. They are much more affordable than just the surface investment amount. This also lets us know if it in advantage to you, from a utility stand point, if ultra-high efficient heaters are for you or if a run of mill minimum efficiency heating system is better suited. It is your choice, but prior to making that choice you can benefit by having the proper accurate information upon which to make that choice. |
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5. Does noise bother me at night? Day? Is my existing A/C annoyingly noisy?Usually we can guess this from the location, style, type and brand or equipment you currently have, but not always. The newer systems are quieter, but we can do a great number of things that will enhance the quiet by lowering the resonance and air noise of the outdoor unit. We can also adjust the airflow, number of registers, type of registers, location of dampers, type of ducting and length of ducting to lower airflow noise and equipment noise problems at the time of the new air conditioner and new furnace installation. Now is the time to address these issues as it is much less costly to solve them now, rather than later. |
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6. How much money am I willing to invest in an HVAC system?Sooner or later every HVAC technician or salesperson is going to get to the money question. I have been doing this, helping people just like you, in homes just like yours for nearly 30 years. The vast majority of the time when I ask this question the homeowner backs away and says they don’t know. Everyone has a price in their head, a figure that they are willing to invest or an amount they think the new heating and air conditioning system is going to be. This question is for you, you don’t need to tell me, but you need to realize that a home’s new air conditioning and heating system is an investment and if your are anything like me, money is big part of that investment. I always want to make sure that I am spending the least amount of my hard earned money and getting the most for it, don’t you. Fill in this amount even if you don’t want to share it as this is a key step in being in control. |
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7. How much of a down payment do I have? (Answer even you don’t plan on financing.)Many people get sticker shock when they are presented an investment amount for their new air conditioning and heating system. It seems like it is shock whether the amount is high or low. I had a homeowner in December 2009 tell me that she was absolutely convinced that she could have a forced air heater installed for $100.00 and told me she liked me and wanted me to perform the work for her for that $100.00. Yes, one hundred dollars. At least 50% of all the new home heaters and air conditioners that we installed are financed and most of the people signing up for the financing do not need financing. Most of the time financing your home improvement is just a wise financial move. It only takes a few minutes to get approval and the amount can usually be paid off without incurring any interest or finance charges whatsoever. |
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8. If I were to finance how much money could I invest each week for this system?
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9. When do I want the new system installed?I am sometimes surprised by some homeowners. Hardly a month goes by that someone calls me out to their home for a free estimate for air conditioning or a free estimate for heating and I go and met them. We go through the entire process, asking questions, sizing, going over the math and then I ask them when they thinking about a new system installation and they respond with; “oh, we were thinking about installing the new system next year”. I don’t know what next year is going to bring. I don’t know what the cost of materials is going to be. In the last three years we have seen the cost of equipment double and this year labor went down, but in the previous two years labor was skyrocketing. New air conditioners and new heaters are made of metals, copper, steel and aluminum. These are commodities and they go up and down in the stock market on a regular basis. I can only keep the price quotes for up to a maximum of 30 days. Our prices are cut to bone for you and any increases in material prices will need to be reflected in the installation amount. There most likely will never be time when prices will be lower than right now. That is just a fact. |
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10. How much longer am I going to live in this home?
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11. How much money have I spent on average to maintain my current system each year?
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12. What is the square footage of my home’s living area? Exclude the garage.This just helps speed things along when we are sizing your new heating and air conditioning system. Don’t think for an instant that you need the same size as you currently have. Sizing an air conditioning is about taking into account the entire heat load for the home. This includes those plasma screen tvs that are heating up your bedroom and living room. Home now a higher A/C load than they used to, but the old system is typically oversized and costing too much to operate while not giving the maximum amount of comfort. Things having been changing. Take for instance the size of your forced air heating system. If your system is 30 years old it most likely started off as 65% to 70% AFUE furnace. AFUE stands for annual fuel utilization efficiency. You gotta know that was written by a bureaucrat. What this means is that 30 years ago that 100,000 btu furnace (100 makes the math easier) was only putting out a maximum of 70,000 btus and the other 30,000 was going right up the furnace chimney. That is 100,000 time 0.70. It is probably nowhere near that efficient anymore, but we will run with that number. The newest high AFUE furnaces are 95.5% AFUE. So if you replace that old 100,000 btu 70% AFUE furnace with a new 100,000 btu 95.5% AFUE furnace you are now going to receive 95,500 btus in the home instead of the originally sized 70,000 btus. That means the new same size furnace is actually 36% larger than it needs to be. This can cause wild temperature fluctuations and high gas bills. We are here to provide you comfort, not uncomfort. |
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You have the questionnaire so please fill it out and give us a call at (877) 247-6426 and let help you by matching you up to the perfect furnace for you, your home and your family. |
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The 7 Steps to Picking a Heating and Air Conditioning Company. Not all companies are created equal and care. You aren’t going to know if the slick salesperson that comes to your home or the proficient technician is looking out for your best interest. These people spend day after day dealing with people and many will only tell you what you want to hear in an attempt to sell you something without regard to whether or not you are going to benefit by it. 1. Insist upon using only a licensed contractor.The California Sate Contractors License Board governs these contractors and they govern them in your favor. If a company’s owner cannot get a State Contractor’s License, then they are either a convicted felon or they really don’t know what they are doing. There are three tests to become a contractor. The law test governing home improvement laws (Business and Professions Code), the 3 hour trade test (It took me 20 minutes to pass) and the open book asbestos exam. It isn’t difficult and it costs about $500. 2. Insist upon seeing that they have workers compensation insurance.If one of their employees gets hurt on your property and they don’t have workers compensation you have to pay for damages, lost worker time and retraining. Injuries are serious thing and the insurance is expensive. The current rate for heating and air conditioning technicians is $23 per hundred of payroll. That means if I pay one of my technicians $1,000 a week to work for me I must pay $230 insurance each week. Many companies skirt the laws to your disadvantage illegally calling their workers “Independent Contractors”. This does not protect you. 3. Insist upon seeing General Liability Insurance.General liability insurance is not required for heating and air conditioning contractors. Not having this type of insurance good leave you out in the cold if your heating system malfunction because of a act of omission by the heating and air conditioning company. 4. Insist upon a city permit for all work that requires a permit (furnace change out, new ducting, new condensing unit, etc.).The city inspector works for you, not the contractor. It is his job to protect you from shoddy craftsmanship. The only that I know to skip the permit process is to skimp on materials and labor. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like paying full price for work that is only halfway done. 5. Do not give a down payment of more than 10% or $1,000, whichever is less.That is the law. There is not a week that goes by that I don’t hear about a homeowner paying for heating and air conditioning work in advance and then the heating and air conditioning contractor, or alleged air conditioning and heating contractor, never showing back up to perform the work. 6. Insist upon Comfort Certification.This is certification of continuing education. All of the Heating and air conditioning technicians here at The Empire Family of Services are Comfort Certified. 7. Don’t pay them in full until the job passes inspection.Withhold 10% of the job amount until the job is inspected and passes city inspection. If the contractor is paid in full, why do they need make haste to fix any problems with your heating and air conditioning system? |
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We work on all furnaces and heaters including Rheem furnace, Ruud furnace, Carrier furnace, Day and Night furnace, Bryant furnace, Lennox furnace, Ducane furnace, Premier furnace, York furnace, Heil furnace, Tempstar furnace, Coleman furnace, Red t furnace, Cozy furnace, Empire furnace, Williams furnace, Interthem furnace, Trane furnace, American Standard furnace and more. Some of the cities that we work in are: Aliso Viejo, Anaheim, Brea, Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Cypress, Dana Point, El Toro, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Irvine, La Habra, La Palma, Laguna Beach, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods, Lake Forest, Los Alamitos, Mission Viejo, Newport Beach, Orange, Placentia, Rancho Santa Margarita, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Seal Beach, Stanton, Tustin, Trabuco Canyon, Villa Park, Westminster, Yorba Linda, Sunset Beach, Bell Gardens, Bellflower, Carson, Cerritos, Commerce, Diamond Bar, Downey, Gardena, Hawaiian Gardens, Industry, La Habra Heights, Lakewood, La Mirada, Long Beach, Lynwood, Montebello, Norwalk, Palos Verdes, Paramount, Pico Rivera, Rancho Palos Verdes, Santa Fe Springs, Signal Hill, South Gate, Whittier We specialize in heating repair, furnace repair, air conditioning repair, a/c repair, a c repair, duct repair, duct cleaning. We also install new air conditioning, new a/c systems, new furnaces, new heaters and new heating systems. We work on heat pumps, split air conditioning systems, water furnaces, hydronic heaters, package air conditioners and mini split ductless systems. Print this A/C checklist before you have a service technician come to your home |
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You will be 100% Satisfied and I am betting my paycheck on it! |
We guarantee everything we do. |
"The service today was great! No pressure during the sale and the installation looks professional" |
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Keith Griffen |
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"Dean and Oscar were very cordial and exceptionally helpful and polite. I'm very grateful they were here to do the fine work they did." |
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Mercedes Hernandez
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"Your two men, John and Scott, were here when they were supposed to be, handled the job in an efficient manner, cleaned my furnace motor, sprayed the vent covers. I was very impressed and they both deserve a lot of credit for having to perform such a messy and dirty job while keeping everything so clean." |
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Hazel La Vigne |