Heat Pumps
 

I think our heat pump is not large enough.

Curious while looking at all the units in the new neighborhood we moved into I noticed that Munns installs 2.5 ton units.

Sunshine installs 3 ton units. I have talked with a couple of the other owners with the 2.5 units and everyone says the same thing. The rooms the farthest from the Air Handler are harder to get cooled down. I have not had a chance to talk with the owner of a 3 ton.

When I talked with the builder he said it is all figured out differently for each house. But it seems weird that every house that has a Munns unit they are 2.5 and every house that has a 3 ton unit are Sunshine.

A rough rule of thumb is that you need at least a ton of a.c. for every 600 square feet of space. But, installing additional insulation in the attic will help to improve the cooling ability. Also, adding power ventilation in the attic will help.

Kind of not my point why is Sunshine installing 3 ton and Munns 2.5 on the same houses? These are all new homes closed on in the last couple of months all the same size.

I don't know, just hope it is there on Tuesday.

THE VERY SAME HOUSE? THE SAME SIZE? ARE YOU SURE? That doesn't sound like anything the management would contract for differently.

Warranty would be the right people to consult.

Hope it is a worrisome thing on Tuesday. It pales in comparison to other things looming just now.

You will of course get tons of opinions
 

It is all a balancing act. A major issue is removal of humidity.
A too large unit will not only cost you more to run but will run less so will not remove the humidity as well. The result is you will have a home that is too cold and too damp.

You say you have one section that does not cool well. That is a distribution problem. Remember your ducts pass through your HOT attic. You should check that first of all the vent is fully open. You should also check that your ducts are properly insulated and properly connected in your attic. Have you changed the filter?

I suspect when a heat gain/loss is done for each design the results are affected by even the slightest differences in layout.

The results are probably in a range of ratings like 2.5-3.0, etc.

Most likely a function of current inventory and experience of the different providers.

When it comes to HVAC it does not necessarily follow that more is better.

Just thinking out loud.

I expect that is incorrect
 

The Villages runs a tight ship. They do use different contractors frankly to spread the business around. If they used only one, there would be only one and they would have all of us by the ........

If, you have a certain model there is a spec on what size AC the contractor must install.

If, you have an issue and it is a new home, you have a FIVE YEAR WARRANTY. Call the company that put it in.
Like anything else there are some defective units. I know someone who had the compressor, outside unit, replaced for FREE.

All of the above has been checked in the last couple of days. Two of the exact same house models EXACTLY THE SAME. Side by Side. Munns installs a 2.5 ton unit and Sunshine a 3 ton unit. Same thing across the street. Two exact house right next to each other. Munns unit 2.5 Sunshine 3 ton. Are you starting to get my point.

Hopefully some HVAC folks will chime in if I deviate too far from reality. In Florida, a so-called "Manual J" computation is required. This is a heat load calculation for the house and considers a large number of different variables such as orientation of the house, the size, location, number, and quality of the windows, the wall and roof insulation, the area you live in, etc. This computation, which by the way is available on-line for your house on one of The Villages or County websites, specifies the heat load in units of BTUs/hour assuming a certain outside temperature and humidity and a desired inside temperature and humidity. Next, a duct work design must be done to make sure that a sufficient amount of airflow can be delivered to each room. When it comes to the actual equipment selection, the cooling losses with the duct work and other inefficiencies must be considered. One "ton" of AC is 12,000 BTUs/hour. A system that is factory rated for 3 tons (36,000 BTUs/hour) may not be sufficient for a house with a heat load of 36,000 BTUs/hour because of cooling losses associated with the duct work and the fact that factory ratings of cooling power may not be achievable in the field. A system factory rated at 3.5 tons may be required for a house with a Manual J calculation of 3 tons, as an example.

OK, so that is the basics. I believe you have a reasonable expectation that the variation in temperature across the house should be no more than a couple of degrees. Assuming you are seeing larger variations than this, your HVAC contractor may be able to modify the duct work to provide more air flow, and subsequent cooling, to the impacted room(s). Regarding the size of your system, I would first check out the Manual J calculation for your house. I don't recall the website but you should be able to find it with some googling. Since the orientation of your house (north/south or east/west orientation) may be different than your neighbors, the heat load calculation, and the selected equipment size, may be different. Also, keep in mind that with the mostly single zone installations and a centrally located thermostat, it can be difficult to maintain completely uniform temperatures across the house. If you have a warm room with southwest facing windows and no window coverings, maintaining a desired temperature may be difficult. Ideally, the Manual J calculation and subsequent duct work design would provide the necessary air flow for southwest facing rooms as that is part of the design process but window coverings, or lack there of, may not be accurately accounted for. I also suggest you discuss your concerns with your HVAC contractor and open a ticket with the Warranty Department. This way you will start a paper trail. Ultimately, I believe some possible rework of the duct work and/or window treatments will be your solution. I believe they are reasonably accurate about equipment sizing. Also, oversizing of the equipment is not a good thing as it may impact humidity control by having the system not run long enough. I hope this helps.

On my street, the 2-bedroom courtyard villas have 2.5 ton units, but the 3-bedroom villas have 3 ton units. All were installed by Munn's.

We recently sold a Gardenia & purchased another Gardenia. The house we sold was standard with no stretches & no radiant roof barrier. My new Gardenia has stretches & a radiant roof barrier. We had a 3 ton unit in the one we sold & we now have a 2.5 ton unit in the new home. Our current home because of the radiant roof barrier, the cooling load in the house is not as great.


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Munn's charged me $300+ to basically change an AC capacitor.
 

Munn's charged me $300+ to basically change an AC capacitor.


Attachment 71466

This is the OEM Carrier dual capacitor
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...a3a7712831.png




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Thank you Wiotte

Sorry to original posting; I know this is off topic therefrom; to others, please continue with 2.5 ton vs. 3.0 ton units.

Meanwhile: they showed up within in an hour of my discovering the emergency, and they had the part. Should I complain to them about the size of the bill? Everyone else says "$130-ish is the going rate". Does withing-the-hour service count for more than 2x the going rate, I wonder?

Just be glad they showed up and fixed it. I'd let it go. It's high but not astronomical [emoji6]


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