AC guy is here, and guess who needs to buy “a whole new unit? Nothing is compatible since they changed all the refrigerants.”
I’m supposed to be at the beach. Buy a house, they said. You’ll build equity, they said.
I’m going to just go lie in the fetal position under the covers.
paradox
[chuckles] Look, dude, you could have got married too, and dealing with a woman along with the house.
Tom Levenson
Garage doors here a few weeks ago.
Multiple “minor” siding and window trim repairs and repainting next month.
Chimney cleaning after that.
I was hoping to get one last early fall trip to the mountains. Not happening.
Major Major Major Major
Aw no! At least you have us!
My mom always says you should buy a house only because you want a house, since plenty of other investments give you much greater returns :)
John Cole
@Major Major Major Major: where was your mother two years ago
chopper
had to replace my outdoor unit this summer. luckily, while it was 20 years old, it was one of the new refrigerant ones. still cost a bundle.
Aardvark Cheeselog
Once you buy a new A/C, you have a new A/C. That has its benefits.
Gin & Tonic
Fall starts this weekend. Forget the AC and open the windows.
different-church-lady
Well, a house always seems expensive until 10 years pass and you hear that other people are paying more for renting an apartment than you are for your mortgage.
Yutsano
The more I read/hear about the travails of home ownership…the much more less likely I become to buying a house.
Unless I win the lottery. Then I can just pay people to deal with it for me.
different-church-lady
@Gin & Tonic: What, and let the hurricane in?
terraformer
If it’s any consolation, we’ve made three interstate moves in the past 10 years. Each of those was to a single family home, and for each of them, we needed to install a completely new HVAC system, including air conditioner and furnace. I have become a goddamn expert at HVAC systems.
One of them was a geothermal system ($$$). So we bought 3 homes, each of them needed a new system, and then we moved again – giving the new owners peace of mind for this big ticket item that we have yet to enjoy ourselves…
john b
Exact same thing happened to us about three months ago. We’re finally digging out of that $10,000 hole. But I will say that springing for the more efficient fancier model was a good choice for us and it has been a very comfortable summer since.
Major Major Major Major
@John Cole: Denver?
Corner Stone
@Gin & Tonic: You’re just dying to get him to tells us all again how his balls are sticking to other parts of his body, aren’t you?
JPL
John that really sucks, and I’m sorry. Did the rental insurance pay off?
cliosfanboy
When you curl up take a dog with you. It helps.
Spanky
@Aardvark Cheeselog: … which meant vastly lower electric bills, in our experience.
Don’t be surprised if the new unit pays for itself in about 10 years.
(Don’t ask what the life expectancy is of the new unit either.)
Steeplejack (tablet)
Bummer, dude. My condolences. I guess the bright side is that you get to pick out exactly what you want and it’ll be quiet, energy-efficient and last for a long time.
Yutsano
And since this thread is probably open, the parental units celebrate 49 years together today.
Grover Gardner
John Cole, did get a second opinion? Make sure it isn’t the capacitor (that’s all it was when mine broke down this summer). And you CAN still get the older refrigerant, it’s just more expensive–but like a few hundred bucks, not thousands.
Gin & Tonic
@Corner Stone: I can actually make it through the day without that image, thanks.
Corner Stone
I’m pretty sure I had a few things to say about home ownership. But it’s like casting pearls before swine around this place sometimes.
Spanky
Hey! The CNN home page wants to help you out with your house. Here are the “headlines” midway down:
It’s almost like a news organization wants to sell you something.
Kay
They’re better now! More efficient. Some things have actually improved.
You’re going to end up with the shell of an old house and the guts of a new house and that’s as it should be.
Emma
Hey John try $23000 for a whole new yard. Thank you Irma!
WaterGirl
@John Cole: I went through that a couple of years ago. It was a giant pain in the ass, but the furnace was much quieter and my gas & electric bills went way down. One thing I recall was that the two-stage something or other related to heating was a really good idea. Good luck! This, too, shall pass.
I used something like these documents to help give me a clue:
2018 HVAC Buying Guide
Consumer Reports Central Air Conditioning Buying Guide
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Yutsano: Congrats to the parental units.
Kay
@Spanky:
So funny. I see it more and more. They’re mad that people aren’t borrowing on home equity like they did. They’re mad that people might have learned something since the last time these same experts crashed the economy.
They want us all deeply in debt, forever. They cannot stand that there is money sitting there that they aren’t skimming. I’m convinced they think it’s actually their money and we’re just stubbornly refusing to let them have it.
Major Major Major Major
@Yutsano: wow!
namekarB
@Grover Gardner: Excellent advice. Get a 2nd and a 3rd opinion (but stay mum on the 1st inspection). They may recommend the same solution but at least you will see a variety of options.
?BillinGlendaleCA
We did the HVAC replacement about 10 years ago(and then sold the place 2 years later), but it worked so much better and quieter. I think we paid around 5k.
The Moar You Know
@different-church-lady: Ten years, hell. I know the SoCal housing market is a thing of never ending insanity, but when I bought my house it knocked five hundred bucks a month off my housing bill that day.
It’s been twelve years now and that number is up to about $1100.
In areas like WV I am certain it doesn’t work that way. I am guessing their prices are at best stable.
Yutsano
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Grazie! I’m taking my 98 year old grandfather out to dinner so they can go celebrate.
@Major Major Major Major: I need to talk to my brothers about doing something for their 50. But yeah I’m kind of surprised they made it this far. Especially since they’re both retired and can’t get away from each other now.
Spanky
@Kay: Two columns over:
That actually reeks of desperation!
satby
@Yutsano: pass my congratulations to your parents! 49 years, well done!
sixthdoctor
Having replaced our AC unit this year, we did not have a good experience with Sears, and when mentioning that to others the response was almost universally “Well, duh, no kidding.” So, just an (anti-)recommendation…
Brendan in NC
It could be worse. I’m spending an average of 2 extra mortgage payments per year in HOA special assessments for my condo. Just paid one to get a new roof on our buildings…and they’re not going to add roof vents for the bathroom fans. So I’ll spend another mortgage payment to have them come back and add one for me early next year…
Bruce K
@Kay:
For I don’t know how long, the idea that home equity was being wasted if it wasn’t being borrowed against seems to have been Received Wisdom from On High (or however the phrase goes), even to the point where in law school, our Business Associations professor proselytized about it. This was back in about 2000 or 2001, well before the crash, but even back then, I was afraid of the failure mode of that sort of thinking.
Insisting that other people ignore the past so you can get back to the same behavior that caused the last crash … isn’t a good look.
Aleta
@Aardvark Cheeselog: I like this philosophy.
A
Dude, you’re like my doppelgänger.
Had to replace everything this summer because of the switch to R-410.
Plus, we went to shows at the same time during the 80s and early 90s. Plus, you get pissed off easily.
Kay
@Spanky:
OMG, no shame.
Let them be. They’re busy building a huge mountain of debt which will then ERUPT like a volcano and cover us all in hot lava! That’s their job.
Matt McIrvin
This is where you curse the damn treehuggers and their ozone fake news. (Really, it’ll be better.)
Kay
@Bruce K:
It’s like Social Security. To them, it’s money just sitting there that they could be getting a piece of. That will not stand!
Schlemazel
@Yutsano:
Very nice. Just passed 45 & it is hard to imagine all those years
Congratulations to them
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: We just paid off our mortgage and Chase spent weeks acting like a needy jilted boyfriend. No, baby, I can make it right, I can be a better guy…
sam
I know this may be a stupid suggestion for West Virginia, but…can you get away with window units? They have super efficient ones these days, and various devices that let you control them remotely via phone/computer to save energy (I use these in my apartment in NYC). Maybe at least temporarily to get you through the rest of this summer so that you don’t melt?
My parents have an old farmhouse in western Massachusetts that doesn’t have central AC, and so they installed window units in some of the rooms for really hot days. They were looking at installing ductless AC, but that ended up being more trouble than it was worth, given the layout of the house (and the fact that they just put it up for sale because it’s too much property and stairs for folks getting older)
Doug R
This might be a good time to look at insulation and other energy efficiency options. If it’s an old place without much insulation, you might be able to lower your bills and cut down on heating/cooling for a lot less than a new ac system. Or you may be able to get a smaller cheaper system combined with efficiencies.
Fred Fnord
You’re building equity: equity between yourself and the working man. By giving them all your money.
Corner Stone
@Kay: They didn’t quite get it all last time they crashed the economy, and they can’t stand it. They want the tiny portion that’s still owned by regular folk. And they can get it a little easier if you’ll just take that HELOC and use it for a nice family vacation! Or maybe a brand new car for the daughter going to college! Anything that has no inherent value so when the crunch comes, they got you.
dnfree
You have the misfortune to have bought a house in a rural-ish area that’s not growing in population or jobs. So have we. My brothers in northern California, on the other hand….
Way back in the 1960s, my boss told me that HIS father told him never to look at a house as an investment. A house is a place to live. That’s wisdom for the ages except in a few places, but those places seem to get the publicity.
schrodingers_cat
@Corner Stone: Eeww TMI. Nobody needs that level of detail.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Yutsano: My dad’s 99th would have been tomorrow.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@schrodingers_cat: Then don’t read Cole’s Twitter feed, you’ve been warned.
Schlemazel
@Spanky:
We bought in a more urban place 25 years ago. It is a lovely older home (1936) but not a premier neighborhood. We dropped $50k to upgrade plumbing/heating/electric in 2005. After the crash in 07 we might have broken even but probably were under water. Prices have gone up here slower than average. I wouldn’t trade the house or my neighbors for further out in the burbs but I am not counting on retirement money from this place either. Home ownership is not the investment it was 70-30 years ago
The one ‘good’ thing is: radiator heat so AC costs a couple hundred bucks a window. One upstairs & one down
stan
In Pittsburgh? Who needs AC? Seriously.
I am in a similar climate and we don’t have AC in our old house. We use a few fans and one window unit when it gets really bad.
Our utility bills are a LOT lower than the average for our neighborhood as a result. And I feel slightly better about my carbon footprint.
Our grandparents lived without AC. We can too.
Kay
@Corner Stone:
I hate it because if you really look at it a big part of “the middle class” is relatively small intergenerational transfers of money. 10 0r 20 or 30 thousand dollars passed to the next generation when they need it (when they are starting out) is huge.
Timing is everything.
They don’t want us to have that to give them. We have to spend it all, now. So younger people START in debt. They want them burdened like pack mules right at the start.
dybevick
Once you finally give in and decide to sign the papers for the expensive new two stage unit, spring for the programmable thermostat that is *easy to program*.
Setting up a pattern and changing it maybe once or twice a year can improve your life quality and save money.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@stan:
My grandfather was born in 1884, he lived the first years of his life without A/C and refrigerators, and airplanes, and cell phones…
raven
We’re in the middle of replacing the roof on both our houses. It’s great thatm they are insured but the $3k in deductibles stings a bit.
donnah
A few years ago, our water heater croaked three days after Thanksgiving. Gulp, but not panic. Then a few days after Christmas, our furnace died. In Ohio, that’s snow time. We had been expecting it to go, since it was 25 years old, but the timing was terrible; no money after the holidays.
We had it replaced, a/c and heat, and we immediately realized that this new thing was super quiet and the heat was eve and consistent. We no longer had to turn the TV volume up when the furnace kicked on! And the new thermostat unit is like a little iPad on the wall, with digital touchscreen and remote operation.
So my first trip away from home I upped the temperature to 85 because I knew my husband was there, and texted to ask him if it felt toasty there. He said he was cursing the new system for breaking already (oops) and laughed when I told him I was messing with him.
We’ve saved money on energy bills. It was a necessary thing to do.
MattF
Yeah, new HVAC for me, about six months ago. The story was that the roof of my condo building was being replaced, so all the rooftop heat pumps had to be moved off the rooftop. Therefore, it was a good time to get a new one. New one is bigger, new type of refrigerant, and, after rebates, was about the same cost as the old one. Also, connected via WiFi (mumble mumble) so I get software updates and regular friendly reminders to change the air filter.
And it seems to work, so I’m not complaining much. Seems to be a bit more efficient than the old one.
Fair Economist
My husband wants to replace our perfectly fine, if 20 years old, AC. He is concerned that our current one will wear out faster and doesn’t seem to understand that that is not a reason to replace a unit on good working condition. Even the AC salesman he invited in said we shouldn’t replace it! But he is still trying to talk me into it.
Kay
I have an older house so I’m not making fun of you, but my son is an electrician and he thinks people romanticize old houses.
I wanted him to buy mine and he was like “oh, God no. Everything is much better now. I’d have to replace everything with better, modern materials” :)
Really takes the whole shine off the thing, he does.
Humdog
John, about feeling “less of a man” because you don’t know about AC or auto repair. That attitude really sells skilled laborers short. They either had a talent or worked hard to develop a skill that is not just something that grows on a man like testicles. You expect to wake up with an earned skill? You have your own skills and the wisdom to know what falls outside them so take your pride there. And stop insulting skilled laborers by assuming anyone with a dick can do that work.
Schlemazel
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
HA! I was 22 before I lived in a place with AC. The tundra get hot for a few weeks every summer & we managed with fans and flipping the pillow over to the cool side. I do not want to do that again. those were not ‘the good ol days’. Yes, we are spoiled
Amir Khalid
What happened to the formatting?
Ohio Mom
Regarding our house, which has a bad basement — everything we’ve done makes another part of the basement out of wack: I think of the mortgage payments as rent.
It would have cost us something every month no matter where we lived. And maybe if we are lucky, we’ll get enough back when we sell the place to reimburse us for all the repairs.
I don’t think in terms of equity, just breaking even. Though it was a hard adjustment accepting this.
Ohio Mom
Holy money, is that an Edit button I see? How wonderful!
Betty Cracker
One year we had to replace a roof AND the A/C. That year sucked.
My dad’s side of the family were pioneers in Florida, scratching out a living in hot, humid swamps many decades before A/C made the state inhabitable. So, there’s proof that I come from a long line of idiots.
MattF
@Ohio Mom: Also, in-real-life, when (and if) home values rise, the full rise tends to happen in a short time– the rest of the time the value (and therefore the equity) stays constant. So those ‘smart’ financial planners who tell you to pay off your mortgage asap are wrong.
Amir Khalid
@Ohio Mom:
I don’t even see formatting on the page.
Aleta
@Corner Stone: Nah you’re being selfish. They need to buy a house for the daughter going off to college. It just makes sense. Drives up prices for young families, she gets roommate rent and better parties. (Tbh it probably does make sense if they have money.)
schrodingers_cat
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I rarely do.
Haroldo
@terraformer:
I am currently in the process of becoming a goddamn expert in HVAC systems for exactly the same reason.
@John Cole: to my perverse way of thinking you are lucky. You will get to use and enjoy your new HVAC system. We are not so lucky – the potential buyers of our old place get to bask in the wonderfulness of heating, cooling, and dehumidification, whereas we said let’s rely on just the ol’ pellet stove, space heaters, and the single window AC. We made do, but it was a slog.
martha
John, check and see if your electricity provider offers any rebates for HVAC replacements. Also, as others have said, you’ll pay less each month for the power you do use. When we upgraded at our old house, the difference in both comfort and monthly costs was surprisingly improved. Sorry though…
cintibud
I feel the pain. A/C went out and we decided it’s time to replace the 30 year old furnace even though it runs great. Cheaper to have both done at once and we know we are on borrowed time with the furnace. Of course I am having shoulder surgery next month so I will also hit my 6500 buck medical deductible. And I was hoping to retire next year. Oh well
RobertB
You can replace the old R-22 refrigerant with propane. Let us know how this works out. :)
eclare
@sam: I was thinking the same about window units. I live in Memphis, with the lovely summers that make you feel like you’ve been poached, and I have an older house with window units. Plus, to me the big bonus is that if one of mine goes out, I have three others!
cintibud
And yes, the formatting is quite strange. I’m not seeing the edit button that someone reported either
Luthe
You know, I saw the post title on Cole’s Twitter feed and had a moment of hope he was talking about more bad news for the (mal)Adminstration and not further household disaster.
raven
@Fair Economist: Our HVAC dude keeps saying not to do that until it absolutely has to be done. They say the new, digital ones just don’t hold up like the older ones.
raven
New HVAC is better for the house itself, especially old houses.
Keith P.
So….Mario Kart, huh?
cintibud
…but I closed and reopened firefox and my name is still in the box! Yay! Thanks Alain!
MattF
@raven: Wouldn’t surprise me. However ‘digital’ covers a multitude of sins. On my new HVAC, the thermostat is digital, but everything else looks traditional.
Seanly
You could be saddled with a rental property after you had to move from SC to ID because you lost your job. And then you and the wife hang on to the property for another 7 years, losing money every month. We were just hoping that the market would turn around enough to break even.*
We’re hoping to sell the place this fall. Not sure how bad the Lexington SC area was affected by Florence. Seems like NC took the brunt of the storm.
* We thought about foreclosing, but we were in a grey area where we had equity, but not quite enough.
Ajabu
If it makes you feel any better, I bought my first house in an upscale area of the Oakland Hills in 1970.
A young musician, with no job. Couldn’t have qualified for anything but food stamps.
Original owner carried the paper at 5%. I paid $1500 down, bought it for $27K. Payment was $185 mo.
With my remarkable business acumen, five year later I moved to LA to become a studio musician and sold the house
for $62K (thinking I was making a killing. —In the Bay Area — before it went insane.)
It’s currently valued at over $2 million – and I don’t own it. That’s why I will continue to work till I die. Oh, well…
Bess
Investigat mini-split heat pumps. WV has cheap electricity.
With a mini-split you can control temperature in individual rooms. No need to heat or cool a room you rarely enter.
As far as home ownership, it’s nice to enter retirement with a paid off house and no monthly rent to pay. Just retire into an easy to maintain house.
JWL
The silver lining, Cole, is that today’s AC’s are lights out superior to what your replacing. First of all, you stand to recoup much of the money in reduced electrical bills. I handled just such a replacement for an elderly relative of mine 10 yards ago, and the difference in quality was night and day- his monthly bill nosedived and his old house heated up in a fraction of the time. I know how you feel, though. I felt the same when I finally bit the bullet and replaced my roof. When I got the estimates, I was so appalled I deferred the job for a full year. Picked the wrong year to wait, however. It was just two winters ago, when California’s drought broke and the rains in Sonoma county were biblical for weeks on end. My patched roof didn’t hold, and my wallet wept more tears than it otherwise would have. It was very,very $ad. Like the Everly Brothers, I did my crying in the rain watching it fall inside my kitchen. That said, the new roof has transformed my house for the better (including my own heating bills), my only real regret is that I didm’t replace it
sooner.
The Moar You Know
Regarding Wi-FI controlled climate units: my father got a Lennox unit last year. And a couple of months later, started getting emails from someone in Germany, and then someone at his ISP. I took one look.
Now, here’s what’s special: I do IT security. And I’d set up a firewall at his house. The emails were accurate. Pulled the logs. The fucking Lennox WiFi controller was infected with at least two different malware/botnet packages. One trying to phone home for instructions, one trying to DDoS someone in Germany. We called the contractor and had him come out, yank the unit and replace it with a manual controller. He very clearly thought we were insane, but fuckem, they are selling WiFI appliance controllers infected from the factory of origin with malware. I was pissed. And because it’s on your network, your network is totally compromised unless you’re going encrypted for all your home traffic, which is usually not possible to do.
Don’t get WiFi enabled anything. Yes, it’s convenient. And as the IT people are finding out the hard way, it’s either compromised at the source or easily compromised later.
J R in WV
Sears. When my MIL needed new siding on 3/4 of her house (front was brick) she made 3 appointments on Wednesday with 3 contractors, at like 9am 11am and 3 pm…
The Sears guy showed up a day early, and offered to do the job for $12,000, and told C that that great offer was only available that day, it was a special sale, which was why he came early. She called daughter, my wife. Material so savedfor that job based upon that week’s lumber store ad was under $2K, closer to $1,200. We urged her not to make a deal for $12K, that it was a rip-off.
In the end, when the other contractors came out, their bids were in the $3,200 range, so saved retired school teacher $8,800 plus some taxes.
And now that Sears is practically bankrupt… being managed by an Ayn Rand acolyte who thinks making departments of his business compete with one another rather than work together to lower costs and raise profits… we stopped even trying to do business with them.
On the other hand a new HVAC unit will be a better unit. So don’t cry about it, just bite the bullet and buy the best designed and built unit you can get, strongly recommend consulting Consumer Reports on a costly purchase like this one, although I don’t trust their car reviews as much as I once did.
L85NJGT
Structures are capital sinkholes – the land has the value, and should appreciate in value depending on location, use, etc.
You should probably cost out the savings on the new, efficient unit, i.e. where’s the break point. Spoonful of sugar and all that, but Kay is right – changed use patterns due to greater electrical efficiencies is a factor in the decline of coal power generation.
MattF
@The Moar You Know: Ugh. I guess I’d like to know if my HVAC is trying to call home. But how?
trollhattan
Our electricity utility just announced they’re dropping the other shoe following converting everybody to smart meters, time-of-use pricing beginning next summer. Thus, between 5 and 8 in the evening the rate will more than double. “No prob, just use your appliances during the low-cost periods, win-win.”
But that’s not how it works. The A/C is on then, because that’s when it’s hot, plus dinner is cooked, etc. Okay, we can maybe skip the clothes dryer but what the hell is the option when the peak rate precisely matches the hottest time of day? Oooh, maybe just stay at work until 8.
Which is a roundabout way of saying a new HVAC system may pay for itself. Eventually. Or maybe PV panels aimed to the west. If only Trump hadn’t slapped on that tariff.
trollhattan
@The Moar You Know:
Whoa, that’s eye-popping. Seems as though the intelligence community would want to know about that. If only somebody competent and concerned were in charge.
Kelly
We’re retired living in a paid off house. I consider the rent avoided a nice chunk of tax free income.
Schlemazel
Earther has published some great pictures of the aftermath of Flo
https://earther.gizmodo.com/aerial-photos-reveal-the-devastation-left-by-florence-1829104928
The Midnight Lurker
Tell your story walking’, Mr. Cole.
A/C drain pump went out. Beyond my ability to repair. I have to siphon off the water every other day or it leaks through the ceiling over the damn bookcase of all places! If we can make it another month, bailing the boat as it were, we can wait until next year to get the fucking thing fixed.
The foundation’s shifted, the house needs paint, new doors on the bedroom and office. The bathroom ceiling is crumbling. The tub needs to be replaced (I already have the replacement, just have to find the freakin’ time!). An outlet in the kitchen now overheats too easily. The fridge is thirty and is on it’s last leg. I still have to replace half of the old windows (it’s an old house) with new energy efficient windows. I need insulation. Weather striping. Portions of the fence need repairing or replacing. And there’s a big crack in the drive that reminds me more every day of the San Andreas fault line.
To hell with the house. THE YARD! Mrs. Lurker has prohibited the use or any and all pesticides for the last three decades. What she sees as the perfect, pesticide-free, natural, life-teeming backyard environment, I know to be only ravenous frontier land that took many of my ancestors to an early grave. Armed only with used coffee grinds and orange oil, I maintain a constant vigil against the native flora and fauna that I know would kill me given the chance.
I’ve owned my house outright for twenty five years. Equity? It’s a fuckin’ fairy book story they tell new home buyers.
Brachiator
Damn. At least you are keeping a grim sense of humor about it.
Hang in there. If you are into movies, you might want to avoid “The Money Pit” (1986) and “Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House” (1948) for a while. Or watch them and commiserate.
ruemara
@paradox: dealing with a woman
Idjit.
Congrats to Yutsy’s parentals! I hope you have some exciting celebration planned. Yes, go take your parents hang gliding. Wait, I think my parents are somewhere at the 40s.
Sorry, about the house JC. But not sorry. There were times I despaired of one more damned thing to fix in the house, but, there’s something about having a space that’s yours. This too shall pass and you know you love decorating your home, the garden and having your friends & family over. Is. OK.
raven
@MattF: That’s very true.
ruemara
@The Moar You Know: Sheesh. Glad I am a late adopter. Do you have any more on this? My lab is studying WiFi controllers for lights and I want to ask if they’ve checked for this.
trollhattan
@The Midnight Lurker:
That stuff does pile up. I’d love a non-Roundup life but my decades-long jihad against bermuda grass dictates I keep the stuff around in support of our now turf-free yard.
Is your condensate pump a standalone unit? Ours is and can be repaired or replaced for not that much money. If it’s integrated, then I don’t know but perhaps the water can be piped into a separate unit. I’ve done the bucket thing. No mas.
I think Alain’s having a laff–the whole site just switched to, not exactly comic sans but some kind of script font.
Bess
@trollhattan: As you say, solar panels pointed west. Cool your house down a bit extra pre the 5 PM rate increase. Increase insulation and solar shading as possible. Replacing regular screen wire with solar screening on windows directly hit by the Sun can make a large difference in heat gain.
Bess
@Bess: Forgot to add. There are plenty solar panels coming in from countries that are not China as well as panels made in the US. Europe is dropping their tariffs on Chinese panels so look for Europe to get cheaper panels from China and for the US to get slightly more expensive panels from countries like Malaysia.
The Moar You Know
@trollhattan: Hell, Lennox didn’t want to hear about it. REALLY didn’t want to even talk about it.
The “intelligence community”, WRT to IT issues, is making their budgets running down kiddie porn producers/consumers, which I’m fine with, but because that pays so well they’re really not focused on anything else. Like election security, as you may have noticed.
raven
Air Conditioners Really Are Getting Better
New air conditioners perform significantly better, last longer, and run quieter than past models.
Matt McIrvin
@Humdog: Truth. I love the electricians’ bumper sticker that says “wiring is not a hobby”.
Gin & Tonic
@ruemara: If you’re on Twitter, a good follow is @internetofshit.
The Moar You Know
@ruemara: The lights are frequently compromised, can’t remember the brand right now but I’ve dealt with one that absolutely was. You just need a traffic analyzer, it’s really not hard to find. Give it a live connection and watch it start sending packets.
Read the “Internet of Shit” Twitter feed for daily examples. The only conclusion you can come to is that all this stuff is compromised, every single last bit of it.
The Midnight Lurker
@trollhattan: Yeah, the Three Stooges theme plays along as you type too (sic).
The pump is integrated. I moved the central unit into the attic to make a new closet space a few years back. It’s a bitch to work on, especially in the heat.
After it cools down, I might take a whack at replacing the pump myself. If I fuck it up, no biggie if the weather’s cool. Until then, I’m a bailin’. Not to worry. I patched together a Rube Goldberg (Huge fan of BTW) type siphoning hose into a bucket device in the closet. Mrs. Lurker hates it, but if it saves me a couple of hundred in the long run… well, to quote the preeminent and esteemed, Dr. Silverman from an earlier post, “Fuck you feelings!”
MisterForkbeard
> and guess who needs to buy “a whole new unit? Nothing is compatible since they changed all the refrigerants.”
We’re in the same boat. Our is supposed to be good for another year or so, but they won’t refill the refrigerants now. And because it’s a 20-year-old AC unit, we also have to replace all the ducting in our house. It’ll probably run about $20k to do. >_<
Brachiator
@ruemara:
I follow some of this as an interested amateur, and here is one judgment of other IT professionals.
Some of this appears to be just blindness. Internet of Things people just don’t think about security issues when designing devices. The linked site has some useful suggestions and links to other related articles. Good guy hackers are also trying to get the message out that security needs to be stronger on all these devices.
Manyakitty
@The Moar You Know: Thanks for reinforcing my position about TIOT. Freaks me right out.
opiejeanne
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I thought you were in a rental?
I have two proposals for AC on my dining room table. Each is a little over $7k when boiled down. It was a nasty hot summer, house stayed hot when we were trying to sleep.I have the money, surprisingly, but I am not wanting to spend it. Costco has a really great 0% financing program that makes it very attractive, but they have an added $750 price on the unit that they hand back to you in the form of a card you can only use there. I don’t like the idea of handing them the extra $750 just to get it back in a form that I can only use at their store, but I do like the idea of not draining my savings account.
Oh well, the weather has changed, it’s nice and cool so who needs AC?
ruemara
@Gin & Tonic: I am all over the twitters in 3 different accounts, so I’ll add that.
@The Moar You Know: We test for energy savings and compatibility but I’m going to start guiding them to discuss security because IoT is huge as part of Zero Net Energy for Cali and most governmental standards for street, business & home lighting depends on IoT controllers.
opiejeanne
@Spanky: When we lived in Anaheim and had a land line, 2001-2010, the phone started ringing off the hook in 2004-7.
DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOUR HOUSE IS WORTH TODAY??? REFINANCE AND TAKE ALL THE MONEY OUT AND DO WHATEVER YOU WANT WITH IT!!! AAIIIEEEEE!!! You could refinance for $700k+ and put all of that money in your pocket!!!
They always got squirrelly when I asked the interest rate. They were all above what we had already on a 30 year fixed, or they wanted to give us one of those stupid 0 loans.
We didn’t bite.
opiejeanne
@Yutsano: congratulations to your folks. We will be 49 years married in late December. We squabble sometimes but we love each other, as I’m sure your parents do too.
trollhattan
@opiejeanne:
Having a spouse who is a mortgage broker is the best insurance policy against ever paying off a house I can name.
Every so often one comes home to confront a 1.5-inch stack of papers, along with instructions to “Sign here, initial there, there and there.” as one plows through said stack.
It’s the control-alt-delete of homeownership.
MattF
@Brachiator: Also, security is hard and subtle. You are working against people who are attacking all the time and probably know every trick you do. To do it right you have to actually know what you are doing, and then know how to change what you are doing. This is often an unreachable goal.
Bess
@MisterForkbeard:
https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/heat-pump-systems/ductless-mini-split-heat-pumps
Just as a point of reference, Home Depot sells a Energy Star 24,000 BTU 2 Ton Ductless Mini Split Air Conditioner and Heat Pump – “This energy-efficient system is the ideal solution for open-room applications up to 1200 sq. ft.”
$1,650.
sukabi
Thought we were going to have to replace our heat pump in July. Had a guy check it out…said we needed a new one. SIL replaced a capacitor in the compressor circuit, fixed the problem. AC repairman said the compressor was dead.
That said, knowing how handy you are, enjoy your new AC.☺
OMG, editing to add I CAN EDIT! YAY!!!!!
PST
@Grover Gardner:
I had that experience. Even though I felt cheated on the price of the capacitor and the coolant, it was hundreds of dollars, not thousands, and four years later all is well.
Aang
@John Cole:
Make sure your hvac contractor does the Manual J load analysis (If they don’t know what this is find another hvac contractor). Many hvac contractors use rules of thumb that lead to way oversized units.
Also, the newer ductless minisplits are pretty badass and probably cheaper than a bigger unit if it will work for your situation.
geg6
@Kay:
You couldn’t pay me enough to buy a newly built house. They are built like crap. Cheap materials and bad craftsmanship. I’m perfectly happy to replace some electrical/HVAC/plumbing to get a decently built home. I have yet to see a new home that is as well built as ours is. And we’ve looked at plenty of them, in addition to seeing my boss and my sister buy brand new homes. I have a pretty good understanding of what goes into building a quality home. My ex and I built 2 new homes (as rental properties) and renovated our home (down to and including the studs), which was built in 1905. My John and I currently live in a home originally built in 1931 and renovated and added to it in the 1990s. I am not impressed with new builds. Unless, of course, you have millions to build one. And even then, it’s not as good. Not to mention, both my ex’s and my John’s homes are today worth far more than my sister’s, which she and her husband bought for a quarter million and have regretted ever since (they are going to sell it and move back into my parents’ old home which was built in 1949 and that they have been renting out). Neither of the old homes cost more than $60K when purchased. Of course, both had a lot of cash dumped into them, but neither remodel cost over $100K. So forgive me when I say your son is only speaking about his own narrow experience. My own says he’s nuts.
Pyre Light
Today, you were given the opportunity to build equity in the amount of one new AC system! Tomorrow it will be something else! The faster you spend the faster your equity grows!
Equity is cash you used to have that is now an intangible part of the property instead.
Aang
@geg6:
Depends on the house, depends on the builder and designer, depends on the occupant. It’s hard to bring an older house to the same level of energy efficiency, comfort and safety as a conscientiously designed and built modern house. Either way can be great, either way can be a disaster. To many variables to just say old is good and new is bad.
jimmiraybob
Buy a 10k BTU window unit. Plug window unit into adequate socket – test for over heating (important on old house). Fix pitcher of iced up lemon aid. Kick back on the beautiful deck overlooking the majestic Lake Cole. Daydream about next year’s yard projects and improved bird rescue techniques. Think about a butterfly garden.
This will hold you over a few weeks until the issue becomes the furnace. Then, clean the evaporator coils of the window unit and store in basement as a backup. It will come in handy. Use the winter to plan and when its all over have a new unit and maybe furnace combo installed before temps rise. Then, tend to the garden and love on the menagerie.
That’s how I learned to love the bomb…I mean 115-year old fixer upper. Mitigate, think, fix. Mitigate, think, fix. Mitigate, think, fix. Mitigate, think, fix. Mitigate, think, fix. Mitigate, think, fix. It’s not so much about equity as life style.
OldDave
What I’ve not heard is if the central A/C at Chez Cole’s place is also the heat source for winter, or if heating is done via some other traditional method (boiler / radiators, etc.). The idea of getting a second opinion is a Very Good Idea, but may be difficult in a small town. And mini-splits are the bomb these days – and you can buy units that support multiple indoor units all connecting to one outdoor unit. Since the house is already set up for central air staying with that design may be a good idea, but for retrofitting a house formerly served only by window ratters mini-splits are most likely the best way to go.
StringOnAStick
Our home is from 1993, so we replaced the furnace and AC last year (with some rebates from the power company to help a bit), and the comfort level in both winter and summer is much better, and the cost to operate them is much less. We replaced the whole house fan (using the old one was like turning on a jet engine inside the place and terrified our kittens), including added 5 more vents, and just the increased number of vents alone lowered the daily heat gain in the attic. Then we had a bad hail storm and had to replace the roof, repaint the whole house and deck/pergola, replace the gutters, and redo all the screens (thanks to depreciation, insurance covered about half). 8 months later, the latest hail storm means another new roof and repainting half the house, all of the deck and pergola again but only 2 screens got holed this time; so, progress! Good thing we aren’t retired yet since these last few have been expensive. Then again, this is our 3rd roof lost to hail and we’ve been at this home for 12 years, so there will always be a “hail expense” looming on the horizon here. The only thing left is the water heater, which was new when we moved in 12 years ago. When it goes, I’d be sorely tempted to drop the $ for an on-demand WH because of the increased efficiency.
TL;DR, just get an efficient AC unit and then be proud of yourself for investing in comfort that you’ll enjoy for at least 20 years.
Pogonip
@john b: $10K for an air conditioner? Wow! To replace ours would be about $4K, figuring in tax and labor. How big is your house?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@opiejeanne:
I am now, but we owned a house for about 20 years.
rikyrah
Sorry Cole.??
Nancy
We moved into our new (old) house in a very hot week in August. That’s when the whole house AC died. Load the car drive to the house, walk in carrying boxes, and inside the house was hotter than outside. Not trying to one up here, just sharing your pain.
It does get better because after a while you’ve replaced everything. Then you can either move befor the new stuff falls apart or…..
Nancy
Or you can learn to proof-read your comments.
john b
@Pogonip: We basically got a high-end unit (and we had to get both the compressor and the outdoor unit because we our compressor was wrekcked from a major refrigerant leak and we had to replace the outdoor one because of the change in refrigerant standards). We could have gotten something for ~$6K that was inefficient.
The other complicating factor was that this was during one of the first hot weeks (read: 100 degree high temps) of the summer. No HVAC group was willing to play ball with the price. We decided to stand by our values and buy a unit that was better for the environment (and works very quietly as well).