Original message
| Newtothis
 |  "Confused over RoofTop info"
, posted Tue 9 Jan 21:45  
I am an owner of a commercial two storey building. The second floor has its own HVAC(?) sysem that heats and cools roughly 1300 sq. feet. The space is completely unobstructed from one end to the other. There are five large difusers evenly spaced on the ceiling. I was told today that my 17 yr. old Carrier's heat exchanger has cracked and hence no heat (because apparantly the system shuts off automatically). I heard that labour in, replacing the exchanger is about $2500. And I'm being given strong suggestions to replace it with another Carrier, the Current Unit is 4 ton and the info I'm getting is replacement is about $2000 per ton, hence $8000. The tech that was onsite said that I really don't need some thing that large, but I got some different info from his boss. He told me that going to a smaller and less tonnage/expensive unit may not be worthwhile because it's physically smaller, and the money saved in less tonnage will be put back on in retrofitting the new smaller unit to older units previous larger hole or roof position. So where do I go from here? Is Carrier good? I've heard good things about Trane. If I went to a 2 or 3 ton would a template to take care of the size issues run me as much as another ton or two of machinery? Am I getting some reliable information here?
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Replies:
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| Dog Biscuit
| "Re(1):Confused over RoofTop info" , posted Sat 20 Jan 03:51
Never heard of a furnace shutting down due to a cracked heat exchanger, but then i've been retired since 1990. We would make periodic checks for Carbon Monoxide discharging from the diffusers (small amounts of CO will give you a headache, large amounts will KILL.
As a former Carrier Engineer, I recommend that you call Carrier and give them a rough description of your building, such as---wall structure, ceiling height, insulation, lighting, coffee pots on all day, wall thickness, window square footage,number of occupants,etc, basic items that effect heat transfer.
For a commercial building I think 400square feet of floor per ton of cooling would give you adequate comfort, thus 3tons. And because of your North latitude location you have more of a heating problem than a cooling problem, so don't scimp on the heating if you change units. If you have an open loft with 16feet ceilings, call a load estimater.
To err is human to repair divine
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| acefurnacefxr
| "Re(1):Confused over RoofTop info" , posted Tue 9 Jan 23:10
what part of the country is this in?
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| | newtothis
| "Re(2):Confused over RoofTop info" , posted Wed 10 Jan 06:41
Southern Ontario, Canada, St.Thomas to be exact. Two hours east of Detroit.
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| | moondog
| "Re(3):Confused over RoofTop info" , posted Wed 24 Jan 07:42:
What about just replacing the heat exchanger? Not that hard to do on a RTU. Did they show you the heat exchanger tubes and where they were cracked? I would look before going any further.
Thermostat (thur me-stat') The 1st thing a HomeOwner suspects is wrong which is usually wrong thinking on their part. If in doubt jump it out.
[this message was edited by moondog on Wed 24 Jan 07:43] |
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