outside unit

[LovinLife]

Not sure if I am posting this in the right place as it is a 2 part question. My hubby and I are budgeting for a new heating/cooling unit to be placed outside. Our current forced air furnace is ORIGINAL so, it's almost 30 and just doesn't get enough heat to the master bed and bath area. Any suggestions on a good brand at a decent price? The other thing is when we do have an outside unit installed we would like to rip down our furnace "closet" for more room in the kitchen. How can I tell if any part of that area is load bearing? Thanks in advance.

[tritontr]

On your heat/ac question the first thing to find out is what size unit you need. This is done by calculating what is known as a heat load on your house. This formula takes a lot of things into consideration not just your square footage. Once you have the tonnage size from the heat load(also gives you the amount of A/C needed) then the question is whether your original ductwork is of sufficient size to handle the air requirements of the new unit . After all that is figured out you then have to pick out what efficiency rating unit you want to buy, the higher the rating the more expensive the unit is. This all seems like a lot of info gathering but it is necessary for you to get the right equipment installed correctly that will last for many years and save on your energy bill. You can have all this done for free by getting various estimates from licenened contractors preferably with mobile home experience. I would check into getting a 10 year parts and labor warranty they are free with some units and our well worth the investment if offered at a good price. There are a lot of brand choices the most common for mobile homes are Nordyne and Coleman these companies also produce various name brands. Good luck

[Robert]

Hi,

Post the other question over in the mobile home repair forum.



Thanks,
Robert