[Topic is now in Personal Finance (Not Investing) - mod mkc]
Hello everybody, I'd like to upgrade the A/C in my house. I'd like to get a heat pump, to provide cooling and heating. (I'd like to eventually install solar panels too.) Currently I have evaporative cooling, also know as a 'swamp cooler', which works OK in my desert climate. I have a gas-fired furnace. My house was built in the 1950's, it's a single story, and it's about 1750 sf.
I met with an HVAC installer, and his questions lead me to believe that this is going to be a complicated installation. I am thinking, maybe I should hire a mechanical engineer to design the system? This way, I'd get consistency across all the bids I am going to receive, and each contractor would not have to 'reinvent the wheel' as far as designing a solution. I'd be sure the system was well-designed.
Has anyone else hired a mechanical engineer for something like this?
Here's why I think my situation is complicated: it seems to boil down to the ductwork:
- the existing ductwork is in a tight crawl space under the house. Right now it only connects to my gas-fired furnace. (The cooling simply blows in from an opening in the ceiling in the middle of the house.)
- the heat pump would need to be sized to account for the capacity of the ductwork, as well as the cooling/heating needs of the house.
- I'd really like to use crawl space for the ductwork, rather than putting ductwork on the roof, which would void my membrane-roof warranty
- I'd like to retain the existing furnace, and its connection to the ductwork, in case of a failure of the heat pump- though this is negotiable
- the only place to put the air handler for the heat pump is the furnace closet, so this would mean tearing out the furnace
- the exterior walls are mostly of concrete block, so it will be difficult to do penetrations
- for the new system to work well, there would have to be a provision for 'make-up air' flowing back to the air handler. There is no ductwork now for this.
The good news is there is space outside my house to put a concrete pad and the heat pump. But where to place the heat pump air handler, and how to connect it to ductwork in the crawl space, is the problem.
Does this sound like a job that warrants a mechanical engineer? Thanks for any thoughts.
Hello everybody, I'd like to upgrade the A/C in my house. I'd like to get a heat pump, to provide cooling and heating. (I'd like to eventually install solar panels too.) Currently I have evaporative cooling, also know as a 'swamp cooler', which works OK in my desert climate. I have a gas-fired furnace. My house was built in the 1950's, it's a single story, and it's about 1750 sf.
I met with an HVAC installer, and his questions lead me to believe that this is going to be a complicated installation. I am thinking, maybe I should hire a mechanical engineer to design the system? This way, I'd get consistency across all the bids I am going to receive, and each contractor would not have to 'reinvent the wheel' as far as designing a solution. I'd be sure the system was well-designed.
Has anyone else hired a mechanical engineer for something like this?
Here's why I think my situation is complicated: it seems to boil down to the ductwork:
- the existing ductwork is in a tight crawl space under the house. Right now it only connects to my gas-fired furnace. (The cooling simply blows in from an opening in the ceiling in the middle of the house.)
- the heat pump would need to be sized to account for the capacity of the ductwork, as well as the cooling/heating needs of the house.
- I'd really like to use crawl space for the ductwork, rather than putting ductwork on the roof, which would void my membrane-roof warranty
- I'd like to retain the existing furnace, and its connection to the ductwork, in case of a failure of the heat pump- though this is negotiable
- the only place to put the air handler for the heat pump is the furnace closet, so this would mean tearing out the furnace
- the exterior walls are mostly of concrete block, so it will be difficult to do penetrations
- for the new system to work well, there would have to be a provision for 'make-up air' flowing back to the air handler. There is no ductwork now for this.
The good news is there is space outside my house to put a concrete pad and the heat pump. But where to place the heat pump air handler, and how to connect it to ductwork in the crawl space, is the problem.
Does this sound like a job that warrants a mechanical engineer? Thanks for any thoughts.
Statistics: Posted by abqguy — Tue Jul 09, 2024 5:22 pm — Replies 5 — Views 559