Which Heat Pump should I buy?

[pyoung]

My 5 ton heat pump system recent died. I am looking at the American Standard Heritage 15 5 ton system and the Heritage 20. I am trying to decide if it is worth the extra money to get the Heritage 20 over the Heritage 15. Any advise would be appreciated.

[Tempted]

That question is going to get answers accross the board.
Currently not enough info to give you input.

I like high efficency equipment matched indoor and outdoor.
If your just changing the outdoor unit and your indoor unit is single stage then the 15. If your changing out both indoor and outdoor then then the 15 or the 20. If your home is zoned then the 20.

[BaldLoonie]

Where are you? What are your electric rates like? Chances are the 20 SEER unit is far from 20 SEER in a 5 ton!

[pyoung]

I live in Fort Worth, TX. I am having to replace both the indoor and outdoor units. My home has about 2375 SF downstairs, which is on the 5 ton unit. The 477 SF upstairs area is on a separate unit. The 20 will cost about $$ more that the 15. I'm just trying to decide whether it would be worth the spending the extra money. We intend to be in the house for a while. My electric rate is about $.08/kw. I have been told that the 20 will rate out at about 19 seer.

[skippedover]

Based solely on your location, I'd say the 20 for that small increase in cost is probably the better deal if you plan on being in the same house for a number of years. There is likely also some comfort improvement in that the 20-SEER group unit (note I said 'group', not actual efficiency) is a 2-stage system that should allow for greater comfort in the shoulder seasons when you don't need all the AC capability. In other words, there's generally more than just efficiency when it comes to the higher efficiency units. If you had specific model numbers of the indoor and outdoor components, we could do a little better job of predicting costs of operation but if 2-stage versus 1-stage is part of the equation, I personally would recommend the 2-stage system.

[BaldLoonie]

Looks like you are going to get around 17.50 SEER out of the 20 and 14 SEER out of the 15.

A calculator program I used says around $160 a year in cooling savings.

HSPF is 9 and 8.2 so there would be some savings in heat mode though not as dramatic.

Let's say that at 10 years, you saved $2000. You decide if that is worth it.

I would never buy a 20 without an extended warranty. Even in warranty, you don't want to know what it costs to replace the twin compressors.

Anybody do a load calc to see if 5 tons was really needed for that sized downstairs with a unit upstairs sharing its cool air?

[pyoung]

Yes, a load calc was made on the house. With all of the windows that I have, 5 ton was barely enough. They told me a 6 year payback period would make up the dfference, thanks for your input

[BaldLoonie]

That's a rough guess using today's juice rates. 6 years seems very fast for that much difference.

[beenthere]

That's a rough guess using today's juice rates. 6 years seems very fast for that much difference.

I don't think they're using real world operating conditions/efficiency's.