Problem in my Area trying to find a company to install correctly

[Bond111]

I've been calling around to a few local companies here in my area. One guy who was from out of town(about a half hour drive) knew what he was talking about when I asked him how they determine what size of furnace and a/c to put it. Since he was out of town, he had to call my local building permits office to see what it would take for him to get a "license" to install in town.

A few weeks pass, and I call him up and he said the town is making it expensive and a pain for him to do any work, and if he had more than 1 job, that he could try to make it work. Basically the city wants to keep the guys in town with a job, but none of them really so far have the correct answer as to how to install correctly with a load analysis, etc.

One local guy I just called said they can do all the measurements of windows, and do a heat loss calc. that would take 30-45 mins. But he claims that it's a moot point because of variable speed units, and that they are more efficient than what they were 20+ years ago. He also brought up the fact that they look and what is currently installed for the house too, which makes me cringe from what I've read on here.

He also asked if my a/c was running ok, and it is. Granted it's 91 out today, and the thermostat is set at 74, and upstairs is a somewhat comfortable 80 according my mecury wall thermostat.

I can understand that most people don't want to pay extra for someone to do maunal J, and all that stuff, but more than likely end up paying much more in incorrect sized units. But to own a company that is supposed to specialize in this work, and not even do it the right way bugs me. What can I do though?? It's like I'm forced into taking a gamble with anyone in town, b/c nobody can give me the right answer.

I'm located in Fort Dodge, IA btw.

[b26440510]

Did you ask the contractor you liked if he could make a referral of a good company he knew of that worked in your town?

Keep looking around. Ask for some referrals from your local HVAC distributor houses. Also check your local listing on review sites, such as Angies List.

You should expect to spend at least 2 months choosing the contractor and getting an acceptable quote. The more contractors you speak with, the more you'll get an understanding about immediate red flags. Just keep educating yourself about the process and what is good/bad. Too bad there arent HVAC consultants as it seems to be quite a quagmire to find competent companies.

[udarrell]

Well, Fort Dodge, IA is not listed, but Mason City has its 2% summer design listed at 88-dry bulb, 74-wet bulb & 45.76% relative humidity. 109.07 grs/lb dry air All figures at 1000 feet Fort Dodge area Elev.(?)

Des Moines, IA is listed at 91-DB, 74-wb, & 45.76% RH; so you'd be somewhere between. 104.17 grs moisture per lb dry at 1000 feet elev.

Indoors at 75-db; 63.5-wb; 50.4% RH; & only 67.85 grs moisture per lb of dry air.

Any infiltration air will add a lot of grains of moisture that must be removed by long A/C runtimes.

Therefore IMO; keep the tonnage down so the runtimes will be long enough!

You need a Home Energy Audit with any needed retrofitting performed; then a manual J & then manual D on the duct system...

The decision is all yours & is dependent on local contractor skills, NOT on me...Good Luck :.02:

[Bond111]

Did you ask the contractor you liked if he could make a referral of a good company he knew of that worked in your town?

Keep looking around. Ask for some referrals from your local HVAC distributor houses. Also check your local listing on review sites, such as Angies List.

You should expect to spend at least 2 months choosing the contractor and getting an acceptable quote. The more contractors you speak with, the more you'll get an understanding about immediate red flags. Just keep educating yourself about the process and what is good/bad. Too bad there arent HVAC consultants as it seems to be quite a quagmire to find competent companies.

That was a company he thought might be able to help me out. Turns out no dice.

What's a HVAC distributor house?

I've been looking since last year at this same time, and was frustrated then by the lack of good installers, or the lack of returned phone calls. The latter seems to be a growing trend when it comes to me trying to find people to do work in this town.

I'm not sure if when I talk to these people on the phone if I should just tell them what I've found out on here, or ask them the questions and just see what their answer will be before I tell them the correct way to do things?? I don't want to come off as an jerk, but don't want to get treated like an uninformed idiot either.

I tried signing up on that Angies list, and it keeps telling me my password and or email is incorrect, even though I've reset it twice, but still got the confirm email the very first time, and had FF remember my password, hahaha.

[Fabrk8r]

Go to the nearest Johnstone Supply store (HVAC parts distributor) and ask the counter guy to recommend a good installer.

I'm in Waterloo. Fort Dodge is about a 2 hour drive.

[Bond111]

Looks like Des Moines, Loo, Sioux City, Cedar Rapids, and Davenport are in Iowa. Des Moines, and Loo is about an hour and a half drive, ha! The rest are longer.

[Shophound]

I'm not sure if when I talk to these people on the phone if I should just tell them what I've found out on here, or ask them the questions and just see what their answer will be before I tell them the correct way to do things??

I wouldn't say anything about "what I read on the internet" to any contractor I was feeling out. Rather, take any good info you have and ask rather general questions with it, such as "do you perform a heat load calculation when you change out or upgrade equipment?" or "do you perform any testing after you install a system to verify it is working like it should, such as air balancing?" Of course, anyone on the receiving end of this could just say "oh yes" to any question you ask to make themselves sound good, but a pro will offer enough additional info to convince you they have a believable level of competency.

[Fabrk8r]

Sorry, I thought Johnstone Supply had a store in FD. You should have some kind of appliance parts distributor in FD that should be able to recommend a competent installer.

If your last name is Bond it's an amazing coincidence. My boss' name is Bond.

[Bond111]

Yea, my last name is Bond. I don't have an relation up there though. Have a few good friends that live over there though.

[George2]

I've been calling around to a few local companies here in my area. One guy who was from out of town(about a half hour drive) knew what he was talking about when I asked him how they determine what size of furnace and a/c to put it. Since he was out of town, he had to call my local building permits office to see what it would take for him to get a "license" to install in town.

A few weeks pass, and I call him up and he said the town is making it expensive and a pain for him to do any work, and if he had more than 1 job, that he could try to make it work. Basically the city wants to keep the guys in town with a job, but none of them really so far have the correct answer as to how to install correctly with a load analysis, etc.

One local guy I just called said they can do all the measurements of windows, and do a heat loss calc. that would take 30-45 mins. But he claims that it's a moot point because of variable speed units, and that they are more efficient than what they were 20+ years ago. He also brought up the fact that they look and what is currently installed for the house too, which makes me cringe from what I've read on here.

He also asked if my a/c was running ok, and it is. Granted it's 91 out today, and the thermostat is set at 74, and upstairs is a somewhat comfortable 80 according my mecury wall thermostat.

I can understand that most people don't want to pay extra for someone to do maunal J, and all that stuff, but more than likely end up paying much more in incorrect sized units. But to own a company that is supposed to specialize in this work, and not even do it the right way bugs me. What can I do though?? It's like I'm forced into taking a gamble with anyone in town, b/c nobody can give me the right answer.

I'm located in Fort Dodge, IA btw.

Don't feel alone. I've worked in HVAC for 30+ years in sales and there is no one that does manual j here.

The power co. is talking about making it a requirement someday however.

Find someone that at least will give the duct system a look. The last company I was with had a salesman (ex car guy) that didn't know ANYTHING.

He had cookbook pricing and would spend 5 minutes in the home. He would bad mouth (lie) about everyone else in town. Whatever it took to get the job.

How far away is Des Moines? Try Schall (ya all). I know and trust them.

[Bond111]

Des Moines is an hour 30-45 away from me. I might just try it and see. Worst thing they could say is no, too far.