13 SEER

[cmorris]

Can anybody tell be about the hype on 13 SEER and higher for the new standards. Alot of the seasoned guys that I talk to talk alot about moisture problems with the higher SEERs. What are the pro's and con's on this. Thanks

[curry]

Originally posted by cmorris
Can anybody tell be about the hype on 13 SEER and higher for the new standards. Alot of the seasoned guys that I talk to talk alot about moisture problems with the higher SEERs. What are the pro's and con's on this. Thanks

The moistue problems can be overcome by a VS motor.
It will slow down and to dehumidify the air when its time to do so,

[udarrell]

The main thing is not to oversize the condenser so there will be enough runtime to remove the moisture.

You can nearly always do additional things to reduce the heat-gain, so that the smaller A/C will handle the load.

Unless you live in south Florida or where air conditioning is many months a year, beware of spending a lot extra for ultra-high SEER. The payback won't be there.

[amd]

Originally posted by curry

The moistue problems can be overcome by a VS motor.
It will slow down and to dehumidify the air when its time to do so, [/B]

What's the point of buying a 13+ SEER air conditioner only to lower the blower speed (thus reducing efficiency) just to get the system to operate properly?

Might as well get something slightly lower and set it at a higher temperature - that would use less energy anyway.

[jrbenny]

Quite simply:

Match the equipment capacity to the load, and you won't have problems with humidity control.

[RoBoTeq]

I agree with matching the system to the load, but that will not resolve some....most humidity concerns.

Lowering the blower speed has minimal effect on efficiency and maximum effect on removing latent heat by condensing the moisture in the air.

The fact is that manufactures need to be more concerned with tweaking the efficiencies and the rest of us nee to be more concerned with tweaking the comfort level of our customers.

[docholiday]

Robo eluded to something but I'll expand on it. Efficiency points are not simple and there is less room for error. Bottom line is, that the mfg's have to tighten their tolerances in order to achive these numbers and installers have to tighten their installations to make them work. Simple fact is, there is little room for rule of thumb installs to ever get the efficiency or performance the equipment requires. It really just comes down to doing things correctly even if that means the ductwork, linesets, or any other part of the system needs to be reworked.