Entertaining: how to get rid of your old heat pump. How not to install a heat pump

[sammy37]

Very nice. Although I disagree, you can, if properly installed use a packaged rooftop type unit succesfully on a home, but not in every situation and obviously yours was not installed properly! You will get much better efficiency out of your split system. If you dont want to leave that thing in the field, you can have them take the freon out and you can cut the coils and copper out and probably get around $100 in scrap for them.

I grew up with packaged units that never leaked, I lived in one house with a split system and it leaked. We have thousands of track homes here and in the last ten years they have all been split systems, and I here people complain constantly about having to have them recharged every couple of years. You know how track home installs can be. I dont care how efficient split systems are, I still prefer package units.

[freia]

More then likely previous home owner was not given a choice as to where to install it ( package unit) or they did not want to give up any rooms or closets in the house for a split unit.

Actually, this has had us stumped since we bought the place. Why did they do this? As a couple of the previous posts noted, I'm sure there are applications where a packaged unit could be the best option (but a commercial rooftop one installed in an "industrial fashion??). But I assume that it's usually not done unless there are few other options. These guys chose this option freely. I'm sure they had no idea what kind of an installation they were getting, though.

We have 5' of headroom in the crawlspace, with an access door plenty big for the air handler/fan coil - the new air handler is already down there. The previous owner left us all the paperwork. Out of all the brochures he was given, this unit had one of the worst efficiency numbers. Then we thought maybe he got a good price on it. Nope, it was really expensive. Inflation taken into account, it was more than our new super duper split Carrier system.

At least we have a nice big ventilation hole in the foundation to dry things out a bit. That'll get filled in this Spring.

[TwinScrew]

Unreal placement haha. As mentioned, they do have their place if applied correctly.. but by the sounds of it, there wasn't much forethought put into it haha.

Good luck w/ your new split!