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

[freia]

OK guys,
After months of research and a little help from you all, we are finally getting rid of our old heat pump system and ductwork, and replacing everything with an excellent new carrier system from a really good installer. I wanted to share with you some details about our old system that you might find entertaining, including how we got rid of it.

Our old system is a lesson in how not to install a heat pump at someone's house. Pay close attention here. DO NOT do any of these things.

-1- Do not install a commercial rooftop packaged system at someone's house.
-2- Do not install said misfit system outside the homeowner's bedroom window, where is shakes, rattles, and roars at the most inopportune times.
-3- Do not bolt this system to the wall of the house. See the dirty box-shaped line outlined on our siding? That's where a massive galavanized "shroud" covering the ductwork was bolted to our wall. When the thing turned on, the entire North wall of the house would shake. Since the shower stall is attached to the wall studs, it too would shake, along with the glass shower doors. This would sound and feel like about a 4.5 on the richter scale. It was aslo a thing of beauty. I apologize for not having a picture of it, but if you look up our house on Google Earth, you can see it from space. That's right. Last year while playing around with the internet satellite pics, we discovered that the great wall of China and our heat pump are both visible from space.
-4- Do not knock a 2x2 foot hole in someone's foundation for the ductwork. If you do, make sure that it's not on the uphill side of the house. During the rainy season, a stream would form through that hole, resulting in what we affectionately refer to as the "bayou" in our crawlspace. Excellent in a region known for black mold.
-5- Do not leave all the ducting laying on the ground in the "bayou". Just don't know what to say. Mice, mice, smelly things. Nasty nasty.

Now for the glorious day of heat pump removal. Our contractor offered to have his guys remove it using some hand trucks. My husband however, wanted some personal satisfaction in "ripping this thing off the house". So he build a skid, fired up the trusty 'dozer, and (while I jumped with glee) hauled it off, through the back field, and around to the back of the barn: its final resting place. There it can continue to rattle and shake until the cows come home.

This week: the new system goes in, and I'll jump with glee again as we turn on the heat minus the mouse-poop smell.

[hivacer]

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.

[catmanacman]

you should recycle it worth a couple hundred for scrap

[BaldLoonie]

A few muscular guys would have done no damage to the lawn compared to the 'dozer.

[freia]

you should recycle it worth a couple hundred for scrap

It's going to be painted barn red and hooked up to the barn and be used until it runs no more. You just can't kill it.

[freia]

A few muscular guys would have done no damage to the lawn compared to the 'dozer.

But it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun!

[energy_rater_La]

too funny!

[beenthere]

But it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun!

Priceless.

[captube]

the great wall of China and our heat pump are both visible from space.

Thats the latest sizing method, much better than 400ft. a ton.

[sammy37]

It's going to be painted barn red and hooked up to the barn and be used until it runs no more. You just can't kill it.

Hope it still works after it went through that all that torture!

[beenthere]

Hope it still works after it went through that all that torture!

Now that its going to cool the barn. It will run quiet.

[bmathews]

Actually, we have installed several and I have serviced several package units on homes. It's no biggie. You do need to do a little bit of planning when you do it. But sometimes, its all you can do. We try to never install any sort of unit by a bedroom, but if all you have is bedrooms or living rooms around the perimeter, what can you do?

[geodude]

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.

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.

[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!