#AskDerekCole Episode 32: Should I go efficient, what brand, and my house doesn't cool enough

Hey, on this episode of Ask Derrick Cole, we're talking is it worth it to get a 14 to 16 seer unit? I'm talking brand, and I'm talking my unit's not cooling enough, what should I do? You ask your comfort and energy questions and they get answered. This is the Ask Derrick Cole Show. Hey, welcome to episode 32 of the Ask Derrick Cole Show, answering your home energy maintenance, filters, air conditioning, heating, anything dealing with the home. We can answer those questions here. Just hashtag it #AskDerrickCole. So let's get into it right now. Megan has the questions.

The first one says, I have an older AC unit that is putting out cold air but can't cool below 80 degrees. "Is a Goodman 3-ton on a 16-square-foot house okay?" A couple things to look at.

Number 1, what is the outdoor temperature? If it's like it has been around here, 95-100 degrees, 80 degrees is not really that bad depending on your house and the way it was installed. An AC unit, the best ones can do about a 20-degree difference. So if it's a 100-degree day and it's doing 80 in the house, then you're doing Great. Another thing I would check are for leaks of air. If warm air is coming into your house and making the unit work harder, or if the cool air is escaping and keeping the temperature up in your house. Air leaks, you're talking about windows, doors, electrical outlets. Check all those spots to see if you get any air leaks. I wrote a LinkedIn article on air leaks, so check it out. Great.

Question number 2: Is a Trane HVAC worth the high price?

Well, um, no. You want me to elaborate a little bit on that? If you take a Trane, a Carrier, a Goodman, a Lennox, and you put all the pieces out on a carpet and said, you know, match up the unit with this unit, you wouldn't be able to do it. I mean, there's only a few compressor manufacturers, there's only a few people who made the circuit boards, and you know, it's all basically the same kind of stuff. So really what matters is who installs it and how they install it, and will they stand behind it. So it doesn't matter if it's a Goodman, if it's a Trane, if it's a Carrier. I'll give you a good example here in town. A gentleman came in And he had like a 14-seer system. It was a 3.5-ton. Well, somebody just installed it, didn't change out the line set, which needs to be a proper size. So basically had a 5/8 line set when it needed to be an inch and an eighth line set. It needed to be a bigger line set. So basically this 3.5-ton unit was trying to run a Marathon breathing out of a straw. So it didn't matter if that was a Trane unit, a Carrier unit, a Bryant, a a Goodman, a Lennox, it was not going to work. It was never going to work. A 3.5-ton unit cannot survive on breathing out of a straw. It's not going to work. So what matters is, again, who installs it, how they install it, and will they stand behind it.

Question number 3: If I have a 10 SEER unit, is it worth it to get a 14 to 16 SEER unit?

Well, in our part of the country, 14 SEER is the minimum. They can manufacture these days. Now, it still might be like a 13-seer product out there. I wouldn't recommend it. 14 to 16-seer, it kind of depends. I mean, is this a, a constant living space? Is it a room over the attic where not much activity is happening? So really, it depends on which applications this is in. If it's in the house, then I would go with 16 seer because that is the one that gets the most activity. If it's a, you know, a room over the garage that you use every now and then, I would go basic and go like 14 seer because the price difference you're not going to get back in energy savings because one, you're not using it very much, but if it's in your house, you are using it quite a bit. Is that it? That's it. So episode 32 coming to a close. Again, ask your questions, hashtag #AskDerekCole. You ask your comfort and energy questions and they get answered. This is the Ask Derek Cole Show.