this is why I've been away for a while

I haven't been posting much because this project I've been working on. Here are a few photos of the old and new furnace and air conditioner that I've been working on for the last two months, at least. These are the most efficient that I could find to use the 96% furnace means that 96 cents of every dollar go to energy with a four cent loss. The 18 Seer condenser for the air conditioner is rather high, which should give me great energy savings when it gets hot here and it does get very hot here. I'm looking forward to using this air conditioner this summer. I took out a 2 ton furnace with a 3 ton evaporator coil and compressor and replaced it with a four ton matched unit. Doing this project has taken all my time and effort and I'm sorry I haven't been around much to post. I still have a few things to do. I finish the drywall and put the shelving in for the new pantry where the old FAU was. I can reuse the door, but have to make a new jam for this opening. So I still have a little bit more to do. But I finished up all the little details in the attic and now it's back to the fun stuff downstairs not in the attic. I am extremely tired of being on my knees crawling around in that attic for the last few months. Here are a few pictures and I'll try to post a small YouTube video. I forgot to say about the thermostat is a Wi-Fi thermostat that can be set anywhere there is Internet access cell phone, computer, whatever it is very easy to use. Even my pee brain can understand it.

http://youtu.be/gVElaOR_FMc

Nice job. Thanks for the pics.
A wifi controlled Thermostat. Way cool.

I honestly did not think you needed furnaces in San Diego. I thought you guys had the perfect climate year round.

Fine business, Guts. I know all about crawling around in attics. At least you have some plywood flooring to work off of. I usually end up having to put in temp flooring just to be able to put my tools on. Enjoy the energy savings.

Great job, Guts! I sort of have a similar setup, except the furnace is in a closet (for central air and heat), w/ the thermostat on an opposite wall in my condo. The pipes are wrapped in spray foam(?). Not sure what it is, but it looks old. What's the silver stuff your pipes are wrapped in? It gets so hot here during the Summer, mine has, on occasion, leaked onto the wood flooring/housing the furnace. Had a guy come out & cut the pipe & drain it. I'm not sure what to do w/ this thing in a closet. Yours looks all shiney & new. Thanks for sharing.

I'm just amazed that you can do that kind of stuff. I'm sure you saved a ton of money.

And, lol, we're going to give the Mr. Clean Award. Everything in all the pics that you post is just spic-n-span....even your attic floor and outside around your a/c unit.

You are quite talented Guts!

I know what you mean Cooksie....it's crazy.....I don't know that I've ever seen anything as clean as the stuff Guts posts...there's not even the first cob web or dust bunny He really does need some sort of award.

Doc; once I understood how to use this Wi-Fi thermostat, being able to see it on a large monitor is a big plus. Rather than a small display on the wall which you can do everything from also. These can also be used on most any furnace. After showing it to a friend of mine who has a house down at the Colorado River. He's going to put one in so you can turn the AC on when he gets half the way there. So his second home or should I say recreational home will be cool letter time he gets there. Which is one of the big advantages of being able to have a Wi-Fi thermostat. I like this thing big-time.

JoeV; moving the furnace from the Hall closet up into the attic meant doing some framing in the attic, which consisted of laying new 2 x 4. Joyce on top. The existing Joyce to elevate the furnace along with the furnace risers in the drip pan it needed to be elevated for the condensation drains. I put two 4 x 10 sheets of three-quarter plywood for the deck/platform which was 80 ft. are the furnace and AC unit. I also took two 4 x 8 pieces of 5/8 plywood cut in half into 2' x 8' for moving around on plywood. These pieces were not screwed down and could be moved anywhere in attic to do the work like cutting in the new ducts that I did. I have no desire to go in that attic ever again. Except for scheduled maintenance. The filter for this unit is in the ceiling and can be reached from the Hall where I put the return air.

Californiacook; as I described to Joe my furnace was like years in a Hall unit. As you can see from the pictures of the old furnace. And the picture of the drywall is where I framed it down and framed and sheet rocked the new opening that I'm going to put some white melamine shelving in for a new pantry. The silver stuff as you call it, are they ducts. They had they a R-6 rating and the silver box connecting to the evaporator coil is the Plenum which has a silver bubblewrap type material that is glued to the galvanized metal Plenum, this is where the air goes after running through the furnace and AC evaporator coil and that is distributed through the ducts throughout the house. This maybe more than you wanted to know about that, but all the silver stuff is important getting the insulation factors. Metal ducting is used in commercial jobs and can have between 4 to 6 feet of flex ducting like you see in my home. I remove metal ducting wrapped with insulation in doing so I noticed a number of leaks that were not seen underneath the insulation. Using flexible ducting is what everybody uses these days. The return air has an 18 inch duct which goes on the intake side of the furnace behind the picture of me.

Cooksie; the furnace. I ordered had to be made especially for me. They sell them but do not stock them. These furnaces are at least double the cost of most furnaces and people are unwilling to pay the money to buy these high-end furnaces. With this 96% furnace. The key thing is the modulating gas valve. Instead of having high and low settings for the gas valve the modulating gas valve well go anywhere it needs to to achieve the desired temperature. In other words is like a rheostat gas valve not just high and low two settings. again more than you probably want to know. LOL

Mama; you talk about it being clean in my attic is far far far from it! I know the new plywood deck looks fairly clean, but I can't tell you how dirty I was every time I was in the attic. Not so many cobwebs or spiders it was pretty clean insect wise. The killer was the nails coming through the roof when they re-roofed the house. I had so many Band-Aids on one time that somebody asked me"what happened you" only reply I can think of at the time was "you should see the other guy" I went through a couple boxes of Band-Aids on this job. It doesn't help that I'm taking warfarin either. But I believe the Dr. is going to take me off the warfarin in a couple weeks, if my heart stays in normal rhythm. I have my fingers crossed that it will.

Thank you all for the congratulations. I just wanted to let you know why I haven't been around much to post. I still have other projects that I want to finish around the house and will try to participate in the forum more when given time given my daily routines take up 40 hours a week.
Happy new year to everyone
Kim a.k.a. Guts

Great Install Guts..

That was my profession.. HVAC..

The insulation is a very important factor.

The attic crawl is exactly just like mine. LOL
My knees are shot now..and just a simple task of maintainance on the air handler, guarantees swollen knees for two days after..Haaaa

Goodman equipment I see!... Good Choice !

It's amazing to be able to see the screen on a monitor and make adjustments to the system....and even from afar.

I used to be able to hook into large building systems from the office..or at home, and see every aspect of the system operations.
the great thing was I could do some repairs and temporary adjustments from home on those systems.

You probably can set up alarms to notify you on line of temperature high limits etc.; depending on how sophisticated the system program may be.

I would imagine you are running R410A refrigerant system to get the seer.

You will like the Variable input burner on the gas furnace. It's really cool.
Trane came out with one around 2001 ..and it not only varied the gas input, but it also varied the Blower speed on a ramp to suit the cfm air requirements.

I see you used the Concentric Vent Termination through the roof. Good choice.

Nice piping on the condensate removal if I may say.

I feel for you messing around on your knees. I know there is no straightening up the back either. Being on your knees, and humped over like that sucks.

Are you gonna leak check; evacuate (vacuum) the refrig. lines and start up and check the charge on the cooling? ....

I wish you well, and lots of luck with the new system install Guts.

ps: Great lighting in the attic space. I just threw up like 5 porcelian bulb lamps down the ridge when I did mine. You can't beat the great lighting in a attic.