Lost in a sea of HVAC
Hi everyone,
On one hand, I'm very lucky: last year my partner and I purchased our first house! It feels great to hop off the renter hamster wheel.
On the other hand, we had to make some compromises when we bought the house: I wanted to limit our search to houses that already had central air (heating and cooling), because we both work from home and I really want our house to be comfortable year-round. Unfortunately, in Northern New England, that eliminates around 90% of houses. So we compromised and bought a place that has a furnace with ductwork, hoping to eventually add cooling using the same ductwork. Last year, I reached out to a couple of contractors to get a vague sense of how possible that might be. Consensus? Potentially expensive, but feasible.
My situation:
- our house is small, ~1100 square feet in the finished upstairs
- half of the upstairs has shit insulation, other half is decent after renovation
- we currently have a 100k BTU oil furnace that absolutely keeps up. In fact, as far as I can tell, it's massively oversized -- even on the coldest nights (around -20 or so most winters, including this one), it only kicks on ~50% of the time
- we used around 500 gallons of heating oil from September-May (the heating season)
- our furnace is awkwardly tucked between the outlet chimney and three walls, which makes accessing it a pain (and complicates installing a coil on top; I'm not sure if there's enough room).
- thanks to a nearby massive hydroelectric dam, our electric rates are about half the average New England electric price (and come from a pretty environmentally-friendly source!). So the more heating and cooling I can do with electric, the better IMO. I'd rather pay a bit extra to heat with clean electric than save on propane/oil if fossil prices come down (big if).
With the warm season upon us, I'm feeling the heat during my work-from-home days and trying to get cooling installed before the temperature really starts cooking. And, despite having a furnace with existing ductwork that covers every room in the house (90% of which is directly accessible through unfinished basement ceilings), every. goddamn. contractor. has. recommended. minisplits.
But I don't want minisplits. I know it's easier for them. I know it's cheaper. I know most contractors in the area have installed hundreds of minisplits but very few central systems (let alone a combined heating/cooling setup where you have to worry about balancing summer dehumidifying with extreme cold efficiency). I know I'll have to clean out and insulate my ducts. Minisplits would surely work OK, but I really don't want to install one in each of our three bedrooms, plus one (or more) in our open-layout kitchen/living/dining space, and then still deal with no direct cooling in the bathrooms. Aesthetically, my partner and I both find minisplits ugly, and our house is small enough that most minisplit designs would make the tiny bedrooms feel even more cramped.
Ideally, I'd rip out our existing furnace (and oil tank!), install a cold weather heat pump in its place, insulate the ducts, and call it a day. But every contractor also advises that I "keep the old furnace around" in case the heat pump breaks (seriously?) or in case the heat pump can't keep up on the coldest days (fair enough). And then we take a look at the existing furnace, conclude it would be hard to add cooling on top of it, and they tell me to think about minisplits again.
So I guess after all of this, I'd really appreciate some advice from tilderinos with more home improvement experience than myself. Should I think about this differently? How on earth do I find a contractor who knows what they're doing with central heat pumps who doesn't push me aggressively towards minisplits or keeping my dirty, noisy, expensive furnace around? Should I just roll over, give up on my central cooling dreams, and install some minisplits?
I don't have any professional experience here, but I've had four HVAC systems installed over the years, and I regret the times that I have let contractors talk me into systems/features that I didn't truly want. You are correct in that they are pushing them because it is easier or they are more comfortable installing them. I personally feel that minisplits only make sense in cases of added rooms that cannot get proper ducts installed on or in cases where you have distinct heating/cooling needs that differ from the rest of the home.
Considering you already have ductwork, I don't know why any good HVAC company wouldn't be willing to install a full central air system.
My only advice is to keep pushing whomever you call towards that direction, and if they push back - get some reasons out of them. Maybe there's something you aren't seeing, or maybe they are just trying to keep and quick and easy on their side.
Edit - just for reference, I'm actively getting my furnace and AC replaced and it's going to cost me ~$14,000 for an 80k BTU furnace and 4 ton heat pump (Midwest US).
You will need to make sure you get a cold weather heat pump if you opt for a heat pump only system. They do lose heating capacity as outdoor temperature drops, and standard heat pumps would be basically useless at -20, so picking a unit that can handle your coldest days is very important.
When I started reading your comment, my first thought was, "you should probably consider mini splits" XD if aesthetics are the main concern, note that you can get them installed with concealed ductwork in closets (example) or as a minimal recessed ceiling cassette.
From a home performance perspective, one of the upshots to mini splits is that they're zoned by default: I'm guessing, by the fact that the home is 1100sqft, that this is an older building without an air sealing retrofit (and maybe without insulation)? Since that'll make it even harder for your HVAC system to keep the building consistently cool, the mini splits are probably also being specified because they can ramp up very effectively to keep up load. Central ductwork -- unless you also pay for some extra dampers, on top of a fantastic air sealing and insulation job, especially if they're running through unconditioned spaces where air leakage, moisture, and potential mold intrusion are a concern -- also have the side effect of having to freeze the entire house in order to make hot spots comfortable.
(do also note that additional dehumidification may be specified for your climate, on top of the heat pump air handler retrofit)
Right, so, how do you make it work anyways XD I'm not American nor do I live anywhere near you, but you might be able to get some recommendations for HVAC designers + installers from the manufacturers or local supply houses. Especially the former will be over the moon to tell you about people who can sell you a system. Also, the Home Performance YouTube channel (briefly: an HVAC consultant (not an engineer) discusses this stuff and also avoiding mold, improving air quality, etc.) has a voluntary list of contractors which might be a decent starting point.
Closing thoughts:
(edit) FYI I'm not an HVAC professional, but I'm building a house and am cutting every corner imaginable, which to do safely requires thoroughly understanding what is below the corner before lopping it off. I'm likely going with a split system (shocker, I know) due to my low loads and tightly built home, so I can only start to comment on potential issues with a central air system.
Hello fellow new homeowner in New England! My (now) wife and I purchased our first home in MA last year and we've been dealing with similar issues, especially this past week with the heat wave. Like you and most people in New England, we have an oil furnace and no AC (we do have window units). I plan to put a heat pump in, hopefully within the next few years, but we first tackled our own sub-par insulation issues (that was just finished a couple of weeks ago), and we're having our ancient single-pane windows replaced with ones that are more energy efficient.
While we'll probably go with mini-splits in our house (we have steam baseboard heating, no ducts), there are ducted heat pump systems that hook into your existing ductwork - this seems to be what you want? There's a section here that explains them: https://www.thisoldhouse.com/heating-cooling/how-to-upgrade-to-a-heat-pump-system
They're generally less efficient than mini-splits, but probably still more efficient than your furnace if you choose to use it as your primary heating source, plus it gives you the cooling in the warmer months.
You certainly don't have to remove your existing furnace to install heat pumps, but depending on where in NE you live, there might be incentives to doing it. AFAIK, here in MA there's a rebate you can qualify for if you do. Our furnace is also our hot water heater, so no-can-do for us, but my sister and brother-in-law just added a mini-split heat pump system and their contactor conveniently "uninstalled" their furnace by unplugging the electrical cord, and they qualified for the rebate. The contractor made sure to tell them that their furnace was disconnected and that they qualified and showed them how to reconnect it. You know, in case of an emergency ;-) for us, we plan to keep the furnace as an emergency backup, which is highly recommended.
Also, take a look and see if your state offers discounts on making your home more energy efficient! The MassSave program is pretty great - we had the insulation in our attic and knee-walls redone for just under $1k and we're definitely feeling the difference. They also offer 0% interest loans on heat pump installs. We're also taking advantage of a rebate for our new windows. I think the rebate is $75/window, so not a lot, but it'll be a couple grand for us.
If the ductwork is already in place would you be able to just go to the hardware store directly and see if they’ll send someone to do an appliance install? They usually contract it out to someone local, possibly the very contractors you’ve been speaking to. But since you will have already bought the HVAC unit they won’t be trying to steer you.
If the heat pump can’t keep up on the coldest days then space heaters for the rooms you care about would probably be more efficient I would think. I’m pretty much all in on electric for home appliances because, in addition to being more energy efficient and much easier to maintain, you’re eliminating a class of safety hazards and maintenance headaches. Don’t keep flames running in your house and it’s fewer chances of fire, no carbon monoxide risk, no risk of gas leaks. . .
That said, mini-splits do have some advantages. Forced air systems do introduce big long-term headaches with reliability and maintenance that can end up being quite expensive. They can also end up being mold traps in older houses with ductwork that wasn’t designed for cooling specifically. If you’re in a fairly dry climate where humidity isn’t a big problem in the summers then mini-splits might be preferable just to avoid those annoyances.
If you mount them on the ceiling or wall that can address the space problem. If they’re unsightly you can also try disguising them. LG used to make ones that had a literal frame on the front so you could put art in it. Or you could wallpaper it, put a cabinet around it with sort of a grille/mesh in front so it looks more like a vintage hi-fi speaker, or get a floor unit and put a radiator cover/console table on it. You can also just cut the drywall and install it into a recess.