My house started its life as a cape and over the next 80 years its been expanded in every direction. It's not big, only 1600 sq ft, and its long and narrow. It has an existing whole house fan and no hatch access to the attic. The only way up is through the fan. I already had a Manual J performed and I know the capacity I need; I would need 4 tons for the whole house.
My questions pertain to the type of installation that I should go with and what consideration I need to take into account.
I had two big players come by and give me some recommendations.
First company: First floor should have two high wall ductless units at 12k BTU at opposite ends of the house running on one head. Its an open floor plan so it would work well. The top floor has an attic and it would get a 2 ton central system with five drops, one for each room. The installer said this would work well, expensive because of the amount of equipment involved. He also said, I can re-use the hole where the house fan was for the return on a flexible duct so I dont have to cut a hatch into a closet.
Second company: He recommended one 4 ton central system in the attic with drops into all the rooms on the second floor and drops through the closets into the ceilings for the first floor. He said that I will need to cut a hatch into the ceiling of one of my closet to gain access to the attic as the return(along with everything else) will be permanently fixed on top of the hole where the fan was. They also dont do the carpentry to close the hatch or encase the ducts in sheet rock. Obviously he could also install a system like company one recommended but just as well said it was going to be expensive.
I like the first companies option, despite the cost, because it gives me 3 zones of control. The high heat in the summer wont require me to blast the AC to keep the second floor cool while refrigerating the first floor. I also like the fact that I dont sacrifice what precious little close space I have to duct work.
Regardless I will need to have extra service run to the house since I only have 100 amps and my panel is maxed out; it was never upgraded as the house grew.
Company one deals in Carrier and Daikin. The second in Ruud and Bryant. Both deal in Fujitsu for ductless equipment.
I know Carrier. Havent heard of the other 3 until now. Daikin is Japanese. Ruud and Bryant are American. I read through each companies web pages and they all seem similar. Maybe Daikin is better than Ruud and Bryant on specs.
What do you think?
Am I missing anything, is there something else I should be considering in one configuration over the other?
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