As of December 31st, 2014 HVAC manufacturers could longer build heat pumps for our region of the country with efficiency ratings less than 14.00 SEER and 8.20 HSPF.

What this means to you:

Energy savings of about 7% in cooling and 4% in heating.

Marginally higher initial cost than the older 13.00 SEER, 7.80 HSPF systems.

If you have an older system that uses the R-22 refrigerant and your outdoor unit (heat pump) fails you will most likely need to replace both the indoor unit (air handler) and the outdoor unit (heat pump) of your system.

The reason both components may have to be replaced is the older indoor coils that were designed for the R-22 refrigerant are smaller in both physical size and volume than the newer indoor coils designed for the R410-A refrigerant. One of the ways the HVAC system manufacturer’s increase in system efficiency is by increasing coil sizes for both the indoor and outdoor units. So there is a very real possibility that your older indoor unit will not function properly in both heating and cooling with one of the newer 14.00 SEER, 8.20 HSPF heat pump that uses the R410-A refrigerant.

How we prepared for the DOE Mandate:

One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning® of Outer Banks was aware the mandated change was coming and we pre-ordered over $317,000.00 of the older 13.00 SEER, 7.20 HSPF Carrier “Coastal” heat pumps back in October of 2014. We based our order on last summer’s use and added an additional 10% of inventory for the possibility of a hot summer. But, our inventory of the older units is dwindling due to the earlier than expected heat wave this summer.

So if you believe you may have one of the older indoor units that may not be compatible with the new higher efficiency heat pumps and you suspect you’ll need a replacement in the next few weeks to give us a call for a NO OBLIGATION equipment survey.