Operation Cost:
Every one worries about operation cost. The efficiency of the system is the second most important item here. The fuel you use makes more impact on operation cost.
If you were able to go to the corner store to buy your heat in a box to take home like milk for the kids, how much would you pay for a 100,000 BTUH box? The greatest factor would be the fuel used to make the heat they put in that box. The price today 2/8/2007 in Yakima Washington would range between $0.82 and $2.44.


Available Fuels:
There are basically four fuels available to us here in Yakima.
1) Oil, 2) L.P. Gas, 3) Natural Gas and 4) Electricity.
Natural gas has a limited delivery area. Most county areas have no access to this. Every one seems to have electricity, but the transformer and the power line to your home may be too small to handle adding an air conditioner, heat pump or electric furnace.

System Replacement or Component Replacement:
Some times it seems just replacing one item in the system, say the air conditioner out side, and keeping the rest of the old system is the least expensive. However many times this causes other problems. We never get the rated efficiencies of the equipment with miss matches. The miss match may cause shorter life span of the new component or the rest of the system. The overall performance and operation cost of the system could be vastly improved warranting a system upgrade rather than just one item.

New Refrigerants:
2010 is the year all new refrigerant systems (heat pumps and air conditioners) have to use non-ozone-depleting refrigerants. The price of refrigerant #22 is going to get very expensive. Consider the product you are buying closely. Does it use R22? We highly recommend getting equipment that uses Puron™ refrigerant. It meets the code issue today, and will protect your price point tomorrow.

Electrical Supply to Your Home:
Upgrading you system may have an unconsidered cost into the thousands of dollars. Your existing service panel, the power line to the home and the transformer feeding your house electric power may not be adequate for addition of new loads created by adding an air conditioner, heat pump or new furnace. Over loading these can cause power to be lost to your home by burning up a transformer. To avoid emergency service to restore power to your home and the possible damage it could cause to your property call PP&L before you make the changes. (PP&L 888-221-7070) They will verify if the power to your home is adequate. Have your electrical contractor examine your home wiring to be sure it will safely run the new equipment.

Codes & Licenses:
Code and license requirements are constantly being changed. Be positive that both the work you are having done and more importantly the people doing the work are complying with these. Have them prove they have a business license, a city license, a L&I license and have taken permits out with the city or county and L&I. The fines and damage cause by non-compliance are not worth the very few dollars saved by not taking out the permits and getting licensed contractors.