Armed Polite Society

As far as making the best decision as to wait versus do it now, there are other factors besides future labor costs. Thee's also the expectable decline in "real" costs of making the new equipment and refrigerant as demand and production increases,.This, as well as esrimating the value of what we call "money" in the future (that means infaltion, folks). and your own income possibiities --retiring soon?

Possily most important is the fact that it's easier to get it done now than some unforeseeable and awkward time in future.

Terry, 230RN

Biggest factor for me is the potential for expensive "repairs" (i.e. full system replacement) in the short term.

Both our compressors and one evaporator are 24 years old. The other evaporator is original to the house (1984, modified for 410A at some point). This means a high likelihood of major component failure in all units over the next five years. R-454B systems are incompatible with 410A system components, so any failure of any pressurized component will necessitate complete replacement of the system. Such replacement will be rushed, beholden to whatever equipment is available on short notice, and during a period where the systems are still relatively new and expensive. Those factors combined, it makes sense to go ahead and replace the units now while I can take advantage of existing equipment prices, sidestep future labor rate inflation, and with the luxury of sufficient time to consider options. It also gets me into equipment which is warranted for a minimum of ten years, can be serviced at the component level using much more common parts and methods, and is more efficient than our current systems.

I'm not a "wait until it breaks then fix it because" person, the kind who biases heavily to up-front expense and what-ifs away potential future financial detriments. Dad is like that and it cost us far more than it ever saved, plus usually resulting in significant and often costly inconvenience. I'm big on being proactive when it's advantageous. This is one of those times. I did the same with our water heater, a Rheem I picked up on a killer sale a couple years ago and tucked away in the garage. Our existing unit is 21 years old, double and then some the usual life span for water heaters in our area, so purchasing the unit while it was heavily discounted made sense. Glad I did, too, as the same unit today is most of twice what I paid. It will probably be installed soon.

Brad

Yes, I use primarily ground turkey. I've not bought actual ground beef (80/20 for burgers) for going on 2 years or longer. The last time I bought actual beef was a rib roast for our Christmas dinner last year.

That said, ground turkey is a lot more like ground beef in consistency, and an pretty far away from ground chicken. I don't use ground chicken, I don't like the consistency. It is way too mushy for me.

That said, the only advice I can give you is, because chicken is perhaps the blandest meat there is, you're really going to need to ramp up the spices and experiment, especially if you normally eat ground beef.

Mentally you're comparing what you're used to with ground beef against the chicken and no matter what you're going to be disappointed until you get used to it. So, again, ramp up the spices.

If he shoots a few more reporters, I may vote for him.

That's funny right there.   

My residential central air system started making horrid noises, and had unreliable gas ignition... Probably just needed massive cleaning, but there was a connection charge whether I used any gas or not, and... my increased electric usage is close to what that would have cost, and isn't likely to blow me up. So I quit using it, and will eventually remove it. The AC (in hot and humid St. Louis) is a single LG window unit that is some sort of "dual inverter" thing... It was on all summer in the rear bedroom (shotgun house), kept the whole house livable, and my highest electric bill was $135ish... I figure cost/month in the heat was about $60ish... If the house was bigger, I'd buy a second one. Winter-wise, I have a couple of the oil-filled radiator space heaters - I set them to the lowest wattage, and just let them go after things get reliably under freezing. Cheap then... House generally stays around 55 (which I prefer), and when it gets REALLY cold, I add a third one - also set for just a few hundred watts. All on different circuits. One of them is on a dreaded extension cord. A 10 gauge extension cord... Planning purchase of a pellet stove in the spring after I can figure out how to plumb the chimney...

1234yf is also... flammable.