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The Roundtable / Re: Heads Up: New residential HVAC refrigerant come Jan 01, 2025
« Last post by Brad Johnson on October 23, 2024, 12:25:55 PM »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