New Home Tips
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Buying A New Home?
Buying A Re-Sale Home?
WISE ADVICE!
When Buying a New or Resale Home
Seven things to know when buying a new or resale home are mentioned here as they are often not thought of until it ‘s too late . . . or they are learned through bad, uncomfortable and often expensive experiences.
- General purpose home inspectors do not typically thoroughly inspect and test heating and cooling systems. This is due to their lack of knowledge, lack of testing equipment, and/or not getting paid enough to do an adequate job.
If you really want to know the condition of the house you propose to purchase have licensed contractors inspect it for you. Hire a NATE certified heating & cooling contractor, a licensed electrician, plumber and/or other specialists. Be cautious when REALTORS suggest specific inspectors as there may be a conflict of interest involved.
Unless there is a lender requirement to do so THE SELLER SHOULD NEVER be the party to replace or add a furnace and/or air conditioning system due to their condition. The buyer or new owner should be the one who adds to or replaces any significant part of the heating, cooling and/or indoor air quality system(s). Selecting a new or replacement system is not simple and should be selected by the family moving into the house. This is because it ‘s the buyer’s family who will be living in the house after the seller moves out thus leaving any problems behind. The buyer should develop a relationship with a heating and/or cooling contractor as the buyer will need maintenance and service help during future years.
When owners/sellers sell their homes they very seldom educate the new owner regarding the heating and cooling systems. The sellers just want to get away leaving any problems and knowledge for the buyers to discover on their own. This is tragic! Buyers should insert language in their offer to purchase which requires the seller to educate the buyer regarding all heating and cooling, electrical and plumbing systems. This should include turning over all documentation which goes with the heating, cooling and hot water systems etc. A list of all contractors who have worked on these systems over the last five years should be provided. A certification that the proper building permits have been obtained for the replacement of any of these systems should be provided.
When basements are finished there should be enough room left around the heating, cooling and water heater systems to permit easy access for maintenance. For example, by code, there must be at least 30 inches (more is better) of clear access in front of any furnace etc. Additional space will be needed for the future additions of high efficiency air cleaners, humidifiers, heat recovery ventilators and/or another water heater etc.
Don’t wait until you have a problem with your heating, cooling, hot water or electrical systems to call for help. Develop a relationship with reliable contractors BEFORE you need help. Have those contractors inspect and service your systems soon after you move in. Then they will be familiar with your systems so as to be able to give you outstanding service when needed. The worst way to have to find help is by looking in the yellow pages when you have an emergency.
Houses and their internal systems are much more complicated than they used to be. Therefore; all of the technicians working on these systems need to be better educated and smarter than ever. Look for experience and NATE certification in heating and air conditioning professionals to get competent service and help when you need it. AND expect to pay between $175.00 and $350.00 or more per hour for competent contractor help in your home. The average service call may be in the $300.00÷ range in the Denver area.
Buying A Re-Sales Home
Out of Sight, Out of Mind, and Then Out of Commission
(How to have peace of mind related to heating and cooling systems)
Most homeowners drive automobiles and as they drive them they are to some degree reminded that service and preventive maintenance needs to be performed once in awhile. On the other hand homeowners seldom see, let alone touch, their home heating and cooling the basement, attic, systems which are in closet or crawl space. Homeowners; therefore, tend to forget all about their furnaces and air conditioners UNTIL they don’t function at all.
Most home buyers of custom homes, production homes, or resale homes don’t pay much attention to the quality, functionality, or adequacy of heating and air conditioning systems BEFORE they move in. Home buyers either take it for granted that the heating and cooling systems work or they have the systems given a cursory inspection by a general purpose house inspector. If it’s a new home there may be no inspection of the heating and cooling systems at all. The new home buyer assumes that the builder has done a good job of subcontracting (outsourcing) the heating and cooling systems.
In the construction industry it is common, although unspoken, knowledge that homeowners and building owners won’t know how adequate or inadequate their heating and cooling systems are until AFTER they have closed on the purchase and moved in… into a contract to buy another house/home.
A good and knowledgeable contractor can help you remove the uncertainty related to your heating, cooling and environmental systems. Having a contractor inspect and/or service your existing heating and cooling systems BEFORE you have a problem will permit the contractor to become familiar with your systems thereby giving the contractor knowledge needed to give you expedited service when and if you do have a problem.
When purchasing another home, new or resale, the sooner you get your heating and cooling system expert contractor involved the better. NEVER sign an agreement to purchase without having specific language in the contract which specifies what you expect in the heating and cooling systems.
- The right heating and cooling contractor can suggest contract language to your REALTOR®, lawyer or other agent representing you.
- To find the right heating and cooling contractor ask your neighbors, the Better Business Bureau or other contractors you know and trust.
- Look for contractors with NATE (North American Technician Excellence) certification.
- Look for contractors with other professional credentials associated with building science and you will end up having peace of mind as never before.
A very good solution to the uncertainty suggested above is to develop a relationship with a reliable, very knowledgeable, heating and air conditioning contractor BEFORE your existing heating and/or cooling systems are out of commission (broken) or BEFORE you enter into an agreement of any kind.
Wise advice . . .
Never run the whole house fan during the heat of the day as all you will be doing is warming the house up with hot air from outside.
Fact. . .Air conditioners are meant to he used. Don’t expect the air conditioner to cool your house very much if you wait until 4:00 p.m. to turn it on when the indoor temperature may be well over 80°F. Do set the thermostat to the desired temperature early in the morning and then let the thermostat turn on the air conditioning when the house temperature becomes slightly warmer than the temperature to which you have set the thermostat. The air conditioning system will then start working when it needs to and your house will remain comfortable throughout the day. One significant reason for turning on the air conditioning early and lctting the thermostat control it is that the air conditioner needs to keep all of the walls, floors ceilings and furniture contents from getting warm or hot. All of these items have mass which stores heat so if you wait until the house is warm or hot inside your air conditioner will not have the cooling capacity needed to cool off all of those things in addition to the iadoor air.
Fact. . . The engineering societies recommend that designers of air conditioning systems in the Denver metropolitan area usc an outdoor design temperature of 91°F and 75°F indoors. This means that when the outdoor temperature is 91°F for a measurable period of time the air conditioning system cooling capacity should be designed to maintain a 75°F temperature indoors. This amounts to a 16°F temperature difference. I try to push this and shoot for a 20°F temperature difference between indoor and outdoor temperatures.
Fact.. . A new air conditioning compressor/condenser unit uses something between 2.5 and 5 kilowatt hours of electricity depending upon cooling capacity and efficiency rating. At the current Public Service Company rate of 80 per kilowatt hour the operating cost while running would be between 20g and 400 per operating hour. So if on average during hot weather your condenser/compressor unit operated 5 hours per day the daily operating cost would be between $1 .00 and $2.00 per day.
Due to many of the above facts some homeowners arc disappointed (to various degrees) with the results they obtain by adding air conditioning to their existing heating system(s). The level of disappointment increases as the number of levels/floors in theft house increases. Multilevel structures are difficult to cool unless the building duct system has been designed for air conditioning.
I know of no production builders’ houses in the Denver area which are designed for air conditioning. They are designed for heating. This means that the duct system is usually too small and the location of the supply registers, typically on the floor, are great for heating because warm air rises. The supply registers should be in the ceiling or high on exterior walls for air conditioning because cool air falls.
In extreme multilevel or air stratification cases a second air conditioning system can be added to supply cool air to the top with evaporator/cooling coil in the attic or a ductless split air conditioning system, the type often used in commercial buildings with localized cooling needs.
To select the optimum air conditioning equipment and to accurately predict the effectiveness of adding air conditioning to your house a competent heating and air conditioning contractor or engineer must perform heat gain calculations related to EVERY room in your house. These calculations are most often performed according to a practice developed by the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA, Manual .1) and require as input data the following:
- The dimensions of every room in your house including ceiling height.
- The wall, ceiling and floor construction along with the amount and type of insulation in all of these locations.
- The size, location and type of every window in your house.
- The compass direction your house and each exterior wall faces.
- An accurate estimate or measurement by blower door test of the air infiltration into your house.
- The degree of exterior shading by trees or other structures on your house.
- The type of shades, curtains, blinds and/or other window coverings.
- The sizing and design of the ductwork in your house.
- The capacity of the furnace blower to move air as mcasurnd in cubic feet per minute through your ducts.
What you can do to help Alex Walter give you the best possible air conditioning system follows. You have already helped quite a bit by reading and accepting the contents of this “Special Notice”. You can; however, do more by helping as follows:
A. If you can supply Alex with a floor plan of your house doing so is a time saver as Alex won’t have to draw one. The best floor plan is one with room and overall dimensioas on it or a floor plan with limited dimensions but which is drawn to scale so missing dimensions can be estimated. Home builders typically give you these.
B. Give thought as to where you would like to have Alex install the outdoor air conditioning (compressor) condenser unit. The best, most efficient and economical location is close to the house main circuit breaker panel AND where there is a definable path for the copper refrigerant lines to the forced air furnace.
C. Give Alex room to work. The more easy access there is to the area around your furnace the better. It is wonderful when all four sides of the furnace arc accessible. You can help by moving any stored items, including furniture and other “stuff’ away from the furnace area. And don’t forget that there needs to be a path (the wider the better) for workers and equipment to the furnace from the entrance to the closet, basement, crawl space or attic where the furnace is located.
Call Alex. . He does it rightl
