by Scott HVAC tech
(West Virgiia)
I have been working on heat pumps for over 20 years. SEER and HSPF ratings are overrated. If you are not careful you may end up spending hundreds if not thousands extra on up front initial cost, trying to save pennies on the dollar on back end electric bills. Not to mention that once the parts warranty goes out you may experience double and even triple costs on purchased parts e.g. blower and condenser motors, circuit boards etc.(that's what Joe the salesman doesn't tell ya) My recommendation...do your homework, not only with the equipment but more importantly the contractor that you are about to spend THOUSANDS of dollars with (don't get hung up trying to save a couple bucks).Get 2 or 3 reputable bids, and seriously try to stay with the bigger companies(American Standard/Trane or Carrier/Bryant, maybe York or even Goodman). Generally these units will mostly be sold by dealers that have been established and will most likely be there if you do have a problem with the unit (remember NOTHING is bullet proof). My family has been in HVAC business for 30 years we have put the same units in for 27 years then alike a lot of consumers got bitten by the "cheap bug". Our equipment was failing at a 25-35% ratio. after 5-6 years of equipment recall we had enough. Changed our brand to AMERICAN STANDARD and have experienced uncompromised service and reliability both from the equipment and the company support. Our new install call backs are almost zero. We generally sell 90% 14 SEER and 10% 15 SEER and above, keep it simple you aren't going to drag race with it.. just heat and cool your home.