Compare HVAC quotes on what they do in the attic

A heat pump sized by copying the old nameplate copies the old mistake, and here the old mistake is nearly always too big: a unit that reaches the set point in minutes and shuts down before it has wrung any water out of the air. A room-by-room calculation takes an hour and is the only line that decides whether the house feels dry in a Gulf August.

Model numbers name the efficiency, the compressor type and the humidity control; a phrase like sixteen SEER system names none of them. A single-stage unit and a variable-speed one are different houses to live in from May through September, and the difference is in the numbers, not the brand.

The ducts in an Alabama attic sit in air that passes a hundred and thirty degrees on a summer afternoon. Every leak pulls that air into the house, and every thin section warms the cooled air before it reaches a register. Testing, sealing and re-insulating them is its own line, and the one that most often separates the two quotes.

Keeping the old copper is faster on install day, and it is the usual reason a new heat pump is low on charge by its second summer. Whether the line set is replaced, or flushed and pressure-tested, and how long the run is, belongs in the number.

A new heat pump with strip heat can need a larger breaker and a new disconnect, and on the older housing in Birmingham and Mobile sometimes a panel that has no room left. Whether that work is priced or discovered is the difference between two quotes that look identical.

An air handler in the attic drains for six months straight here. A secondary pan, a float switch that stops the system before the pan overflows, and a drain line with an actual slope cost very little and are easy to omit. A ceiling replaced after a clogged line in July is the other price.

Alabama winters are short, but the nights below freezing still come, and on those nights something other than the heat pump warms the house. Strip heat, a gas furnace kept as backup, or a unit that rarely needs either are three different January bills. The quote should name which.

A heat pump switched on is not a heat pump set up. Refrigerant charge, airflow across the coil and static pressure through the attic ducts are measured or they are assumed, and in Gulf humidity an assumption shows up as a house that cools but never dries. Ask for the start-up sheet.

Jefferson, Madison, Mobile and each city inside them inspect on their own terms. Included, billed separately, or left to the owner are three different deals, and only one puts a licensed name on the record the next buyer will ask to see.

The old unit and its refrigerant leave the property somehow, and the refrigerant is recovered by someone certified or it is vented. A line that says haul away and recovery included is the honest version of a line that says nothing.

The manufacturer covers the compressor and the parts, usually only if the unit is registered inside a window the homeowner never hears about. The contractor covers the labor, which is what fails first, and a cooling season that starts in April wears labor out faster. Who registers the unit and how long the labor is covered belong in writing.

A heat pump run by a thermostat built for a furnace calls the strip heat far too often, and the first winter bill is the proof. Whether the quote includes a thermostat that understands staging, auxiliary heat and humidity, and who configures it, is a small line with a large bill behind it.