teachermom2834 Posted April 19, 2019 Share Posted April 19, 2019 I know this is going to totally vary by location and all the other house details but I am still asking. We are going to have to finally bite the bullet and replace our HVAC soon. I am scheduling appointments for estimates but I'm trying to figure out a ballpark figure and how we will go about paying for it. Details: We live in the southeast so low COL area but AC is extremely important! 2400 sq ft house about 40 years old...we need it to work but we are never the type to buy the top of the line of anything. 🙂 Any thoughts of a ballpark figure of what we are looking at? This is a first for us. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
almondbutterandjelly Posted April 19, 2019 Share Posted April 19, 2019 It will be in the thousands. It's been awhile and our house is smaller (1400 sq. ft) plus we're in Texas. But I want to say 4-6K? And I don't remember if that was both inside and outside units or just one. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie G Posted April 19, 2019 Share Posted April 19, 2019 (edited) This week we installed a new heat pump for our upstairs and it was a bit over 5k. A large enough unit to do your whole house might be more than that but maybe not much more. Ours was to handle just the upstairs (about 1200 sq ft). We’re in Georgia, so similar heating/cooling needs. ETA: this week we also had central air installed in our 140 year old house that we’re trying to sell, and that cost $6k. So we bought THREE air conditioning systems this week. Beans and rice for Easter dinner! G Edited April 19, 2019 by Annie G 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted April 19, 2019 Share Posted April 19, 2019 Assuming that your house is arranged so that your 2400 ft sq house can be matched to a 3.5 ton unit rather than a 4 ton unit (make them do the math to confirm!) and that you choose to do something like a very basic for the south 14 SEER unit..... I'd guess $6-10k based on the bids we got in 2017. If you know you are going to be in your house for a long time (many years), do the math on whether a 16 SEER unit is cheaper for you in the long run. When we were living in a climate where we ran the ac 9 months out of the year, the electricity tradeoff was enough that buying a 16 SEER unit made sense. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1GirlTwinBoys Posted April 19, 2019 Share Posted April 19, 2019 We replaced ours just a few months ago and it was $6,900 for a new heating and AC system. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbutton Posted April 20, 2019 Share Posted April 20, 2019 We replaced our A/C and furnace (midwest), and the A/C was the more expensive portion. I think it was around $6000 or so. We got lower end of the higher range. Besides efficiency, there are options for how tightly you want to control your temperature (stages, I think it's called), and options for things like being able to control things remotely from your phone. There is a lot of variety! If you go to someplace pretty customer-oriented, they should quote more than one brand, several levels of pricing, and spend time explaining the various ratings. They should also base their recommendations not only on square footage, but on insulation, size of windows, etc. Some states have minimum requirements related to energy efficiency, and IIRC, there is more than one way to measure this. Once we started talking makes and models, they gave us data on approximately how long it takes for various models to pay for themselves. You should make sure they will check everything out about your setup. In our case (house is new to us, old system), we had a less than ideal setup where something was retrofitted, we had damage, and we had sorry attic ductwork, so after fixing those issues, our new system might pay for itself even faster than average. So, definitely ask if your setup is working well, and consider making reasonable changes if they'll prolong the life of your unit, make you more comfortable, or save money. The fixes we had done were partly just part of getting a new system (they could install it right and make both parts work together correctly all at once), but we did pay for better ductwork in the attic. It was not that expensive, and it's so much nicer. It should help with efficiency as well. Our local utility company has rebates for upgrading to certain levels of energy efficiency and for using a certain level of thermostat. Those were several hundred dollars. Our company also had discounts for people who were not financing. Good luck! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrincessMommy Posted April 20, 2019 Share Posted April 20, 2019 I would ballpark it in the 3000-5000K. You may want to ask if there are rebates from the state in your area. Your HVAC person should know about them. MD used to have a rebate program for big-ticket items when you buy things that are energy efficient. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrincessMommy Posted April 20, 2019 Share Posted April 20, 2019 I wanted to add that it's totally worth it to upgrade a failing HVAC. We waited way too long on the house I mentioned above. The new system was like night-day. But, we were putting it on the market, so I barely got to enjoy it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KidsHappen Posted April 20, 2019 Share Posted April 20, 2019 We are in middle TN. Our house is a two story, 3300 sq. ft. and we have two units. They are both dying and we just had them charged to try and make it through the summer. As of next year freon will be phased out so this will be the last year we can do that. Next year we will two new units that run on whatever is replacing freon. I am not sure what size units we need but we were told that they would be roughly $7000-$8000 each. My brother just replaced the two units in his two story house in the Dallas area and i cost him $17,000. I have no idea why they were so much. His house is only 2400 sq. ft. and it really doesn't get much hotter there than it does here. Our guy told us that prices can vary wildly depending on units, location and even from month to month just depending on supply and demand. Since reon is being phased out there will be a greater demand for the new units for awhile. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teachermom2834 Posted April 20, 2019 Author Share Posted April 20, 2019 1 hour ago, PrincessMommy said: I wanted to add that it's totally worth it to upgrade a failing HVAC. We waited way too long on the house I mentioned above. The new system was like night-day. But, we were putting it on the market, so I barely got to enjoy it. This is my issue with everything! Surely we would have to upgrade to sell and I’d rather enjoy it. I learned this when we had to fix up two bathrooms to sell at our last house. Spent ten years not using the master shower only to have it fixed and never used a single time to sell. I vowed to never do that again. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teachermom2834 Posted April 20, 2019 Author Share Posted April 20, 2019 Thanks everyone. We drag our feet on major purchases and wait too long. We are trying to be more proactive about things so I am trying to be ready to buy and avoid crisis. But it is SO hard to part with so much money at once. None of your numbers shocked me, though, so that is good 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shoeless Posted April 20, 2019 Share Posted April 20, 2019 We replaced our HVAC last March for $6300. We have a 2300 sq ft, one level home in South Central Texas. If you need to get your HVAC replaced, I'd say get on it before it gets hot out and you really need it. When the heat increases, so does demand for new units and installation, which raises the price. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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