Carrier vs. Lennox?

[Pablo]

Curious about this- since the heat pump can make heat or cold why bother with adding propane furnace on top?

Sounds like the Lennox guy blew it.

Sort of answered this before. Will go a little deeper.

1) Heat pumps are good, modern heat pumps are really good. So I have nothing against them other than they run on electricity and older models were not great at either end.
2) I love the energy density of propane. It's expensive per unit but with just the two of us, we hardly burn through it. And of course it's already here. We have a 500 gallon tank, we have been here a month and the tank volume went from 46% full (we purchased the remaining fuel with house deal) to 45%. This of course is no indication of dead winter, but we have used the (old) heater and it's quick. BBQ, grill, fireplace, WH hooked up!
3) The cost adder for adding a modern propane furnace is in the budget, easily. I am of course infatuated with dual fuels. By all reports, the system is fairly intelligent. I am fascinated to see how it works.

 

[PWMDMD]

Curious about this- since the heat pump can make heat or cold why bother with adding propane furnace on top?

Sounds like the Lennox guy blew it.

In my neck of the woods heat pumps are always combined with a second source of heat since we can get down to -10F in the winter.

 

[dareo]

Curious about this- since the heat pump can make heat or cold why bother with adding propane furnace on top?

Sounds like the Lennox guy blew it.

In theory the heat pump will do all he needs. Having a backup source of heat is a great idea. Ask Texas.

 

[UncleDave]

Sort of answered this before. Will go a little deeper.

1) Heat pumps are good, modern heat pumps are really good. So I have nothing against them other than they run on electricity and older models were not great at either end.
2) I love the energy density of propane. It's expensive per unit but with just the two of us, we hardly burn through it. And of course it's already here. We have a 500 gallon tank, we have been here a month and the tank volume went from 46% full (we purchased the remaining fuel with house deal) to 45%. This of course is no indication of dead winter, but we have used the (old) heater and it's quick. BBQ, grill, fireplace, WH hooked up!
3) The cost adder for adding a modern propane furnace is in the budget, easily. I am of course infatuated with dual fuels. By all reports, the system is fairly intelligent. I am fascinated to see how it works.

Thanks, I thought maybe the dealer gave you a breakdown of a way to save money by going with a dual fuel unit.

I am curious to hear how this all works for you. Please keep us tuned in.

UD

 

[UncleDave]

In theory the heat pump will do all he needs. Having a backup source of heat is a great idea. Ask Texas.

I totally get redundancy - at the same time Pablo mentioned his climate was mild.

One upside of the dual setup is that he can likely heat his house in the winter running a small backup generator as all he really needs to power is the igniter and fan.

 

[TexasPlumber]

Curious about this- since the heat pump can make heat or cold why bother with adding propane furnace on top?

Sounds like the Lennox guy blew it.

its called dual fuel. the propane is auxiliary

 

[Hillbilly Deluxe]

Lennox. Much better quality than Carrier. Don’t worry about parts. Probably won’t need them. Lennox is the Toyota of residential HVAC.

The reason they aren’t big on the west coast is they don’t care. They are big in the southeast.

 

[Hillbilly Deluxe]

Carrier i believe has the most efficient mini split available right now. If your choices are propane and electric heat pump for heat i would let the efficiency stats make the choice for me.

Not really. Daikin is the king of the new technology, has been and no other mfg is trying.

Kinda like Chick Fil A being slammed all the time and 4 cars at McDonalds next door. No secret, just how the two choose to operate

 

[Pablo]

Lennox. Much better quality than Carrier.

The reason they aren’t big on the west coast is they don’t care. They are big in the southeast.

Not sure about that.

And why the heck would I choose a company that doesn't care about the region of the country I live?

 

[CDX825]

I like the infinity series especially the heat pumps but I'm still leery on carriers heat exchangers especially the ones on propane. I worked for the largest carrier dealer in the area for a few years and have seen my share of failed heat exchangers in the 58 series furnaces. Thing that scares me is I have seen a few failures of the 59 series in the same manner that the 58 series was failing. Changed a heat exchanger on a 59 series last fall that was only 4 years old. Secondary heat exchanger was plugged in several cells from what looked like rust from the primary heat exchanger. Again running propane.

 

[KrisZ]

In my opinion the installer and the quality of installation is much more important than the equipment and all quality installations should start with a manual J calculation.

As a side note, if you decide to go with Carrier, make sure they are certified Carrier installers, otherwise your warranty will not be honored. I believe you can check Carrier’s website for certified installers, at least that was the case years ago when I was installing AC In my old house.