Adventures in HVAC

Another project was completed today, on one of the coldest days we've had recently.  Our new HVAC system! This was another project started by Lowe's, again, I highly recommend going to them for all your home owning needs.  (They did not pay me to say this, but if they wanted to, I'm open to the idea.  Hint, hint Lowe's CEO.)

Since I don't know what the hell I'm talking about when it comes to these things, I'll let the pictures do the talking...

Lowe's.  Durh.  Is there anyone else?!

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what we had to work with last summer...

 It got the job done, but just barely.  On one of the hotter days, it was 82 degrees inside our home, we were miserable.  We're more of a 68-degree-in-the-summer kinda family, so yeah.  It was quite unbearable for us.

This is our water heater, those lines running up the attic is what used to heat our house.

 My husband and I had never seen this particular set-up before.  My family has always had central heating and cooling, as has every home we've lived in since I married my husband.  Well, Japan didn't.  The base had total control of your heating and cooling, which sucked donkey balls.  There I said it.  Get a better system, CFAY!  Anyway, I digress.  It took us forever to figure out how to turn our heat on, I believe I posted about that this past Fall.

Our old thermostat, which worked just fine, but still, a "before" photo was warranted. 

 Okie dokie smokie! On to today!  We signed our contract with Lowe's about 2 weeks ago and this would've happened last week if not for all the snow we got.  Lowe's is on top of things when it comes to their install teams, which works well for the consumer (me) and is one of the many reasons they're our go-to.  The guys over at Climate Control, which is the company Lowe's contracts through for heating and cooling in my area, were here at 0800 on the dot and worked their butts off, in the freezing cold and sleeting rain, until 1600.  That's 8AM until 4PM for you non 24-hour clock folks. The house had no heat during that time frame and got as cold as 55 degrees.  They also ran in to a problem with our water heater, a valve broke so water had to be shut off for the entire house, yet they still took the time to fix that for me on top of all their other work.  Stellar dudes in my opinion.

Now on to the photos!  Starting with the one thing I forgot to get a "before" photo of, the furnace, or, you know, whatever the hell this is.

I am kicking myself for not getting a picture of this beforehand because it looked shoddy and extremely old.  Not anymore baby!  WE GOT A TRANE!  I know nothing about it, so let us move on.  "The world has moved on since then,"  a little shoutout to lovers of the Dark Tower series by the great Stephen King.

They capped off the lines on the water heater as we now have heating from our outdoor unit. No longer will we not have enough hot water because it was being used to heat our house!  Now our water will remain hot for as long as we need it!  Late-night baths will no longer be lukewarm and quick!  SUCCESS!

Now on to the big daddy...

Trane XR

The HOSS.  Doesn't that just look a million times better than what we had?  Well, it is and it's great and I love it.

It's heating so much faster than the old way, the heat feels warmer, if that makes sense, and it's amazing and I love it.  Did I mention that already?  It's not the biggest system Trane had to offer, but it wasn't the smallest either, plus this just fits perfectly with what we needed from our system.

Our new, DIGITAL, thermostat. It seems kinda complicated to me, but the guy who was showing me how to operate it seemed to know exactly what he was doing, and if he can learn, so can I.


That's all of the photos and pretty much all of my knowledge on this subject.

Well...WO-man but you get the idea.  We finally have a new HVAC system, which is working wonderfully for heating and I'm excited to see what this baby can do in the winter.