When you match a high efficiency furnace with a high efficiency air conditioner, you've installed a system that provides the maximum efficiency and economy of operation that a specific manufacturer provides.

     Even though each component is separate, they're all designed and engineered to work together as a system, and if all were installed together by a professional company, they become a balanced system that provides the optimum comfort and efficiency.

     Unfortunately, most working systems today are not installed that way. Depending on when and where (and by whom) your system was originally installed, the odds are good that they are probably not matched and are only operating at minimum efficiency. Let's look at some examples.

     The downside: (1) If you live in a development, it's a given that most developers use the least expensive model of equipment (builder's model) which is also the least efficient.

     The upside: If you live in a house that is part of a development, the probability is good that the original equipment installed is matched.

However:

     Depending upon the age of the development, your original installation may have just consisted of a heating system or in later years, a heating and cooling system (rarely, if ever, does a house built in a development include as standard equipment, either a humidifier, electronic air cleaner, or a programmable thermostat…and never zoned).

     This means that if air conditioning was added to the original heating system at a later date or if the original condenser has been replaced, it is surely not matched.

     If several years elapsed between the time the air conditioner was "added on" to the original system or if a replacement to the original system has been made, the possibility of getting maximum efficiency is zero.

     The old biblical warning of "not putting new wine in old bottles" is applicable here. A new high efficiency condenser, connected to an old, existing, inefficient coil, can't possibly deliver the rated performance of the new condenser.

     Specifically, if a 13 SEER unit is installed using the existing older, less efficient indoor unit, it can not achieve the efficiency that a 13 SEER unit is designed to deliver. And here is the worst thing. If you install a 13-SEER condenser with an older indoor unit, most customers won't even know that the efficiency isn't up to snuff.

     Unfortunately, most distortion and damage to the efficiency of matched systems occurs in the summer, which is also known as "the parts replacement" season, because that's when compressors, coils and condensers most often fail and have to be replaced. We'll have more to say on that next time.

It may be hard to define quality and value but it's easy to recognize it!