New Air Conditioner Followup Report

[danemodsandy]

I am deliriously happy!

I just got my second Mid-American bill since purchasing the new Haier 8000 B.T.U, air conditioner I posted about recently.

Bills (two so far) are half last summer's, with the result that the new machine will have paid for itself in less than one cooling season!

It is true that this has been a cooler summer than last year, but previous years were also much higher than this one, and the house does heat up a lot during the day, due to a south-facing living room window (which helps during the heating season!).

This is not a huge house (480 square feet), but still, $72 for both gas and electric for the month of July, with no skimping on comfort (units set at 72 degrees)?

I'm good with that!

 

[cfz2882]

nice!

hopefully it will last a while-I have a couple haier mini fridges and they have been reliable-2003 and 2006 vintage but not in constant use.The 2003 one has an LG compressor.I have noticed the strategy with newer ACs seems to be to use a smaller,lower power compressor combined with larger(for the compressor size)condenser and evap coils-won,t blow little ice balls seconds after turn on like the "old skool"ones,but less power is used.

 

[combo52]

Yay For Reasonable utility bills

Good for you Sandy, now please don't ruin your wise savings by buying a 1970s Amana refrigerator, running an old FF refrigerator from the 70s will require burning more than three additional pounds of coal to produce the extra power required to run it EVERY day, we don't need the additional acid rain.

 

[iheartmaytag]

Great news, glad the new unit is working out well.

I hate to blow cold air up your bloomers, but my A/C bill is 1/2 what it was last year too. It has been 30 degrees cooler and the unit hasn't ran as much. IT is actually 67 outside right now. This time last year we were in like our 45th day over 100.

May I say again "Thank you God for the rain, but you left the water running and the sink is full now. But it sure has cooled things down.

 

[danemodsandy]

John:

My present refrigerator is from that era, so I won't be pulling any more juice than before.

Harley:

We had a cool June, but July has been more normal.

 

[iheartmaytag]

I am so thankful for the cooler summer, We have had 15 inches of rain already in August. Now the grass is too wet to mow and I'm going to have to start bailing soon. But Westar Energy isn't getting as big of payment this month.

 

[twintubdexter]

Sandy,

I really didn't need to hear about your $72 gas & electric bill after paying $311 to Edison for July. We had a very hot July here in the desert and my house is a little over 2,300 sq ft. I wish it was closer to the size of your home, proof that bigger is not better...and at my age it really doesn't matter anymore anyway.

 

[danemodsandy]

Joe:

Remember - that "Palm Springs" by your name causes the rest of us some envy, too! ;-)

 

[danemodsandy]

Harley:

I should also mention what I consider to be the biggest source of savings:

The previous "big" unit in the living room was a 13,000 B.T.U. unit that was purchased with the intention of having it cool this entire small house. That never really worked out, because of the house's floor plan; cool air didn't reach the bedroom/bath area nearly as well as would have been desirable. To get the bedroom really cool on a hot night required running the unit flat out, as high as it would go.

Three years ago, that situation moved me to purchase a 5,200 B.T.U. unit for the bedroom. That resolved the cooling problem in the bedroom/bath area, but I now had more capacity than I really needed, a total of 18,200 B.T.U. The problem with that was that the living room unit still had to be run a lot, because of the southerly exposure of the living room's big windows.

Now, I have the 5,200 B.T.U. unit in the bedroom and an 8,000 B.T.U. unit in the living room, for a total of 13,200 B.T.U. So, that's a savings right there. About the same cooling capacity that the old big unit had by itself, but better distributed. And both units are new, with up-to-date efficiency.

 

[cfz2882]

fan speed difference

today at the salvation army,bought a haier esa412k-l(12,000 BTU rated)for $30-it had light damage and the window hardware was missing,but looking it over discovered it had never been used!Anyway test ran this and though it worked fine there was only a barely perceptible difference between low/med/high fan speeds-low still fairly loud.Does your 8000 BTU model have a good fan speed spread?

 

[danemodsandy]

Yes, Mine Does:

The Haier I have is an 8000 B.T.U. unit, shown below. The difference in fan speeds is quite noticeable, and the unit is quiet.

You might like to know that the window kit hardware is available from Haier's parts contractor, and it's not expensive. Here's a link: this is the parts company that the Haier America site refers you to:

http://www.encompassparts.com/haierconsumer/

 

[cfz2882]

thanks for that link-the model you have is very similar in appearance to the one I bought-controls are the same,but mine has a one-piece discharge louver instead of two piece.

 

[danemodsandy]

You Might Like to Know:

There would have been a remote control for your unit; you could probably replace it through the parts company if you care that much.

It controls everything on the unit.

 

[cfz2882]

remote

yep,noticed the the IR sensor window-my '09(assembled in mexico)friedrich has remote but I never use it,so missing remote with the haier no biggie.