Gas and Oil Home Heating Furnaces - central air instal

Hi all. I love DIY stuff, and am fairly able to do most things electrical, plumbing etc etc.

I recently picked up a used central air unit. I have the unit and the condenser that goes in the duct work. I now need to know basically what next:D

I figure the main unit should be wired to electricity of some sort:p
What i need to know is what gauge wire and what size breaker will be required. My house has 100 amp service with stablock style breakers.

I assume you put the outside unit on some sort of conrete base. Should i pour one, or just use patio stones?

The inside unit goes in the duct work after the fan i assume, and then needs to be plumbed to a drain of sorts?


From here i figure the two units have to be conected with copper tubing. is there a special type of tubing to use?
can you use regular solder (water line solder) to make the conections, or is there antoher method?

Then what is used to charge the lines. I always figured the lines were full of some sort of refrigerant, but i had some one the other day tell me the lines were charged with H2O??? found it hard to believe.

Thanks for any help

Scott

see other posts, you will lose a lot of money by doing this yourself. seriously. that H2O advice was funny, he is not one i would ask for advice....for sure!!!!

Tryed doing a search, all i was able to find was not usefull , just a bunch of arguments and debates about the legalities of it as well as you shouldn't do it anyway. Could find nothing of what you can reasonably do your self, and what should be used.

so what exactly, in canada, can i do myself. I figure i gotta be able to put the unit in place on concrete, i gotta be able to run the power to it.

Are you suggesting getting someone to do the whole thing or just the charging and lines? I planned on having it charged by someone qualified, the lines i figured i could handel, but if its that difficult or unsafe, then i will have to look into that.

Any one else with more info? or a better search string.
I tried the search, but for some reason it wouldn't let me use the word air in the search..

Thanks

Scott

Go to www.hvac-talk.com and lurk and search like hell. These are the pros and there's a tremendous amount of info. at that site. Good luck ---Bill

if they know you plan to DIY, they will slam you for sure! how about installing the equipment yourself, then letting a pro do the startup. this will insure proper operation. one small step missed and you will not be happy with the performance.

What exactly do you mean by start up?

If you mean puting the vaccume on the lines and charging the system etc, thats exactly what i had planned on. I just wanted to try my hand at placing the unit, wireing, and pipes.

If the pipes are generally considered too dificult then i won't attempt them. I have done water pipes, but they are easy to check for leaks:D How would you go about checking these for leaks.. I assume the professional would do that at start up?

Thanks

Scott

BTW.. just so i have a ball park figure.. what should an average price be for starting up an older 2 ton unit? I would assume it would depend on haw much pipeing there is.. as it stands now i am trying to chose btw 2 locations. One would probably have 5 or 6 feet of pipeing.. the other probably 25 feet.

Oh yeah.. its r-22

Thanks

Scott

H2O in the lines boy that would make it work. Be fore you start are you sure about the compressor in this unit. Do you know if it has ben sealed up the whole time or open to the air if so it can be bad. By that where all the shut offs closed down , is there still some R22 in the highside. If not you can have a unit that wont run after all the work you do.As for the lines you need a turbotorch are better for heat. Not solder, we use stay-silv 15 its a form of silver solder on the lines . There is a refrigeration dehydrated and sealed soft copper tubing that you can get and use for the lines. Have fun ;) ED

To minimize your headaches go online and purchase a new Goodman 2 ton 12 SEER split heat pump with air handler for $1500.00 and get it delivered to your door. Get a new lineset install it all yourself , change filters once a month religiously and repeat above every 10 years. Wouldn't trust used HVAC equipment -- neither do the pros. Ever call a HVAC company and ask them to install a used system for you? Try it sometime, they'll probably think you were from another planet. Warmest regards, ----Bill

well to be quite honest all i care is i get a week or 2 out of it. I am sure it will last longer than that, but if it doesn't thats ok too. Around here there is a company that does gas furnace and air conditioning service/repairs. there is amonthly fee, they come and service each ac and furnace once a year under the monthly fee, and all parts and labour are covered if there is a problem at any time. Its a 24/7 service, and there is no inspection process... (read you will not be refused coverage, no one come to see what you have). Coverage begins something like 10 days after enrolement. If the unit is broken and they deem it cheaper to install a new unit, they do so, at no additional cost to you. I wish i could afford 1500 etc, but at this time i can't. I can afford a few hundred more and thats about it.. hence the DIY ;) I hope it will last a good many years after the install, but if it doesn't thats what the plan is for... kinda like insurance for your ac and furnace

Scott

I am not sure that it has been sealed up. how do i check for this?

I was told that it was disconected by a professional with the intent of installing it at a cottage. Tehy upgraded the house one and were planning on moving the old one to the cottage and connecting it there. It was disconected last fall.

Scott

Scott, Is labor included in that HVAC monthly service agreement you speak about? Make sure it is! I can see it now... "Oh yeah Mr. Homeowner, we can put in a new AC unit for you free of charge and we'll only charge you $ 5,000.00 for labor" Remember the mantra: If it's too good to be true, it probably is" Read the fine print very carefully. Regards -----Bill

I will look into it further, but from what i was told it is. I know it is for the furnace, I'll post when i find out.