Comfortmaker Wholesale

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I did exactly what your husband did on purchasing the equipment at wholesale. We had a central-air swamp cooler with insulated ducting. Purchased a 12 SEER 5 Ton ComfortMaker split system (with 120 BTU Furnace). We used the existing ducting with the swampcooler-grade insulation although I did add some foil lined insulation on the main duct to get the temp at the registers to about a 1/2 degree drop. The only thing I would have done differently would have been to secure a licensed installer ahead of time. As the previous post noted, licensed HVAC people want to sell "their" equipment. Their HUGE markup meant that I would have paid 4-times what it ended up costing me. We were fortunate to find a licensed person who was willing to do the work. Equipment cost was $1900, labor was $750.00. Don't even think about doing the work yourself. The licensed folks are good about reporting you.

Our neighbors warned us about the energy cost compared to the swamp cooler. The immediate impact was an increase in electrical cost of $80 per month but my water bill dropped by $60. All that cooling for an extra 20 bucks? Well worth it. I had to replace the capacitor and fan motor in 2007 at a cost of $100. Consider that having dealt with climbing the roof and replacing swampcooler pads, cleaning, hardwater scale, and the rest, 100 bucks over 5 years was more than a bargain. Other than that, it has been great.