What are some of the things that affect how efficient your heating and air system is or actually affects, the seer number rating on your heating and air system? We're going to talk about that in this video, but before we do, please click that subscribe button. Thank you. Hey guys, i had this question the other day. I had done a video basically talking about how you know the ratings next year about to go up the minimum ratings on.

You know what you can buy here in the state of virginia the lowest seer, the minimum seer heating and air equipment that i can currently buy is 14 seer, and next year that'll go up to 15 seer, so different parts of the country are going to be Affected differently, so, if you're not sure check out that video and find out where you are and how it's going to affect you. But on that video i had someone comment and they said well: hey josh. What are some of the things that affect seer or how efficient my system is? Obviously, if a coil has a piston versus a txv, then the txv is going to be more efficient than having the piston. But what are some of the other things? It's kind of a loaded question: i'm just going to throw a couple things out there that if you are comparing say a for 13 14 seer system to say a 20 seer system.

What are some things that make this system more efficient other than a txv or some sort of metering device change? What are some of the things that affect that number? One coil size so a lot of times you will see on a more efficient system. A larger coil you'll see a taller outdoor unit. We've had customers, they, you know, went with a higher seer system and then they were blown away by the height compared to their old system. I have actually seen old one and a half ton heat pumps and they are like tiny.

I mean i mean tinier than like this trash. Can i mean they're like tiny, tiny little units these days? If you buy, you know a system you're, usually even if it's a ton and a half, it's gon na be significantly larger than that little trash can. But as you go up into you know even 20 seer systems, there's some of them that you know i'm six foot tall, almost i'm like 511, but you know i'm kind of almost looking over the edge to look down in there. So coil size will affect that.

I remember years ago, when ahri matchups were starting to become a thing and they were trying to get higher seer ratings out of older equipment. One thing they would do a lot of times is they would over size the indoor unit. In other words, if you had a three ton outdoor unit, you might put a three and a half or four ton air handler matching it and get a higher seer rating out of that outdoor unit. So a bigger coil will affect that.

Why? Well, basically, it's just more airflow, it's a larger coil, it's a larger surface and more airs being able to go across that coil lower or raise the temperature of the refrigerant number two metering device. We already talked about pistons and txvs, but today you know we don't just have those two options: they've got tons of options now you know they've got exvs and electronic expansion valves, and you know all these different types of valves now. Typically, if you see a more higher end system and inverter system, it is going to have some sort of electronic expansion valve. I've heard them called different things.

I think train and american standard call them stepper motors um, but basically they're they're, a metering device they're. Just like say a txv, but unlike a txv, they can actually communicate with the system and they can affect that coil electronically, rather than just having a temperature bulb. That opens and closes that valve, so metering devices number three more efficient components: motors, for example. You know, as time has gone on, they've gotten more efficient.

They draw less energy you'll, even see. Sometimes systems they'll actually rectify the electricity making it into dc voltage. A dc volt motor three phase run instead of a single-phase ac voltage motor because it will save energy in some way. So a lot of the components you'll see as time has gone on are more efficient in general.

Another thing you'll see is staged systems or even variable systems, so, as time has gone on, we used to have just single stage stuff and they still do right now during the making of this video. I think that's going to change at some point, but during the making of this video you can still get your hands on single stage systems that are either on or off and then, as time went on, they started coming out with multi-stage systems. So there was a you know if it was a two-stage. You might have your first stage running at 70 capacity and then your second stage would be running at a hundred percent capacity, for example every brand's different on that.

But that's just a general idea, but now we've got variable speed systems. You got motors that can ramp up and down, there's no on or off now. There's you know this constant waviness. The idea is for it to come on and run and instead of having these initial spikes and energy when they first turn on, they will run longer at a lower speed, saving energy and then now we've even got compressors that are variable or inverter systems.

The crazy thing is, i did a video recently on thermostats and how they're kind of a little antiquated - and some of you guys, you know, said well. I disagree with that and that's fine. You know i was just you know, kind of throwing an idea out there, but i can tell you with inverter systems. The heating and air industry is just now starting to catch up with some of this stuff.

You know way before inverter systems started coming out. People in the electrical field had vfds and things like that that would affect the speeds of motors and make them variable at all times the fact that uh, you know this is becoming more of a thing now. It's just the industry starting to catch up. It's not like it's new and revolutionary uh, it's just now, starting to catch up to other industries.

Another one might be technology when it comes to communication in the old days, and still today we have thermostats that are just really all they are. Are series of switches inside that will close based on what you tell the thermostat to do so? If you say hey, mr thermostat, i want you to be in ac mode. I want you to you, know cool to this temperature and the thermostat will close certain switches inside of it sending voltage on different wires. But now we have communication technology where the units can actually talk to one another.

This unit can tell this unit hey i'm going to ramp up, because it's kind of warm in the house or the other unit can say: hey it's kind of hot outside or whatever they can actually talk to one another now, and that makes systems more efficient. You don't have systems that are just on a mild day running at 100 capacity that variable speed. Communicating system can tell each other hey. You know it's not that it's kind of mild today, so we're just going to run just enough to cool that house and not draw so much energy all right guys.

So that's the main things that i wanted to throw out there, but i want to throw a few more out there that have nothing to do with how efficient the system is or what the seer number is that you should be aware of that can affect your Electric bill: first, one is system cleanliness if a coil gets super dirty and you've got air that is trying to pass through there. That would normally pass through there just fine, lower or raise the temperature of the refrigerant, and now you've got a system. That's having to work extra hard to get the job done or run longer to get that job done. That will make the system less efficient.

I think all tune-ups in general should involve cleaning the system cleaning the coils, making that system as new as possible again and then the other thing that will dramatically affect how efficient your system is, is the ductwork. We see it every day, ductwork, that's, either a not sized properly, not installed properly corners cut and, in the end, it's the homeowner that has to pay for it. That system is less efficient than it could be, or should be all because of the ductwork. So, anyway, guys, i hope that helps thanks for watching hit that subscribe button.

We'll see you next time, you.