Hey guys before we get to the video, please click that subscribe button. Thank you. Hey guys, joshua griffin here serving the middle peninsula in the northern neck of virginia we're out on a snowy winter like rainy, nasty day, fixing some heat and wanted to do a video. Because i've had this question a little bit and i just want to give you a few things to think about if you're looking at the locations of your systems, now, i'm if you have a package unit, whether it be outside or on the roof.

I know there's different parts of the country that that's kind of the thing i'm not talking about that. I'm talking strictly about split systems and you know meaning you're going to have an outdoor unit, either being a heat pump or air conditioner and you're going to have an indoor unit. That's either a furnace or an air handler, and i want to give you a few things to think about when you were talking about both okay. So i'm going to break it down and we're going to talk about the outdoor units first and then we'll talk about the indoor units.

Let me just say you know: if you've come across this video and you're like, why does it matter i'm going to go through? Why you know it matters? Why some things you need to think about when it comes to the locations of these systems and a lot of times when it comes to the outdoor units? A lot of folks will say. Well, i i you know, i want to just put it wherever it's out of the way. Basically you know i don't want to see it from the road. I don't want to see it from say you know, if you're, if your house is say on the water, i don't i don't want folks to see it from there.

So you know, and that plays a role in this. I think that, ultimately you know i could. I could probably do 15 videos on different scenarios and locations and things like that, but i will say if you have a heat pump system. You know in the old days when those systems would go into defrost mode.

It was quite noisy um. I don't want to say those days are completely over, but they've come a long way. So like these days, a lot of today's systems will, you know, turn off let the refrigerant balance and equalize, and then it will go into defrost mode, and so it makes it a little less noisy um back in the old days i mean it sounded like you Know sounded like air brakes on a tractor trailer. Sometimes you know it's like and it would run backwards and and that's how it would do the defrost mode.

So you know that's one thing to think about now. Why does that matter? If you, you know, if you're planning to spend a lot of time say on your porch or if you're looking at locating the system near a bedroom window, you know just be aware of that. It's gon na make noises uh if you're a heavy sleeper, then no big deal probably, but if you're a light sleeper. That's something to think about.

You know the only other thing i'll say about uh. The location of the outdoor unit is just be conscious, as especially as we get more into sorry, i'm going across the bridge, so it might be by bouncing up and down the camera. But the only other thing i'll say when it comes to the location of your outdoor unit, because we're going to talk about the indoor units in a second is that you know a lot of systems perform. I don't want to say better, but you you're going to have less problems.

I don't want to say the shorter, the onsets. There is a possibility that they're too short and then the person that's charging the system uh. You know they. Don't they don't dial it in perfectly because it's hard, you know you got to get that boiling point just right and so on.

So you have a little leniency. If you have a little length on your line sets. I just want to say you know the closer it is to the indoor unit uh. You know that compressor is not having to work as hard.

A lot of systems will make you go up in size on your line. Sets if you start getting significantly long runs. If you have a large home and you're putting those outdoor units way on the other side of the house, that could be an issue. So just be aware of that.

So now, let's talk about indoor units, we're talking about the furnace or the air handler inside and there's different parts of the country that different things are common right. So some parts of the country, you may see, systems in the attic more some parts of the country, you're gon na see the systems in the crawl spaces more and then obviously some parts of the country. The systems are going to be located in the home somewhere. Whether it be a mechanical room or a you know a laundry room or whatever or a closet, you know it's located inside the house, so i just want to give you a few things to think about when you're, looking at, where you're going to locate it.

Now, if you're hit, if your house is already built - and you are replacing the system uh moving the system to a new location - is you know a project in a lot of cases? It's not hard to do in some cases. You know you just relocate. It run. Your ducks to the new location, but just realize uh, you know it could be quite a project if you're gon na look at locating it in a different place.

That said, if you're building a house from the ground up or you have the option of relocating it somewhere else, let's talk about the pros and cons of those three scenarios, the first scenario i'll just say. If it's located in your house in my mind, you know it's not exposed to the elements. It's you know it. It's easy.

You know, obviously it's easier for guys like me to service it. If we get a vote, we're going to vote for it to be easily accessible, um not having to climb in a hot attic or in a moist crawl space - and you know we can take care of it. But i'm going to talk about the attic and the crawl spaces in a second, and that is something to be to be. Mindful of you know it's going to be exposed to some type of elements.

If it's you know in in one of those locations, whereas if it's in your home uh, you know somewhere in the house, it's in a conditioned location, the air handler is able to do what it needs to do. But it's not you know super hot or super. You know moist atmosphere or so on. So you know, honestly, if, if i were uh, you know vote if, if i was the heating and air guy, and i got a vote in it, i would i think it's always a great idea to have it located in the home somewhere.

I would probably even go so far to say that statistics would probably show that systems that are located in the home might have less problems than some of those other systems. I don't know uh, i'm just throwing that out there. So let's talk next about crawl spaces. If you're going to locate it in the crawl or it's already located in the crawl space, you know years ago, uh, you know, crawl spaces were wet uh.

They were sometimes cold in the wintertime you're. Almost subjecting that system to a little bit of elements that it wouldn't be in in some of those other locations, there are some pros to uh having it located in your crawl space. The first thing is, if you ever had an issue and it actually leaked water or something like that, it would be not dripping in your home. That's you know not a bad thing, especially if you're conscious of that.

But if you have a gas appliance, a gas furnace or an oil furnace, something that has the capability of creating carbon monoxide, i would not go to sleep tonight without getting a carbon monoxide detector put in your home. All it takes is for the flu pipe to just crack a little and now you've got you know an odorless poisonous gas, that's leaking into your home. I remember years ago we watched a uh, my wife, and i watched it was like a dateline or a 2020 type special and they had this hotel room that they thought was haunted uh, but it wasn't haunted. People were dying because the flu pipe in this hotel on their heating system was below that room and they were literally going to sleep and never waking up again.

So that's a huge deal. If your appliance, your indoor unit, is below your living space and it burns. Some sort of fossil fuel definitely get a carbon monoxide detector right now, right away, don't go to sleep tonight without it what's next, so if we're talking about the indoor unit being located in a crawl space, you know, as time has gone on, crawl spaces have actually Gotten nicer, you know we're seeing conditioned encapsulated crawl spaces. Now it gets back to what i was talking about when the system is located in your home.

If it's in a conditioned space - and it's not exposed to any sorts of elements to me in my brain, that's a good thing. You know the system's able to you know perform as best as it can without being in a hot attic, and it's got more of an ability to reach temperatures, and things like that without having to be you know, sitting outside like a package unit or up in The attic when it can get super hot in the summer time, the last thing i'll say about the crawl space and you could say the same thing about the attic, but probably more so, for the crawl space is, please make sure you're having that system maintained properly. Please at least minimum once a year, because i can't tell you how many times we've gone into folks crawl spaces and found absolute disasters and people didn't even know a lot of cases. They don't even know where the system is.

You know i'll go into their house and i'll say hey: where is your indoor unit they're? Like i don't i didn't know, i had an indoor unit and and i'm like yeah you do. You have an indoor unit and so you know a lot of times. Folks. Let things just go or they're not maintained properly, because they're in the crawl space or whatever out of sight out of mind type of deal until it's too late right.

You know they have a humidifier, that's not being maintained properly, so the the pad has gotten all gross and even moldy in some cases uh. You know. In some cases they have a you know some type of whole house home filter down there and it's not being changed as often as it should. Maybe they have an electrostatic air filter down there.

I i hate electrostatic air filters, and you know it's not because they don't work it's because nobody maintains them like they should just about. I mean, i would say, 80 percent of people that have them they're useless, because they're never cleaned and the you know the system's sitting there. Trying to you, know clean the air and it can't electrostatic filter is dirty or the cells are dirtier. That's it for crawl spaces and then, finally, just to you know quickly, go through whether it makes sense for the system to be located in the attic.

Obviously, there's a few risks, uh involved and they're, not necessarily huge deal breakers. If it makes sense for the system to be in the attic, then it makes sense for the system to be in the attic, but if your system is located in the attic, obviously, if the system were to leak misses the drain pan or the float switches, don't Stop the system or whatever it could leak through your ceiling. The other thing when it comes to the system being in the attic is depending on what state you're in it could be exposed to extremely high temperatures. So here it is trying to blow cool air in your home and the indoor unit is sitting in an oven.

So that's not good. It's sometimes struggling to keep the house cool, because the system itself is just having a hard time. That said, if you have a nice, ventilated attic and the system is up there, working or whatever you know one thing to think about, as i was talking about the fossil fuels being burned in the house or crawl space, especially, i would say that you run a Smaller risk, it's still a big deal if you're leaking carbon monoxide - and you don't have a carbon monoxide detector in your home, but you run less of a risk. In my mind, if you have a well ventilated attic - and you know you had a problem and it was leaking carbon monoxide to me - you're in a little less risk of it - harming your family, i'm not saying the risk is gone, but it's less risky than say.

If the system was located in the crawl space below your living space, the last thing i'll say about the attic is just the same thing as the crawl space out of sight out of mind type of deal, a lot of people they're not maintaining them properly. Then they do have something leaked through their ceiling and it is horrible again if you're, in a position where you can decide where the system's going to be located. I hope this helps. You know just a few things to think about things that you want to pay attention to as you're deciding where you're locating these indoor and outdoor units.

That's just a few things to think about. I know some of the folks that watch my videos are way smarter than me, they're they're, actually in the trade as well, and sometimes they'll make comments. So if you think about something else that would affect you know where the system is located, some things to think about. Please put them down in the comments, because it it does help folks, you know a lot of times when you guys are making those comments.

The last thing i wanted to say before we wrap up is i had a comment recently where they said you know, is that guy wearing a hairpiece - and i i love my beautiful hair, but it is not a toupee, i'm only uh. You know 36 years old during the making of this video, and this is my hair. I have uh thick hair that my mama uh gave me that i inherited from her and um yeah. So i i i don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, that it looks like a toupee in these videos like right.

You know back when we were in elementary school. We could shake her hair and make it look like a toupee, but it is it's my hair, so uh anyway, just throwing that out there. You probably don't care thanks for watching with all that said, if you're in our coverage area - and you are in the market for a new heating and air system, give us a call we'll give you a free estimate, we'll give you a great warranty, the best warranty. I think in the area - and you know we'd love - to earn your business if you're, not in our coverage area but you're in the market, for a new heating and air system.

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As soon as i do it's going to be outdated. New technology comes out, new, all kinds of information comes out, and so this website is like a book, but it's constantly being added and changed. So you know we even have a whole page called no-no's things to stay away from things that you want to avoid. In your pursuit of purchasing a heating and air system - and we just have this step-by-step guide, so newhvacguide.com and lastly, please subscribe.

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