Our heat pump went out Friday and its FREEZING in our house. We have a fire place and a kerosene heater but it doesn't do the job.

How much will it cost to have someone come out and replace our heat pump and its components for it to work properly? Oh yea, we also need the breaker replaced because it burnt completley. Could the heat and air guy do this or will we need an electrician as well?

1/22/2007 12:51:18 PM

The HVAC guy should be able to replace the breaker... unless he's a pussy or something. You're looking at $60 per hour plus materials.

One hour labor plus about $20-$60 dollars in materials if it's something simple.

4-6 hours labor + materials if major system componets need replacing.

[Edited on January 22, 2007 at 12:55 PM. Reason : more info]

1/22/2007 12:53:00 PM

We have a home warranty and they sent a HVAC guy out. He went under the house and looked around and found the breaker box burnt completley. He did not continue to try and figure out why it was burnt. He just said that we had to call an electrician. Then we called him to ask if he checked the compressor and he said he couldn't with low voltage. But, from my understanding he doesn't need power to check it, he just switches the tester to Ohms and determines if it is open or close.
We are not happy with his half-ass job and realize that we are going to have a long road of this shit ahead of us, if we don't get it fixed right this time.

1/22/2007 12:58:39 PM

Call the warranty company back and tell them to send someone that will do their fucking job. Any HVAC company worth a damn will have either their own electrician or one they can get for situations such as this. The electrician is sure as hell not going to know how to fix your heat pump once the breaker has been replaced. Lazy people piss me off.

1/22/2007 1:06:09 PM

^ Agreed. Complain to the warranty company. Sounds like the HVAC company is trying to work them.

1/22/2007 1:08:14 PM

I wish it were so easy. Our warranty has been nothing but problems. We had A/C problems from the beginning. Warranty people sent people out and blah blah blah. Basically something needs to get replaced and no more patch work. We know they are trying to have us hold out until our warranty is done but we can't take this much more. We have had atleast 5-6 visits from HVAC guy.

Just found out the reason we had to call an electrician is because the HVAC guy didn't have another sub panel and he is coming back out after the electrician leaves. (We are still getting the Warranty people to send people out because we already paid for the service). I am just curious because I know that they will deny a replacement.

1/22/2007 1:10:27 PM

Do you mind if I ask what warranty company you went with? I am planning to purchase a warranty for my home within the next week. My 20 year old A/C compressor looks like it could croak at any time. Feel free to PM me if you'd rather not post here.

[Edited on January 22, 2007 at 1:13 PM. Reason : s]

1/22/2007 1:12:57 PM

Since we are out of heat...anyone know a place that sales cheap wood or know somone that might have some they aren't going to use?

We burned all of our wood we had busted (about 2 days worth) and then bought some at Home Depot (very expensive $4/ 5 pieces).

Thanks!

1/22/2007 2:04:27 PM

Someone on Penny Road between Olde South and Lake Wheeler road has some for sale. There's a sign in the front yard.

1/22/2007 2:12:35 PM

1) which warranty company?
2) go ahead and get some electric blankets
3) which type of kerosene heater?

1/22/2007 2:40:05 PM

look on craigslist for wood. ppl selling or giving away firewood on there all the time, especially if you have the means to cut it up yourself.

1/22/2007 2:41:38 PM

A buddy of mine had one of the heat pumps on his house go out recently (he has two pumps because his house is huge). Anyway it cost him $2800 to replace it. Those are the only details I have.

1/22/2007 3:29:58 PM

do you have any friends with a lawyer for a family member that would maybe represent you for free or at least threaten to represent you. My buddy's dad owns a HVAC company and he says they will spend as little of their time and money as they can until somebody tries to sue them.

Also, I just cleared some small trees out of my brother's yard. Not a whole lot of firewood, but if you want it, you can have it.

[Edited on January 22, 2007 at 4:14 PM. Reason : j]

1/22/2007 4:13:26 PM

Thanks for all the information.

The electrician bascially told us how when this stuff was installed it was not done to code. So, it goes back to whoever installed it and we looked and there is no paper trail. If the warranty company finds out that then they will not help us any further. But, the electrician said he would not tell them but he couldn't fix it with them so he said he would do it under the table. So, I guess we are going to try that and then go with him through the warranty to put a new subpanel in CORRECTLY.

I am going to call our buying agent because the company that inspected our house should've caught all this and I am going to tell him that the home warranty he is selling doesn't cover shit.

I am going to look into small claims court for the inspection company, home warranty...I think.

1/22/2007 4:58:47 PM

^ Tell me exactly what he said wasn't up to code. From an electrical standpoint, there aren't many requirements.

^^ Tell your buddy's dad to die in a fire.

1/22/2007 7:32:51 PM

[Edited on January 22, 2007 at 9:01 PM. Reason : wrong thread]

1/22/2007 8:56:14 PM

typically a burned out breaker is a sign of a shot compressor, which is rather expensive to replace

[Edited on January 22, 2007 at 9:02 PM. Reason : ]

1/22/2007 9:01:52 PM

Just so you know, most warranty companies will not cover the 20 year old AC.

The warranty usually only applies to nerwer items, once an item gets near its expected end of life they will dudge the coverage. GO over the warranty contract with a fine tooth comb, if you have questions about age of appliances, write down the questions and their answers and attach them to the contract, never take their word for it that it will be Covered.

These guys are in the business to make money, anything they can do to screw you theyw ill.

1/23/2007 7:56:18 AM

Quote :

"If the warranty company finds out that then they will not help us any further. But, the electrician said he would not tell them but he couldn't fix it with them so he said he would do it under the table. "

you're getting scammed. tell the electrician that you want it spelled out in writing where in the applicable version of the NEC that the currently installed hardware doesn't meet code. If he tries to piss around the situation or quote references out of the 2005 NEC (which wasn't applicable when the pump was initially installed I'm assuming), then he's just trying to get paid to do easy work and figures that you will pay up front.

1/23/2007 11:20:39 AM

We have an electrician at our house now fixing the faulty wiring. He is only charging us $150 for that --- which my fiancee's Dad can do for about a 1/3 of that price but we can't put it off until this weekend. Then he is going to install a new sub panel box.

I just hope that this works but my fiancee has a heat and air guy on call just in case.

^^We would have done that but we just bought the warranty right after signing the contract for the house. We know we should've looked closer but that is def in the past now so we have to work with what we have. Thanks for the information for our next home purchase.

Darkone - Basically the disconnect is suppose to be with the unit and ours was under our house, then it was all rigged wiring and done poorly. So I am not exactly sure what requirements weren't met. I am just going by what my fiancee told me.

[Edited on January 23, 2007 at 11:22 AM. Reason : I'm Slow]

1/23/2007 11:21:30 AM

how old is the unit?

1/23/2007 11:24:32 AM

I'm guessing around 20 years old...its an older unit...its an outside unit...I'm not exactly sure.

1/23/2007 11:36:04 AM

older unit means older code, remeber, he will try to make you pay to bring it up to current 05 code stuff, or possibly 06 code if when it comes out, however many many older isntalls MEET the code they were isntalled under. Elevators and many other devices ONLY have to meet the code they were installed under, no matter how outdated it may be.

1/23/2007 5:30:10 PM

Thanks for the info. Our heat is working and we are warm again. The warranty company was going to send up a $50 reimbursement for our kerosene heater but we all know that doesn't cover half of a kerosene heater that is worth a damn. But, they are sending us a $100 check for our time that we went without heat. So, that is reassuring. Luckily the local agent is udnerstanding or just fed up with our bitching.

Thank you to everyone for the information!

1/24/2007 3:11:00 PM