Deciding to Replace your HVAC Systems

--This is additional information as follow up to the post I made titled:

Fancoil Units (HVAC) Replacement 

I have also added some information about the the schedule of balcony repairs and window and door replacement, since all these major improvements impact living conditions.

Advantages of getting new HVAC systems

It's a big decision about buying new HVAC system because they cost a significant amount of money and the installation will interrupt daily living. Going with the group buy will save you as an indiviudal money and should also help stablize our condo fees in the long run with better energy efficiency.

1.     Accurate control over the temperature in your apartment.

2.     Significant energy savings.

3.     Reduce chance of unexpected problems that might effect your apartment and apartments below yours.

4.     Increase your property value.

5.     Reduced cost per HVAC unit if the decision is made now to take advantage of the group purchase and its discount.

How the installation works

1.     The contract is between you and Quality Air.

2.     Quality Air will coordinate with ECA management and determine which tier goes first.

3.     It’s about 10 weeks to manufacture the HVAC units which have been spec’d by our contracting engineer firm Mendoza based on various building requirement. The first installations are expected in October 2014.

4.     Vertical units (installed inside a wall) take about 2 days. If there are problems with ECA piping behind the HVAC, the contractor will fix it but the charge will be paid from ECA funds. There might be an extra day needed.

5.     Horizontal units take a day to install.

6.     Heating-cooling shutdowns would affect every apartment within a tier. If your apartment has two HVAC units there would be two separate shutdowns. If you apartment has three HVACs, there would be three separate shutdowns. These shutdowns will affect even those apartments not installing new HVACs.

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Did You Know:

1.     For years, some of the original McQuay HVACs (now over 40 years old) have been leaking heat even when you think the unit was turned off? For years, I thought I was getting radiated heat from neighboring apartments. No, said our chief building engineer Jimmy Keeting, the unit was leaking heat.

2.     Yes, it is possible to get the building engineer to manually close the valve to stop the leaking heat but this further limits the “life” of your old HVAC as well as making you dependent on the aid of the engineer.

 Service and Maintence:

--This is up to the individual owners.

--You will want to ask Quality Air Services for contract information.

What you need to know about the schedule of balcony repairs and window and door replacement.

1.     If you have a balcony, there are 9 separate sequential activities that have to be fully completed before your tier has been totally updated. For apartments with no balcony there are seven activities. Currently there are ten tiers being worked on. It takes on average over 90 working business days to complete the nine activities. The backside of the building, Phase I of the balcony-window-door project, is estimated to take 224 days to complete from start to finish. Phase II is the front side with a similar estibmate of time.

2.     The 07 tier will be the first tier to be completed followed rapidly by 08 which has no balcony and will go through fewer activities and therefore take less time to finish.

3.     Once windows and doors are delivered for the 07 tier, it will much easier for our General Manager to provide a better idea about the scheduling of other tiers. He expects these windows to arrive the end of July (one week behind the original schedule).

4.     Once a tier has been fully inspected and deemed complete, the scaffolding with be moved to a tier on the front of the building. The scaffolding will not come back to a completed tier.