Game-day Saturdays in September and the house that never caught up
Every September the same Millhopper Forest house filled with twenty people before kickoff and never cooled down until Sunday. This is what we changed.
The scenario: the fourth Saturday in September
A family on a wooded acre off Millhopper Road hosts every home game. By 11 a.m. twenty people are in the house, the television is on, the oven has been going since nine, and the oaks that shade the roof also block the breeze. The 2010 system runs flat out from kickoff on. The living room reaches 79 and stays there; the humidity climbs past 60 as people come and go through the back door; the upstairs bedrooms where the kids retreat are hotter still. The condenser on the side yard roars the whole afternoon. Sunday morning the house finally catches up, and the GRU bill a few weeks later records the effort.
They called in October, which is the right month: the hot season has eased, the install calendar is open, and there is time to do it properly before the next season.
What we recommended for a game-day house
The Lennox Ultimate Comfort System is the company’s top configuration: a variable-capacity heat pump from the Dave Lennox Signature Collection, a variable-speed indoor unit, the Lennox smart thermostat that runs them as one, and whole-home air treatment from the Healthy Climate line. For this house we specified it with zoning so the upstairs and downstairs could be run separately, a deep media filter for the oak pollen that coats the lot each spring, and the thermostat’s dehumidification mode active.
What makes it fit a game-day house is capacity that adjusts in small steps. On a quiet Tuesday the heat pump idles along at a fraction of its output, nearly silent, drying the air for hours. On a crowded Saturday it has reserve to climb through, and the thermostat, reading humidity as well as temperature, keeps the blower running slow enough to wring out the moisture twenty people bring in.
Two days in October: the install
A two-day job for a two-story house with the air handler in the attic. Day one: the old condenser and handler out, a new attic platform with a secondary pan and float switch, the new indoor unit set and the zoning dampers installed in the trunk lines, the media cabinet built into the return. Day two: the condenser set on a new pad on the side yard farthest from the bedrooms, line set and electrical run, the system evacuated and charged, the thermostat and zone sensors mounted and commissioned, and the whole thing run through a full cooling and heating cycle. We register the equipment before we leave, and the homeowner’s phone is already showing the house’s humidity.
The first Saturday, and the summer after
The first Saturday was the test. The living room held 75 at 50 percent humidity through the fourth quarter. The condenser was audible only when someone stood beside it. Upstairs ran two degrees cooler than downstairs because the kids’ zone was set that way. Through the following summer the family set the thermostat higher than they ever had, because dry 77 feels better than damp 74, and the bill came down accordingly.
Maintenance on a system this capable is not optional. Two visits a year, media filter changes on the pressure-drop schedule, a UV lamp swap each spring, and a condenser kept clear of the acorns and leaves that a Millhopper lot drops without pause. With that, the Ultimate Comfort System is the longest-lived equipment we install.
Who it suits in Gainesville
Large or hard-to-cool homes under heavy canopy, two-stories in Haile Plantation and Westchester that fight themselves, households with allergies or asthma, and anyone building in Oakmont who wants to buy the system once. For a 1,400 square foot ranch that is comfortable already, we will steer you to something simpler.
Ultimate Comfort questions from the Millhopper corridor
Is the Ultimate Comfort System too much for a 2,200 square foot house in Westchester?
Not if the house has the problems it solves: humidity, hot rooms, noise, allergies. If the house is comfortable on a mid-tier two-stage system, that is what we will quote. The top tier earns its cost in houses that are hard to cool, not in houses that are easy.
How quiet is the outdoor unit compared with the one on my side yard now?
At its low speeds, which is where it runs most of the time, it is quiet enough to hold a conversation beside it. The point is less the decibel figure than the fact that it almost never runs at full speed, where every condenser is loud.
Can I run the system from my phone while I'm away for the summer?
Yes. The Lennox smart thermostat reports temperature and humidity remotely and lets you change settings, which matters for Gainesville homeowners who leave in June and want the house held dry rather than merely cool while they are gone.
Which parts of the package qualify for a rebate?
The heat pump may qualify for Clay Electric’s high-efficiency rebate at co-op addresses; GRU customers have surveys and duct testing rather than an equipment rebate. The federal 25C credit has ended. We confirm what applies to your address, and Cook’s part in each program, on the estimate. [[CONFIRM WITH JERRY]]
Hosting this fall?
Call for a system that keeps up with twenty people and a tied game.