Back in March, we moved in to this 1979 house. We had a new Rheem furnace put in as part of the FHA rehab - everything had to be done before we moved in.
Furnace is all electric - no natural gas back in this subdivision. Had a bit of trouble with it at first - coolant leaked out. They fixed it, and it has been working ok since then, with a couple of annoyances.
Annoyance #1: a couple of the bedrooms are hotter in summer than the rest of the house, and colder in winter
Annoyance #2: on Fall/Spring days when it is cold in morning, and hot in afternoon, I have to manually switch the thermostat between heat and cold for it to do what it needs to do
Annoyance #3 showed up yesterday - furnace & blower running and running, but it kept getting colder in here. I went outside and noticed the heat pump was running, even though it was just 15 degrees out. Switched the thermostat over to emergency heat, so it would use the heat strips.
The thing just can't keep up with temps between 9 and 22 outside. Yesterday afternoon the temps inside rose just 9 degrees - to about 64 - after more than 8 hours of trying. I looked at the furnace, and realize they only hooked up 15kw of electric strips, not 30k as I had requested. That's probably why it can't keep up.
Annoyance #1 is probably caused by poor duct design and implementation. Main duct is along East side of house, and vents over there have a lot of air coming out. Vents on the West side, including those bedrooms, have a lot less air coming out. I would probably have to have the interior of the house busted up and ducts replaced to take care of this.
Annoyance #2, I may be able to take care of by switching over to a newer style digital thermostat.
I have to say, I wish I had a natural gas hookup here. At our last place, I had a Goodman 80% efficient gas furnace installed for a total of $1,300. I was very impressed with how quickly it could bring up the temps after we had been way, and I don't think I'll ever get used to how 'cold' the air from an electric furnace feels.
BTW, can anyone give me an idea how much most HVAC furnace repair places charge, per hour? There is a place nearby that I've used for duct cleaning and minor things in the past. They charge a $52 trip fee, and $90/hr. ($22.50 per 15 minutes) Is that pretty much average for the industry?