Latest / Cool Talk with Hartzell's | Your HVAC Questions, Answered! / Skyscraper engineering upgrades your heat pump

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Skyscraper engineering upgrades your heat pump · Cool Talk with Hartzell's | Your HVAC Questions, Answered!

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: So picture this.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: You are standing in your backyard on a, well, a really sweltering July afternoon.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: The worst kind of heat.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: And your air conditioner is like fifteen years old and it is making that horrible grinding noise again.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone knows that exact noise.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: It is never a good sound.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: It really is not.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: So you are staring at this rusted metal box, you know, just sweating and wondering if you should finally replace the whole thing.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Ross Powell Or just pay a guy to patch it up for one more brutal summer.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: So you pull out your phone to take a breather and you scroll past a headline.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: And it says some massive industrial company just released a new line of high-efficiency heat pumps for commercial buildings.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Which probably feels like totally useless information in that moment.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell Oh, absolutely.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: You probably think, well, what does a giant machine designed to cool a 50-story hospital have absolutely anything to do with my broken unit in the backyard?
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Right, because people almost always assume that commercial engineering and residential appliances exist in completely different universes.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell Yeah, like they are not even related.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus Exactly.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean the equipment on a skyscraper just looks like alien technology compared to the box outside your bedroom window.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Ross Powell Right.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: But today we are going to prove that those two worlds are actually intimately connected.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell They really are.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: So for this deep dive, we are unpacking some really fascinating notes and insights provided by Dave Hartzell.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus And Dave is a guy who really knows his stuff.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Ross Powell He is a true veteran in the HVAC trade.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: He has 45 years of experience under his belt, and he has spent the last 15 years running his own shop.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Right.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Hartzell's Heat and Air out of Kingfisher, Oklahoma.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Which means we are getting a perspective that is grounded in hard reality.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is a guy who has watched multiple generations of heating and cooling technology hit the market.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he has seen the fads come and go.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Right.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: He knows the difference between a flashy marketing fad and a genuine mechanical breakthrough, mostly because he's the one actually bolting the equipment together in the field.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Let us unpack this.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: Catalyst for our whole discussion today is that recent announcement I mentioned from Johnson Controls.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Right, the big industrial one.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: They are a legacy brand, you know, famous for those massive chillers and commercial rooftop units.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: And they just announced new high-efficiency heat pumps for industrial use.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell But um we are not talking about this just to bore you with corporate press releases.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell No, definitely not.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: The real insight here is how Dave uses this seemingly distant industrial news to predict exactly what everyday people will be buying for their own homes.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Ross Powell Because understanding those commercial trends is well, it is the ultimate shortcut to being an informed homeowner.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell It absolutely is.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: It gives you a roadmap.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: The commercial sector is where the massive research and development budgets actually live.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell Oh, for sure.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Ross Powell These companies spend tens of millions of dollars engineering ways to squeeze out just a few extra percentage points of efficiency.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell Because on a commercial scale, a 5% efficiency gain saves a hospital like millions of dollars in utility bills over a decade.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Exactly.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: It adds up fast.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell But let me push back for a second.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: If I am looking at Johnson controls, they make these massive variable refrigerant flow systems.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: They are the size of school buses.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Oh, yeah, they're huge.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: So what specifically are they doing with these new heat pumps that matters for a residential backyard?
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Well, there are two massive technical upgrades here.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: The first is highly advanced compressor staging.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: And the second is hyper-precise refrigerant management.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, let us start with the compressor staging, because um my current AC at home really only does one thing.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: It kicks on and blasts icy air until you are shivering.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: And then it shuts off completely.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: Are you saying these new commercial units do not do that?
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: They absolutely do not do that.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: What you have is a single-stage compressor.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: It has exactly two modes 100% capacity or 0%.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: Which sounds pretty inefficient.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: It is incredibly inefficient.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it takes a huge surge of electricity just to start the motor every single time it cycles on.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: So advanced compressor staging utilizes inverter technology.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: The compressor can actually adjust its output in these microscopic increments.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: So it does not have to be all or nothing.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: If the building only needs, say, 20% of its total cooling capacity to maintain a perfect temperature.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: The compressor just hums along gently at 20%.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell Oh, I get it.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: So it is kind of like driving a car.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, how so?
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like you do not stomp the gas pedal to the floor, speed up to 60, and then slam on the brakes over and over again to maintain 30 miles an hour in a neighborhood.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell No, you get terrible gas mileage.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: You just ease into the throttle and hold it steady.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell That is exactly the physics of it.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: By running constantly at a very low speed, you eliminate those massive electrical surges.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell Makes sense.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: And you also get significantly better temperature control.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you do not have those wild temperature swings where the room gets freezing cold and then uncomfortably warm before the unit finally kicks back on.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell That makes total sense.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: Now, what about the second part you mentioned, the hyper precise refrigerant management?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Right.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: So older systems basically use a fixed hole, which is just a tiny physical opening to spray the refrigerant into the coils.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: So just a static part.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very dumb mechanical process.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: But the new technology uses electronic expansion valves.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell Okay, that sounds expensive.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell They are very advanced.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: These are connected to microprocessors and temperature sensors all over the system.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: They measure the exact temperature of the gas leaving the coil, and they adjust the flow of the liquid refrigerant drop by drop, literally in real time.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: So it is actively adapting to the weather outside minute by minute?
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: But again, you are never going to install a hospital-sized variable compressor with electronic expansion valves in a normal residential backyard.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: True.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: So what is the timeline for this trickling down to the consumer market?
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually much faster than people think.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know, once the commercial buyers pay for the initial engineering.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: They foot the big RD bill.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Yeah.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And the factories scale up their production lines?
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the cost drops dramatically.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever breakthroughs you see on commercial rooftops today will typically hit the residential supply houses in about one to two years.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell Wow, that fast.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: It is exactly like the auto industry then.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell, yeah.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because things like anti-lock brakes or adaptive cruise control, they were all developed for high-end luxury sedans or million-dollar concept cars first.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: And now you basically cannot even buy a base model economy car without all those features coming standard.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Exactly.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: The engineering just trickles down.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: What is fascinating here is that this massive capital investment by Johnson controls, well, it proves that the heat pump is not just some passing trend.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell Like it is here to stay.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, absolutely.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Major global manufacturers are doubling down on this technology.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: They see it as the definitive replacement for traditional air conditioning and heating.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell Okay.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: But we really need to address the elephant in the room regarding heat pumps.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell The cold weather myth.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: There is a massive amount of skepticism out there.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I know people who absolutely refuse to even entertain the idea of buying a heat pump.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Because they think they stop working when it gets cold.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Ross Powell Exactly.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: They are convinced these units are totally useless the second the weather drops below freezing.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell It is a very, very stubborn belief, and we kind of have to dig into the actual thermodynamics to understand why people think that.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell Okay, lay it on me.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Ross Powell Well, a traditional gas furnace is simple to understand.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: It creates fire.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: Trevor Burrus, Right.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: You burn gas, you get heat.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: It literally generates heat by burning a fossil fuel.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: But a heat pump does not generate heat at all.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Ross Powell It does not?
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: It is just a transporter.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: In the winter, it absorbs heat energy from the cold outside air.
• 7:39
  unknown: Okay.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Then it compresses it to make it even hotter and moves it inside your house.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Ross Powell Right.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: Stop right there.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: That is the part that always sounds like a magic to me.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh a lot of people feel that way.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like if it is 35 degrees outside, I am wearing a thick winter coat because there is no heat.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: So how can a machine physically extract heat from freezing air?
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because human biology and physics define cold very differently.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: How so?
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: In physics, heat is just the measurement of atomic movement.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: So absolute zero is roughly negative four hundred and sixty degrees Fahrenheit.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: Which is unfathomably cold.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: That is the theoretical point where atoms completely stop vibrating.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: So if it is 35 degrees above zero outside, there's actually an enormous amount of heat energy bouncing around in the atmosphere.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, I never thought of it that way.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Yeah.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: The heat pump uses a refrigerant that boils at extremely low temperatures, and that allows it to capture that ambient energy and carry it indoors.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: I see.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: So it is just harvesting the latent energy that is already there.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Precisely.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: At 40 degrees, this process is incredibly efficient.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell But that logic has to have a limit, right?
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, what happens when a severe winter storm hits Oklahoma and the temperature plummets into the teens or even single digits?
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Well, then you hit the physical threshold.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: As the outside temperature drops lower and lower, the atoms slow down, and there is simply less ambient heat energy available to harvest.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell So the machine has to work harder.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Exactly.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: The heat pump has to work progressively harder to extract it.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: Eventually the efficiency just drops off a cliff.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: The unit is running nonstop, it is pulling a massive amount of electricity, and the air coming out of your vents starts to feel, well, lukewarm at best.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell, which totally validates the skepticism.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, if I live in a place with harsh winters, why would I want a system that just gives up right when I need it most?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: It is a valid concern.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell But Dave has a very specific, battle-tested strategy for this exact problem, right?
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, he does.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: And it is called a dual fuel system.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: The dual fuel setup is brilliant because it removes that risk entirely.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: How does it work?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: You essentially pair a highly efficient electric heat pump with a secondary traditional heat source.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: So in a place like central Oklahoma, that backup is almost always a powerful gas furnace.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, or like heavy-duty electric resistance heat strips.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: So they essentially work as a tag team depending on the weather report.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell That is exactly it.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell So for like 80% of the winter when temperatures are floating around the 40s or 50s, the heat pump handles everything.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Running at peak efficiency.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: And it saves a fortune on utility bills.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: But when that brutal ice storm rolls in and the temperature drops to 15 degrees, the system realizes the heat pump is struggling.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell And it automatically shuts the heat pump down.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: And fires up the gas furnace to take over.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: You get the incredible financial savings of the heat pump for the vast majority of the year.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: Trevor Burrus Combined with the raw brute force power of a gas furnace for the few weeks when you absolutely need it.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: You never have to compromise your comfort.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: That makes perfect sense.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: Now, as a brief aside, Dave also offers geothermal heating and cooling setups for homes in Oklahoma.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, those are fantastic.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: Right, providing another way to tackle extreme temperatures efficiently by looping pipes underground.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: But getting back to these standard air source heat pumps, why does the myth that they only belong in mild climates still have such a stranglehold on the market?
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Because human memory is long, you know, and technology moves fast.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Fair point.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: If you bought a heat pump 15 years ago, that limitation was a hard reality.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell They really did fail near freezing back then.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell Oh, yeah.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: Older heat pumps really did fail completely near freezing because they lacked the variable speed compressors we talked about earlier.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell Ah, right.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell But the new components, the ones trickling down from the commercial sector, they have completely transformed the hardware.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell So the new stuff can handle it.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Modern compressors can spin up faster and work harder to compress whatever little heat they find.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Meaning the new units can easily pull heat out of sub-zero air in ways that were literally impossible a decade ago.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell Here is where it gets really interesting, though.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: This hardware evolution brings us to a massive plot twist in the source material.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, about the installation.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: We just established that the equipment itself is getting incredibly advanced, like practically science fiction.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yet Dave points out something incredibly sobering.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: The absolute best, most expensive technology in the world is completely useless if it is put together wrong.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: This might be the most critical piece of advice Dave offers.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: The brand of the heat pump, that shiny logo stamped on the side, it matters far less than the quality of the installation and the sizing.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell Which kind of goes against every consumer instinct we have, you know.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because we are used to buying finished goods.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like if I buy a premium brand television, I know it is going to look better than a cheap off-brand model, regardless of who unboxes it and plugs it into the wall.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell But an HVAC system is not a plug-and-play appliance like a TV.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: It is not.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: You are not buying a finished product.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: You are buying a collection of thermodynamic components.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: And a contractor has to custom build and integrate those into the unique ductwork of your specific house.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: Which leaves a lot of room for human error.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: A massive amount.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: Most premature system failures, you know, units that should last 25 years but end up dying at 15.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: They do not come from factory defects.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: They almost always happen because the installer botched the refrigerant charge or completely messed up the sizing on day one.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, let us dig into that sizing issue because the source material has a perfect story that illustrates this.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: The O'Carsh customer.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: So Dave had a customer out near O'Carsh, Oklahoma.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: And this homeowner had a brand new heat pump installed by a different company.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a total mess.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: An absolute disaster.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: The system was constantly running the emergency backup heat strips, even on mild autumn days.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: And running emergency heat strips when you do not need them, that is financially devastating.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell Oh, their electric bill skyrocketed.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: It was punishing them every single month.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: So Dave comes out to diagnose this brand new equipment, and he found that the system was sized completely incorrectly for the home's load.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell It was way too big.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, exactly.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where we have to explain why bigger is actually worse.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Okay.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: Break it down.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Ross Powell People assume that buying a massive air conditioner means their house will cool down faster.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell Which sounds great in theory.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus It does.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: But a unit that is too large will short cycle.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: Meaning it blasts the house with frigid air, satisfies the thermostat in like five minutes, and then shuts right off.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: I want to try an analogy here to make this memorable.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Go for it.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: Buying a top-tier Johnson controls heat pump, but letting a bad contractor install it, it is basically like buying a Ferrari and putting flat tires on it.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: It simply will not perform.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell That is a perfect way to visualize it.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: And in the case of your house, the poor performance means humidity issues.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because an air conditioner needs to run for extended periods to pull moisture out of the air.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: When an oversized unit short cycles, it cools the air but leaves all the humidity behind.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: So your house feels cold but clammy and damp.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: So what did Dave actually do to fix it for that customer in uh Okarchi?
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell Oh, he did not rip out the equipment.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: He found the controls were configured completely wrong for the climate.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Okay.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: So once he resized the airflow and reconfigured everything, the system stopped panicking and the electric bill dropped noticeably the very next month.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell This raises an important question though.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: What is that?
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Regarding what a consumer should actually ask a contractor to prevent this.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: What are the red flags?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: You have to ask about load calculations.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: If a contractor just guesses the size over the phone based on square footage, that is a giant red flag.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: Hang up the phone immediately.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: Seriously, yes.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: They also need to explain their cold weather backup handling and their long-term maintenance plans.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so that leads us perfectly into the final section here.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: The financial blueprint for 2026.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because the money is the part everyone cares about most.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: Naturally.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: And right now, there is so much confusion around government incentives.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: Many people are operating on old information.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: It is a real problem.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: And Dave delivers some hard truth from the front lines about this.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: Let us hear it.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: As of our current date in 2026, the famous federal tax credits under section 25C and 25D, well, they expired on December 31st, 2025.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: They are completely gone.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: They are gone.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: So if someone is trying to sell you a system right now based on getting those massive federal tax write-offs, they are either misinformed or lying.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: You just cannot factor those federal credits into your math anymore.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: But utility rebates are a different story, right?
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, utility rebates still exist.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: But they are highly localized, like down to the specific zip code and provider.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Very localized, and the budgets change constantly.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: Which is why Dave refuses to guess these over the phone.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: He actually checks the official program for each specific customer before giving a quote.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell That is the mark of an honest broker.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: It really is.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: And that transparency extends to his pricing, which the notes outline to give us a baseline for honest contracting.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Their numbers are very clear.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: So he does free estimates on new systems, and then he has a flat service call fee of$210.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell And he breaks that down, right?
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell Yeah, which includes a$99 dispatch fee and a$111 diagnostic fee.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: And it is important to note that fee does not credit toward the repair.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Which is actually a good thing.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell By charging a transparent diagnostic fee, he is getting paid for his 45 years of expertise up front without hiding it by inflating the cost of a cheap part.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: And just to round out the numbers, after hours calls are$309, and a standalone AC tune-up is$229.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell So no hidden surprises.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: So let me ask the big so what financial question.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: With higher upfront costs for these new high-efficiency systems, is it ever actually worth replacing a system that still sort of works?
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: If we connect this to the bigger picture, it really comes down to the return on investment.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: If a system is, say, 15 to 20 years old and it is breaking down, the higher efficiency unit will often pay for the price difference in electric bill savings over the next 10 to 15 years.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: Because it sips power instead of gulping it.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: However, an honest broker like Dave will never tell you to rip out a perfectly functioning system just to upgrade.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: If it is working, let it work.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Precisely.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: Well, let us summarize this deep dive.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: Heat pump technology, driven by giants like Johnson Controls, is advancing rapidly, and it absolutely works in cold climates now.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: Especially with that dual fuel setup.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: However, you must prioritize proper installation and sizing over brand names, and you need to verify local rebates instead of relying on expired tax credits.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: The installer is everything.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: And we want to remind you that this practical wisdom comes from Dave Hartzall, whose shop boasts 4.8 stars and over 300 Google reviews in central Oklahoma.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: You can check them out at HartzelsheatAir.com or call 405-375-4822.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: I want to leave you with one final thought today.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: What is it?
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: We often think of our home appliances as isolated one-off purchases, you know, just a box outside.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: But what if we started viewing our homes as endpoints for industrial innovation?
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that is interesting.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: The next time you walk past a massive office building or a hospital, look at the giant HVAC units on the roof.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: And ask yourself what secret technology is humming away up there right now that will eventually change the way I live in my own house?