We live in a double-wide mobile home and have been here 4.5 years. This home is approximately 20 years (?) old and has original AC unit with heat strips (no heat pump) and original ductwork. To complicate things, we are on 5 acres of woods with LOTs of animals like possuum, raccoon, armadillo and fox... oh and tons of squirrels. We have problems in one end of the home with heat and air coming through, like the ductwork has a problem or something. Other than that it seems okay.

We know one day soon it will need replacing. Now seems to be that time since we have something(s) dead in the duct work. The whole house smells so bad and it is rather sickening. I had a company come out and offer a proposal of replacement. It would be a 5-ton Bryant unit (current unit is 3.5 ton) 13 SEER Heat Pump package deal including replacing some ducts, adding some extra return ducts and "cleaning and decontaminating the existing ducts". Included are 10yr warranty on compressor, 5yr other parts and 1 yr. labor. Price total is $7888 for all.

Is this a decent offer? Originally I wanted at least two estimates, but I want to get going on getting this terrible smell out of here. I would appreciate any comments to help me.
Thanks!

Two questions. One - where do you live - what state? Two - how big is the home square footage wise?

My standard has always been to tell people to get at least 2 estimates. Costs vary from area to area so it is impossible to tell if you are getting a good deal unless you have other estimates.

Hi Twinkiedooter,
I live in North Florida (Tallahassee area). The home is 2,184 sq. ft.
Thanks-

I would get a second estimate, with today's economy you should be able to have someone out today or tomorrow for the estimate... better safe than paying for regret.

Ask any contractor for references to similar installations when in doubt.

Thanks for the comeback. The reason I asked where you lived was relative to the heat pumps. If you have a home of that size and had the 3.5 ton unit and it worked okay, I really don't think you'll be saving any money by going to a 5 ton unit. If anything, you would be wasting your money on that.

I had a manufactured double wide in South Florida some years ago not quite that big but almost. I had to get a new a/c unit as the other one was damaged by electrical surge. I discussed getting the bigger unit just like you want and was told essentially that the unit would not work properly as it was too big for the house. I only went up 1/2 ton in size when I got the new unit. It did a very good job as my needs were basically air conditioning and not heating. The new a/c made the house like the North Pole in very little time.

Since Northern Florida does not get that cold for too long during the winter you would have to use the auxiliary heat on the heat pump as they don't work when the temp gets below a certain temp.

I would definitely shop around now while it's still cold and get different prices for conventional units vs the heat pump units. Is there any special reason you want to use a heat pump in a 20 year old home?

I work for a manufactured home dealer/installer here in Ohio. The homes that are being produced in 2009 have much more insulation in the ceiling, walls, and floors than they did 20 years ago. We don't go overboard when installing air conditioning units in new homes either using too large a unit for the home. There is a regular gas or electric furnace and an add on air conditioning unit that sits outside of the home. Works just fine.

If you want to get more bang for your buck seeing as how this is a 20 year old home, may I suggest that you get a roof over put on the home instead? I did this with my double wide home and had it installed right over the shingle roof. They didn't have to remove the existing roof but put the insulation on the roof and then the metal roof over on top of that. I got gutters that my house needed as well along with the new roof. In the summer no matter how hot it was I could put my hand on the roofover and it was cool. The color was white and specially coated metal. At the time I got the roofover it cost me in the neighborhood of $4,000. It kept the house much, much cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter as well. This may be something you might want to consider doing instead of getting such a pricey unit.

Do you know just how much insulation is in your roof and walls? Unless you added this yourself, the home when new did not have much. If the home was manufactured in Florida for use in Florida maybe you got a tad bit more, but not much. Only lately has the industry really beefed up the roof and walls. The newer homes have R28+ in the roofs and R19+ in the walls.

Just a thought on this. I figured you may be interested in what I had to say having lived in a big doublewide and also work in the industry.

What immediately caught my eye is that you had a 3.5 and now they are quoting a 5 ton. So I agree with twinkiedooter, if that 3.5 ton seemed to cool just fine then you know you don't want to go much bigger.

Also important to note: in your climate, humidity control is key. An oversized unit short cycles reducing it moisture removal and shortening its life.

Get multiple quotes from multiple contractors on multiple brands.

The home is 2,184 sq. ft.
The home is 20 years old
Florida is hot
It is a dubble wide mobile home with 1988 wall construction insulated for Florida

I would have them do a manual J calculation since 3.5 tons might not get it done.

R OF T= 4 ton X 500 = 2,000 sq ft normal construction