A complete Lennox system for Live Oak, matched to the meter on the wall
Start with the summer electric bill. Whether it comes from FPL inside the city or Suwannee Valley Electric past it, the shape of that bill tells us what the next system should be.
Reading the summer bill before picking equipment
Inside Live Oak, Wellborn and Houston the meter belongs to FPL. Everywhere else in Suwannee County it belongs to the co-op, SVEC, headquartered right here in town. The rates differ, the rebate programs differ, but the bills tell the same story: June through September is where the money goes, and a system that is undersized, oversized or bolted to leaking ducts shows up as a summer spike that does not match the size of the house.
When a bill is high for the square footage, the first question is not which Lennox model to sell. It is whether the ducts are losing a third of the air into the attic or crawlspace, whether the system is short-cycling, and whether the house is leaking. A complete system quote from us addresses whichever of those is true, and names it.
New build at Savannah Plantation against a changeout in Sherwood Forest
New construction on the acre lots is the easy case. We work from the plans, run the load calculation room by room, place the air handler where it can be serviced, size the condenser for the house and for the whole-home generator many of these houses include, and design the ducts before anyone frames around them. What comes out of that is quiet, right-sized and simple to maintain for twenty years.
A changeout in a 1970s or 1980s ranch is the harder, more common case. The old equipment comes out, but the ducts, the return location, the electrical and the pad all carry history. A complete system here means deciding what stays. Our default: replace the equipment as a matched pair, test the ducts, fix what leaks, add a proper return if the house never had one, and upgrade the electrical and surge protection. Replacing the outdoor unit alone is not a complete system and we do not quote it as one.
Ducts: attic, crawlspace, belly and the ones that are not there
- Attic flex in the 1990s-2000s two-stories and most ranches. Usually serviceable; often needs sealing and a few replaced runs.
- Crawlspace ducts under raised downtown houses. Prone to sweating and rodent damage; sometimes better replaced with a new layout.
- Belly ducts under manufactured homes. Thin, often torn or waterlogged. Repair is cheap compared with the capacity it restores.
- No ducts at all in the oldest bungalows. The complete system becomes a ductless multi-zone or a compact closet air handler with new small-diameter ducts.
The ductwork is quoted as part of the system because, in this county, it decides how the system performs more often than the equipment does.
Call for a complete-system estimate
Sizing a whole system for 94-degree afternoons and 25-degree mornings
Live Oak asks one system to handle the hottest July highs in north Florida and a few hard freezes a winter, with 40-degree swings in a single spring day. The load calculation uses the house’s actual construction, orientation, windows and insulation at design conditions, and the equipment is picked to meet the cooling load without being oversized, because an oversized system here leaves humidity behind. The heating side is then checked against the coldest expected mornings, with backup strips sized to cover the gap rather than carry the house.
A variable-capacity Lennox heat pump handles that range best, a two-stage unit handles it well, and a single-stage unit handles it adequately if sized honestly. The quote will show all three where they make sense, with the FPL instant-credit eligibility noted for in-town customers and enrollment status marked for you to ask about. [[CONFIRM WITH JERRY]]
One quote, several questions
Why do you want to see my electric bills before quoting a system?
The summer months show how many kilowatt-hours the current equipment burns to keep up. Compared against the house size, that tells us whether the problem is the equipment, the ducts or the envelope, and it gives you a baseline to judge the new system against next summer.
Is SVEC's smart thermostat program compatible with a Lennox communicating thermostat?
The co-op’s program works with specific thermostat models and we would want to match that list before choosing the control. Details of the program and current eligible models are something to confirm [[CONFIRM WITH JERRY]].
We are building on an acre at Savannah Plantation. When should the HVAC contractor get involved?
Before the slab. Duct routing, the air handler location, the condenser pad and the generator sizing all go better when they are drawn in with the framing plan instead of fitted around it.
What is included when you say 'complete system'?
The outdoor unit, the matched indoor unit or package cabinet, the thermostat, a new pad or stand, a surge protector, a float switch and drain protection, and whatever duct repairs the quote names. Anything not on that list is not assumed.
Want one quote for the whole system?
Free estimates. Bring the summer bills; we bring the load calculation.