Keeping your home comfortable starts with your HVAC system. Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, or HVAC for short, is responsible for modern homes being what they are without having to light a fire or crack windows. If any part of the system needs replacing, you need to be aware of how the process goes.
Whether you are replacing the heater/furnace or the AC unit, there’s lots of choices. Convert to a different type of appliance, switch to a different fuel or power source, change the size to accommodate your home better, etc., are all choices with which you will be presented. It isn’t easy, since swapping out exactly the same appliance for almost exactly the same appliance doesn’t require any upgrades in electrical or gas lines. Conversions to a different power source (e.g., solar, gas, or electrical) require installing a lot more equipment.
What is it you need most from the appliance you have to replace? Maybe you want it to be more energy efficient or you want it to conserve fuel or power and only operate in off-peak hours. Find the right heating or cooling system based on what you hope to accomplish and not just on its ability to heat or cool.
Not every HVAC contractor and technician installs every product out there. Some will only install certain brands. To ensure that you hire the right company, ask them what brands and models of heating and cooling appliances they work with and have experience installing. Then hire the contractor that installs exactly what you want.
Be sure to plan ahead and block off several hours for installation. In most cases, four hours is enough, but six hours is better in case the technician needs more time.