How Much Space Needed Around Residential Air Handler Unit To Service

What Is an Air Handler (aka Fan Gyre Unit) and Why Do Y'all Need One?

What Is an Air Handler (aka Fan Coil Unit) and Why Do You Need One?

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What is an air handler and why practise you lot need one? We examine this essential part of an HVAC system and show how it can work in tandem with your heat pump or AC.

Do you know annihilation about air handlers? If you're nodding your caput yep, proficient for you. Y'all're ahead of the game. If yous don't, you're not alone. Most homeowners don't understand the workings of an HVAC system.

That's fine, as long equally zilch breaks down or you lot need a replacement. That's the time when some specialized knowledge would come nigh in handy.

We've sold tens of thousands of products that make the air warmer, colder, drier, more humid, and less dusty.

Office of our task every bit HVAC professionals is to demystify the equipment in your home and to educate you lot on subjects that people are asking nearly.

1 piece of machinery that nosotros don't see very often is a stand-alone air handler. And if we don't come across it very oftentimes, information technology'southward a good bet yous haven't any idea what it is or what information technology does.

Past the end of this article, you'll know a lot more virtually it, and how yous might benefit from the use of one.

We'll examine:

What Is an Air Handler?
Why Practise You lot Demand an Air Handler?
Types of Air Handlers
How Much Electricity Does an Air Handler Apply?
Air Handlers Need to Rate With Heat Pumps and Air conditioning
Air Handlers Can Exist Configured to a User's Needs
Who Might Benefit From an Air Handler?
What Is the Price of an Air Handler?
Cost and Choice: What's Right for You lot?

What Is an Air Handler (Fan Ringlet Unit)?

An air handler, likewise known as a "fan curl unit of measurement," is basically a box shaped like a furnace. It has a blower in it, either a variable-speed or an ECM blower. (Electronically commutated motors (ECM) are brushless motors adult by General Electrical that are the latest in blower motor efficiency.)

The air handler sits within of your domicile, much similar a furnace.

Information technology has an evaporator scroll, and information technology can have an electric heater package, which contains heat strips. The evaporator roll is the cooling kit. It tin can also have an air filter as part of the unit or separate from it.

If you don't have a furnace, this is an essential part of an HVAC arrangement. A furnace is technically an air handler. It doesn't just produce hot air in the winter; information technology has a blower that moves air, so it's busy in the summer months equally well. It works in conjunction with your air conditioner or heat pump to remove the hot air from your habitation while its blower circulates conditioned air.

The electric heat strips in an air handler are like the heating element in a toaster. You supply electricity to the strips and they turn red.

There may exist up to five banks of electric heat. The internal controls will moderate those so they don't come up on all at one time, otherwise, your lights would dim. The air handler itself has simply one stage: information technology either heats at 100%, or it'southward off.

Why Do Yous Need an Air Handler?

An air handler'due south master purpose is to motion air through the ducts and your home. Pretty simple.

An air conditioner tin miscarry as much hot air as information technology can. Your furnace can generate lots of heat. But without a blower, the inside air would stagnate. Information technology needs a force behind information technology so that your HVAC tin do its job.

Y'all would usually pair an air handler with a heat pump or an air conditioner. If you lot ever need emergency or auxiliary oestrus, y'all tin ever add together the strips.

Other items can add to your indoor air comfort. Humidifiers, dehumidifiers, a HEPA filter, and air purifying devices such as a Reme Halo can be added as necessary.

Types of Air Handlers

Like a furnace, air handlers come up in different types. Y'all tin can buy a unmarried-speed, two-speed, or variable-speed version. A unmarried-speed, which is the cheapest pick, has two dissimilar modes: 100% on or 100% off. A two-speed has a setting lower than 100% and can help circulate the air in your house more than evenly.

Variable-speed air handlers take multiple blower settings, from 100% capacity to as low as around 40%. They attune betwixt speeds to provide optimal comfort. The exact number of speeds volition vary depending on the brand and model.

Because it tin can run at a slower speed, it will do an fifty-fifty ameliorate job of workout all the air in your habitation. You'll see lowered energy costs, increased comfort, and accept a unit of measurement that has less starting and stopping.

Let'southward say you have a multi-level home, and the second floor is less comfortable (in the wintertime, this would mean it's colder). One time the main floor is heated, the variable speed performance from your air handler can go on that temperature steady while also allowing the rut to spread throughout the dwelling.

The result is a home without hot and common cold spots, or wild spikes in hot or cold.

How Much Electricity Does an Air Handler (Fan Coil Unit) Use?

The power required for the blower office of the air handler isn't much different than a furnace blower. The heat strips are a different matter.

It takes a fair amount of electricity to get those rut strips glowing. If nosotros examine a 110-volt electric heater, that's about 1500 watts. A toaster or hairdryer isn't far from that. A 1500 kW electric estrus package for your air handler is about the same equally 15 electric heaters. That would be like an electric heater in every room.

That's very plush to operate. That'southward the primary reason air handlers are paired with estrus pumps, which provide heat efficiently.

The heat strip packages come in five, 7 ½, 10, xv, 20, and 25 kW. Every bit you lot need more heat strips, the air handler needs to exist bigger.

Air Handlers Need to Rate With Oestrus Pumps and AC

This is part of the complexity of HVAC systems: Only considering y'all desire or need a certain matter doesn't hateful you tin can but purchase it and y'all're ready to get. Certain equipment has to exist matched with sure other equipment.

For instance, air handlers have tonnages that friction match the oestrus pump. If your heat pump is sized for 4 tons, your air handler needs to be the same. We talked nigh the AHRI match. If you don't accept an AHRI match, it may not work correctly, and the manufacturer won't warranty the system. This is because indoor and outdoor units on electric must "rate."

"Rating" means the settings on the air handler need to friction match the available settings on your air conditioner or heat pump, or they won't function efficiently. If they are mismatched, they probably won't work well together because they're not communicating well.

For instance, a heat pump might have a variable-speed fan, which means that it can run at dozens of different speeds. But if it's paired with an air handler with a blower that has only 1 speed, the variable-speed function is worthless.

Air handler

Air Handlers Can Exist Configured to a User's Needs

Simply like furnaces, you can configure the air handler in a variety of positions. They are called multi-position. In some homes, the furnace is in the basement, so air would blow air upwardly and out the top.

In other homes, the furnace is in a crawl space or on a slab, the system sits on the floor and the air is blown down into the duct system. Or you can configure information technology so that air blows out from either side.

Who Might Do good From an Air Handler?

If a homeowner has some sort of heat they're happy with and don't want to change (such as baseboard), and they want to install air conditioning, they would exist a candidate for an air handler The same is true if you have electric baseboard heat, and you don't have gas, and you want ac in a ducted system. That would be a good fourth dimension to convert to an air handler with a heat pump.

Or if you're building a house and you don't want to or cannot use gas, you can get all-electric without a furnace. The downside of that is your electricity bills volition skyrocket in the winter. Those heat strips will get a workout when it gets really common cold.

How Much Does an Air Handler Price?

An air handler tin can cost anywhere from $2900 - $5800. This toll includes installation. The toll variation is due to the unit's capacity and the blazon of blower it has. Heat strips are an additional $300 - $600 installed.

Air handler

Price and Option: What's Right For You?

Nosotros know: This is no pocket-size investment for a piece of HVAC.

The only way to know the exact cost of an air handler is to schedule an in-home estimate with an

experienced professional person. But when yous know factors that affect the price, you lot tin can enquire more informed questions and make a better-informed decision when the time comes.

Equally you continue to inquiry replacement air conditioners, here are some articles that can help y'all learn more than before y'all decide on a system:

READ More:

How Much Does a Estrus Pump Cost to Replace in 2021?

Heat Pumps 101: The Ultimate List of Heat Pump FAQS

HVAC Buyer'south Guide

If you're set to talk to an HVAC representative, you should be aware of all your options. The nigh important part is finding a solution to your HVAC questions that you lot're happy with. Our free checklist volition provide y'all with relevant questions to ask any HVAC contractor. Past ensuring that the contractor you choose addresses each of these areas, you'll have peace of mind knowing that whomever you choose, they'll be prepared to do the job right.

HVAC Contractor Checklist

And if yous're ready to hash out options specific to your home, nosotros'd love to sit with you. If you live in Fundamental Ohio, enter your zipcode below to schedule your free in-abode estimate today.

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