As an HVAC owner/operator and license holder this is a great video. I wish all of customers would listen to me when we talk HVAC in the beginning stages of projects. The select few that do are extremely pleased with the results. Great job Matt and Miguel!

Our 4300 square foot, two story house was built in 2002. It has three 2.5 ton units. One is for the master bedroom, master bath, and the home office. This approach saves us a ton of money. We can close off our bedroom and run that unit at night while the rest of the house does not have to be heated or cooled at the same temp we want in the bedroom at night. My cost to upgrade or replace one of those smaller units is much less compared to replacing a single large unit. So far all three units are still working. I had to replace the circuit board in one unit two years ago. I did that myself, because my service guy was traveling out of state. He services my units every year, cleans the coils, checks freon levels, cleans the burners, etc. Those hepa filtering units get clogged up quickly. I know because I've had one of them in one of our houses. I've tried all that fancy stuff, humidifiers, etc. The simpler you keep it, the better. What works better is super insulating the house, use smart thermostats, window shades on the south side, and keep the rest of the system simple. I change all of my filters every three months. I use the medium grade filters, instead of the super fine particle filters. Over the last forty years, I've purchased multiple heat and air systems, for various houses we've owned. For our area, heat pumps have proven to work well, even through I have 20,000 watts of electric auxiliary heat as a backup in one large house. It comes on so rarely, it's impact on my electric bill has not been bad. We have natural gas heat in another house, and it runs $350 to 450 per month during the two coldest months. The house with the heat pumps, which is the larger home, has never had an electric bill above $350.00. The highest utility bills, in our area, are for July, August, January and February. The houses are 25 miles apart so the climate is identical. I am not a professional builder. I'm just giving my perspectives based on forty-eight years' experience of being a home owner of multiple houses in different states across the South. I like your channel and learn a lot from you. I am not trying to be critical. I'm just stating what has worked best for us over the years. It might help a few people, who are not planning to build a million dollar home.

As a construction electrician that has dealt with hospital HVAC installs and now the proud owner of a century home, I completely agree. My house breathes better than most people and I absolutely hate it. These videos are really helping me tune my budget and my focal point on purpose built equipment to make my house a better cleaner version that its current self.

I have put in many systems and I always put systems in a second floor closet and returns from bedrooms came down next to unit. This minimizes ductwork. I made a plenum and installed dampers in the plenum. Power Open/ Close. I put in a fresh air return into the sophet or wall. I chose not to put dampers on the fresh air. Either a 5" or 4" duct was used. This compensated for any pressure differntial caused by bathroom fans on. Even with the system off, the negative pressure caused by the fart fan would pull filtered air through the house. A 3000 foot house 2 story with isonene would be about $12000. I built a plenum in the downstairs near the center of the house and all down ducts were off that. Sizing of ducts to each room was done using Wrightsoft. Been using it since 1998. The zone controller handled the staging but on the communicating systems the Thermostat did that. The latest equipment from Daikin/Goodman has adaptive staging which changes according to the load. In spring, it will run on low stage mostly. The dehum functions and all settings to tweak the unit is done by bluetooth to the air handler. Updatable software for the air handler and condenser is through the phone to bluetooth function. I have seen too many UV lights and ERVs not working due to homeowners not liking to pay several hundred dollars a year to work on them. The comfort level of a properly sized 2 stage system with zoning is a far more practical system. The extra dehumidifier without proper airflow will cause problems unless it clears the cold air out of the duct system. As you know, you need to have a minimum amount of air in the ductwork or you get stagnant air in a part of the ductwork that exceeds 60% humidity and allows mold to grow. Can you change that filter for $20 like merv 13's cost? I like to install 14 seer equipment these days as they have no call backs, last 15 years and the fan motors don't cost $1500 to replace after 8 years. The bearings on the 2 stage Copelands seem to have issues after 8 years or so. I have a Class A with C designation here in Austin. I don't like the failure rates of a dehumidifier that uses a compressor and fan plus an ERV plus 2 stage compressors with variable speed motors on the condenser. On a house like this video has, the power bill in Austin will be way under $100. The difference between a 14 seer and even a 16 seer system as far as energy usage will never in the lifetime of the equipment have a return. A 16 seer 2 stage with variable speed air handler is $1600 more than a 14. 13% energy savings will save $150 per year. The equipment lifetime is about 12 years. The 3000 foot house on Hwy 360 has a power bill of $60 using my technique with a 16 seer zoned 2 stage. The zoning with time of day calculations on where the loads are, keep the system running in low stage over 90% of the time. So the 3 ton system cooling a 3000 foot house in Austin doesn't go out of the 2 ton mode very often. Since the zone board bye EWC can handle basic thermostats and only needs the one communicating one, the cost was only $12000. The returns to each room was pretty easy since the only thing in the attic was ductwork. The duct runs were short as the control box was in the center of the attic. I find that the sealed houses have alot of humidity and are at least 10 degrees warmer than the living space. Putting 500 lbs of equipment in an attic raises the load factor by 10%. After all, when the equipment is off, it warms to attic temperature and when turned on has to cool down all that mass. Nice Video.

Crazy didn't realize how much goes into some of these systems. Never seen one like this in person, only traditional installs

This is a GREAT video. There is so much good information here. What people don't understand about buying a system through a big box store is that they're only trying to move as much equipment as possible. They don't pay the installer enough to make it worth their while to ensure you have the best installation for your home. They're only there to put in equipment, not make it work with the home properly. Spending so much money on your home, it only makes sense to pay a little more to have the job done properly. Improperly installed equipment leads not only to less than desirable conditions, but it can also easily cause failed compressors and other expensive failures down the road.

As a licensed hvac contractor,i must say that is a fantastic job. I do a fair amount of new construction(cleveland,oh.) and builders and customers are woefully ignorant of the costs as well as the time/labor which goes into an above average installation (energy star standards). At least equipment mfg,s are producing the equipment needed for this type of work. The duct-work is critical and i was glad to hear Miguel point that out. Outstanding work !!!!

I work for a commercial mechanical company . All these things have existed in commercial installations for a long time it’s great to see them find their way into the residential home

It's refreshing to finally see someone talk about long flex runs. As an HVAC contractor in the Northeast, long flex runs are not common practice. However, most HVAC channels based in the south, flex is all you see. You also don't see many GC's talking or caring much about the HVAC systems. Love the content Matt, keep up the good work.

Best video yet on the foundations of a great HVAC system. Makes me want to build another house!

Matt, I find it very helpful when you put out episodes about a specific topic, just as I am getting questions from clients about that topic. Thank you

In high-end homes go the extra step and install area zone dampers with thermostats, with the variable fan speed on the system the comfort will be higher.

Can you do a video for a normal house, maybe 300 - 500k price range and it's equipment. It's nice to see a HVAC system that 99.99% of the audience will never have but what can the rest of us expect if we are putting in a new system?

“So what does a typical unit cost here” “Well you know, it all depends on the environment but things have become highly competitive” I get it, I can’t afford it.

Love the in fact that they're talking about design and how important it is as their stepping over DWV pipe. I assume they could have pushed it under the floor and pop it near the wall or back 3feet under the ducting. Love the show! Glad they don't show my jobs! Armchair quarter backing is so easy.

Really loving this passive house series!

Dream system for those with allergies!

Great system. Major push back on theses systems. Requires a lot of education on the customer end so they understand the differences. Your videos help me sell these upgrades in our houses. I have done my due site genie in educating client but when budget are tight we have to let off come of the higher end items like ERV and leases grade dehumidifiers .

Mr Risinger, Great video just what I wanted to know in terms of budgeting and planning for my new build. Thank you! Question: on an unrelated topic are you going to return to answering questions live once a month via phone calls for your member supporters? I’m was really looking forward to speaking with you during one of those sessions. If not i would just like to know because I’m always looking thinking I missed it. Thanks my best to you and yours.

Thank you @Ryan Foreman for such a specific answer on an example cost. Why such a lack of hard #'s in this video?

Since there were some strong hints that this system is $50,00, let's break that down: Positive Energy design service: $7000 (0.5 to 1% of total construction cost) Mitsubishi 2-ton condenser, evap/air-handler, and line-set: $4500 (eComfort & many other at this price) UltraAire 70H: $1250 Panasonic ERV: $1000 Misc electric, new ducting, labor and other fees from HVAC contractor: $36250!!!

Thank you for showing passive house details. +1 for Passive House and passive inspired house. 😁

"We live in Austin, it's a very hot and humid place..." *Laughs in Houston*

Great video!! Nice work Miguel!!! Looking forward to seeing you both at Nerd Camp!

Very informative. Good job, Matt.

As an hvac contractor, I'm glad SOMEONE is talking about the important stuff, asking the impirtant questions... While my own business is primarily service & retrofit installations. Myself and several of my guys cut our teeth in new construction. And we DO work for select builders. The ones who "get it". The ones who value what we do, and want to build a better home. The things that go on in production building are downright appalling most the time. These poor homeowners are spending 3-700k, on average, many times more, on the shoddiest built homes, with terrible hvac systems. There is something majorly wrong with a 500k house, where the hvac system was only 8k. We're taking 1.6% of the build on one of the main thing that makes your home liveable... NO-ONE can do a quality system for that. It doesn't have to be over the top, but knowingly sell the homeowner a P.O.S. system is just wrong. We have often gone into million + homes with the crappiest hvac system you can possibly imagine. I cant tell you how many times we go in and fix brand new homes. Its disgusting. These people trust their builders to use quality subcontractors. Instead, some of these builders get tons of bids, they put the higher, quality company's bid on the budget... Then use the cheapest, shittiest company they can find. And even then, they will haggle them down on price, make the overage in difference in contract price, PLUS points on top of that for management... If nothing else, videos like this are a start. A start to educating homeowners on the questions they need to be asking. Quite frankly, if you are building a home, and you never sit down with your hvac contractor? Or at least your hvac contractor and builder, and have a consultation about your comfort wants and needs? You should look for someone else. Or at least asking yourself why. How can a contractor deliver the kind of comfort you desire if they dont know WHAT it is, you want? Food for thought people.

Would be nice to do a total cost of ownership comparison on this system and a typical cheap one. I’m curious how much energy and money is saved by using a well designed efficient system. How about maintenance and longevity?

Your videos are always informative. This one got me thinking about the relationship between vapor barriers and dehumidifiers. I live in the humid but colder great lakes area. What impact do you think humidity control has on the need for a vapor barrier?

Thanks for talking costs. Just gives a context on all the equipment etc. You are rolling my man.

I wish you spent some time talking about what needed to be done to this house for it to be okay for an attic install. Extra credit on how to retrofit a house attic for this.

Really great design and HVAC work. Thank you very good presentation though

Thanks Matt, I’m replacing my ha/ac system in a 95 year old house. Dehumidifier first item on the list. Any tips on how to shop for a good or top tier ha/ac contractor. Love your Chanel. You’ve already convinced me to switch from tankless to hybrid hot water.

I liked it when you finally got to the pricing. 40-70k, that's the cost of the houses I'm looking at. Cool. I'm interested in the dehumidifier though, in Lithuania, rainy country, I'll need this.

Excellent and informative video. I am a bit surprised at the tight U bend in the return air duct feeding the filter. Is this normal/OK?

You should do a video on ducts and different types. I’m assuming rigid has smooth metal walls that are more resistant to mold building up like “rigid” fiberglass ducts

Absolutely awesome! I’d like to know what it costs a year for filter for this home you just installed! I run 3.5 pleated filter in mine! Stand alone dehumidifier that I have set on low with dedicated over flow hose! I probably could not afford something like this but WOW, would be nice!

To me it's not life or death to have a 100% sealed house. I mean you have to bring in fresh air. Sure its filtered, but you open doors to go in and out, which is about the same depending on how often you go outside. I know someone that did a remodel with spray foam and mini splits, power bill about $30 a month. If he washed clothes and used the dryer, or used a bath fan, when he opened a door to leave, his house would actually suck the door open because it was pulled to a vacuum almost with the exhausts. Crazy. Just think I'm too practical and have to be really be truthful with myself when selling things like that to people when I honestly dont think its needed. Cuz it's not NEEDED, it's a luxury basically. I can put in a standard 14 seer heat pump system in a 1300 sq ft rancher from scratch for about $10k, and electric Bill's would be around 120, depending on insulation. Mini splits would double that up front cost, possibly triple. If a house is that well insulated, a super expensive hvac is total overkill. The rancher I speak of could have $70 electric bills if sprayfoamed. So why spend the extra 10k in hvac? Even the 14 seer system would barely run with a house so tight. Should be a study to show cost of hvac per sq ft and cost of insulation per sq ft and cost of electric bill per sq ft. To find a happy medium where you aren't wasting money. Even if u got unlimited funds, if you are super insulated, any hvac will do its job easily. So how much do you really need to go beyond the norm before it no longer gives a return on investment? Wow way too long of a post, sorry.

My dream house would include a super exhaust system for the bathroom that you can hit an overdrive on when you are done showering. Bring in dry air.

set me up...building a home in Rhode Island right now!! 11-30-2021...ready to talk about a system like this ...water tight and ready to roll

With a 3-stage one-to-one VRF system, do you control the zones via dampers? If so, and you still have excess CFM, do you install a pressure relief duct to blow that excess air to the attic or crawl space?

Made me laugh that your thumb nail says "it's less than you think!" .. meanwhile it was about 100% more than I figured it would cost

Watching this channel to learn how to upgrade my 1980s house. At least to become energy efficient. Passive would be cool.

$70,000 for HVAC in a million dollar house! I’m in the wrong business!!! I know for a fact all those materials are NO more than $20,000. HUGE profit margin.

Great video. Thanks for the information.

Laurels to these fine engineers as educators!! This is the finest 20 minute video I've seen yet, ANYWHERE, as an introduction to comfortable living by means of the latest innovations in HVAC technology. The best things in "real estate improvement" are not free or easy, and it's never easy to retrofit. God bless the people who have attic space. In SoCal where I live, cathedral ceilings are beautiful to look at and offer superior acoustics to audiophiles, but turn out to be expensive and idiosyncratic regarding thermal management. I'm glad I have above-average attic potential, and these ideas tempt me accordingly.

I just built a 2900 sq ft house last year and got a top of the line 5 ton Carrier Greenspeed system with 7 zones and a return in each room. I paid about $22k but the installer was a friend. With open cell insulation on 2x6 walls, my electric bill is running around $160-$190 year round (highest in winter). The house I moved from was 2000 sq ft built in 2004 and the electric bill was almost up to $300 in the summer.

This is terrific! How do you account for the kitchen exhaust vent? Does it leak air from there? I mean the exhaust is just that... right?

Sometimes I think about how great it'll be to build an energy efficient, comfortable house. I'm sure that HEPA filter alone, adds years to the occupants' lives. Then you talk about "7% on a $1mil house" and I remember that that's what I build the entire house for...

It cost less to do things right the first time than to do it wrong twice... Great video/advice again and always from you and you subs that have the same attitude. Keep up the good vids Matt.

Excellent video. Good coverage of concepts and equipment.

You put out a lot of great info. Thank you

Very informative! Thank you, is this system DC voltage?

I learned a lot on this one... thanks!

I wish they would have covered the controls in the house, thermostat and zones and how this system would perform to make occupants comfortable. Can you cool different areas to individual occupant comfort? Or does it run off of one thermostat for whole house?

I need a 2 door garage air conditioner. Do you have any recommendations?

Good video. I learned a lot. Thank you.

I spent about $20k to install and Armstrong 18 SEER variable speed heat pump, Honeywell ERV, and air ducts in a 1600 sq ft home in DC. I do wish an engineer had sized the bedroom ducts and that they had all been air sealed better.

So I have the Ultra Aire 120H with fresh air duct, do I need an ERV? I'm trying to figure out what to do with my bathroom exhaust vents.....

Could your dehumidifer be hooked up to the outlet of the ERV for humidity control?

What about what looks like an ERV on the left? Also would be curious to see all the schematics that we briefly see in the video to see how all that stuff is connected.

Which control/thermostat was used with the Mitsubishi air handler?

What do you think about have an intake and outtake to the rooms? Does this work?

Excellent video! Will adding RockWool to roof joists reduce heat in unconditioned attic space in Texas to help with AC load?

My guess is that you Panasonic fresh air system controls are not scaled in CFM, but percentage of total CFM. If you think about it, those same controls are surely being used for different sized systems (in terms of CFM) and the controls referring to percentage of max makes the most sense. I believe those squirrel cage fans that were visible when the cover was opened, were rated for way more than 100 CFM. I'll bet they were >250CFM each. Not that they are additive... I used to design forced air equipment (similar to electric furnaces), which doesn't mean I'm right, but I do have a sense of what airflow fans produce, simply based on their type and size. By the way, the main reason HVAC equipment uses squirrel cage blowers over axial fans, is pressure not flow. Squirrel cage blowers are usually speced because they have the requisite pressure to overcome the resistance they might encounter with long duct runs and/or filters. Many high efficiency filters have enough static pressure to completely choke an axial fan, which would otherwise have enough CFM to do the job. This is why you see axial fans being used in floor mounted circulation fans and smaller bathroom fans because these applications don't require high efficiency filters or long ducting. Another application for axial fans is cooling fans for computers and other electronics. Again, nether of these applications use long ducts or high eff filters.

Wow. This video was an eye opener. Very well detailed explanation. Awesome video

Granted I'm a general contractor, not a builder, I'm glad I live in the PNW. My personal houses are built tight, not as tight as I've seen on this Channel, but I use fresh air vents on all windows that stay open all year round. I used mini splits and I am very happy with them. They can do everything this system can except the filtering for much less cost. I live on an island in the puget sound so air quality is much better than most of the country. I Think the idea of having a leaky house is very region specific. If I was in the humid south I would want my house built the way this channel does it. Where I am leaky isn't a bad thing but still needs control. Although my window vents are always open unless it's a blower door test.

Hey Matt - very useful discussion, but I have a question. Which components are sharing ductwork & what is the sequence? I see that the IQAir is inline with the Mitsubishi VRF) & it looks like the IQAir is pre-filtering air being feed into the Mitsubishi, but I can't tell if & how the other two components integrate. Are the Ultra-Aire and the Panasonic ERV each using their own dedicated ductwork? If not which components are sharing ductwork? How are the components sequenced? Finally, how do they keep the airflow balanced so that the components don't battle each other with so many different components playing with the air?

Does the erv filter need replaced or used since you already have a dedicated filter?

How do the air inlet ducts stay clean? Shouldn't all the intake grates get filters too?

YO MATT, keep your feet off the vent stacks, the pvc is not a foot rest.

If Matt did affordable homes he probably loose his mind on the small budget ... 😂

Matt, where is the link to the previous video in the description?

Hi Matt, I have seen a number of videos from you about this topic, but I can’t wrap my head around the loop. Can you do a short video or even an illustration about the intake and outtake chain!? Eg intake air from ac return grill goes through IQ AIR purifier, into Mitsubishi ac system, then outgoing hair goes through dehumidifier, then the exhaust air from that goes through Erv, and then all returns are from Erv into rooms?? Or are there seperate ac vents and seperate ERV ventilation. This is one detail that has always confused me about the systems

Where do you get hvac hanging kit components like those in this video?

A truly awesome video. I really love these. I genuinely get excited when I see a new one in my notifications; so you have turned me into a total building science nerd. That system is a real beauty. I love the layout. One question: What are the pros and cons to this dedicated ERV distribution vs. splicing into the return side of the main system?

Thank you for all of the great info - i was wondering about the batts used on the roof - what are they and why batts instead of spray foam if you’re making an airtight conditioned attic? Also maybe I’ll watch it again but I didn’t get what the function of the ERV? is? Not sure why that would be needed - thanks Matt

When you are presenting system solutions, please consider including a basic schematic showing the system or a link to a diagram.

Hi do you have any videos that show whats on the wall? Like in rooms (bedrooms) etc. Im not really concerned with whats behind the walls when trying to decide what system to get. But I want something that looks good. Not something big and bulky hanging on the wall of my bedroom.

Do you run seperate fresh air ducts or plumb the ventilation system to the main duckwork? With seperate ducts is there a possibilty of one system back feeding the other when one is not running?

Wow, all you need is a room bigger then my entire apartment to house the system!

So, I'm trying to replace an HVAC system in a remodel. Want total temp flexibility in almost every room. What's my best setup. I've looked at both geothermal and conventional air with multiple unit and max zone boards and am weighing against many mini splits. All have pros and cons. Cost not a factor, what do you think for efficiency and flexibility? Is there a setup I haven't considered? I am an avid viewer and really respect your opinion. Thanks!

So the ERV duct is totally separate from the dehumidifier and hvac?

I’d like to see natural gas used in a hybrid system and some high wall returns. The lack of high wall return creates a stacking condition. System looks good and to the about ig lights the filtration is fine. Ig lights are sold to homeowners that won’t go the extra mile for real filtration. No light stops airborne particles.

What kind of work/cost would you be looking at to get a system in some of the historic houses on the east coast? As far as I can tell if you don't have the luxury of gutting and remodeling you'd be stuck with a ductless system or good ol window AC.

4-7 % Does that include the amount of space devoted to a singular purpose? The cost of installing better platforms to hold these devices motionless and therefore quiet?

Great info as always 👍🏽 How@small houses, condos & apartments, which is the way the industry is going now, as here in the west coast where building or remodeling is so exorbitant 💸💸 And yes I agree with you that the A/C planning prior to building is a must these days for budget, efficiency & comfortability 🌬😎👍🏽

I live in the southwest where we have dry heat and very little humidity. What system components would you use? How do I find that out?

I'm not an expert but trying to follow this. Is there a big compressor unit on the outside, too? What pieces are not in the attic?

Great video! Thanks for talking numbers. One question, how often do all those filters need to be replaced? Fall and spring? just once a year? Longer? Do the different filters have different replacement cycles? And also how much do those filters cost?

I have no problem with companies like PositiveEnergy, but how do you deal with your HVAC installer when you come with an outside companie's design? Are you paying for something that someone with 20 years experience and forward-thinking could do and it's included with the cost of install? Who is responsible if air flow/quality doesn't meet expectations?

Reminds me of people who overdo it with a kitchen upgrade and ten years later can’t afford to have their $20k range repaired.

I love that this is based in Austin where I live!

Matt, what’s your opinion on geothermal heat pump units?

@Matt, can you recommend an HVAC system designer in the Houston area? I own a 20 year old home and would really like to upgrade our existing AC system.

What humidity level is suggested using dehumidifier?

Excellent content!

Could you add a link to the Panasonic ERV?

Please help!! You mention the ERV for the south and the HRV for the north. I live in KANSAS! Right in the middle. Which one do I use??

Can you put out some info on how you seal the plumbing vent and keep it from being a leak/heat source?

Matt, what's that black strapping holding up your insulation?