Seeking alternatives to installing central AC

We live in a 1500 sf house and just got our entire HVAC system replaced with heat pump system that takes advantage of the mild climate here to provide heat and cooling without relying on gas (all electric). It cost $16k, including entirely replacing the duct system in the house. Let me know if you want the name of our contractor.

We bought "portable" AC  unit. My husband has a lot of issues with "portable" word in the description. The unit is still heavy. Our Vremi unit cost us about $400 on Amazon. It has wheels so I can wheel it around. During the last heat wave, during the wildfires, smoke, and the COVID-19 sherlter-in-place, it was a life savior. Basically it uses us a window. Once the heat wave is done, we removed everything and put it in the basement, as if it never even been there. We bought the 10,000 BTU version. It was good enough to cool down a large bedroom or 1 floor of open space. It was heavy to carry it between the floors. My husband had to do it.

The quote you received does sound a bit outrageous as we just added AC to our central heating and the cost was approximately $13K for our 1,800 square feet home (and it included a new tankless water heater). We got a few quotes and they were all roughly in this price range, but we’re not experts, so not sure if the quote you received is related to the amount of additional labor required to get your house ready? Whatever the case, would def get a few more quotes from other HVAC companies to compare. We’ve worked with both Hassler Heating and Jazz Heating, and would recommend either of them. 

We've been getting estimates for a heat pump to replace our gas furnace, which would also provide cooling for "free" (the heating process is just reversed).  The mini split is a heat pump for one room only - you see them in hotel rooms mounted under a window or high on the wall. They are getting more popular and easier to find. Most of the major plumbing and HVAC companies can give you an estimate to install a heat pump or mini split now. As renewable energy becomes cheaper and more available, electric heating is going to be a lot cleaner than gas, and some cities like Berkeley are starting to ban natural gas in new construction. So electric heat pumps are the way to go for the future.

The City of Berkeley recently co-hosted an online "Green House tour" of local homeowners who have installed various appliances that don't use natural gas, including heat pumps, induction cooking, clothes dryers, etc. It's really informative - there is a video of one family in Lafayette that installed mini-splits in every room along with lots of other eco features. In all the videos, the owners walk you through their house explaining what they did, and why, how much it cost, who their contractor was. There is a list of the houses here: https://www.eastbaygreenhome.com/sites  - click a house to see what brands and contractors they used. To view the videos of each house, go on youtube and search "east bay green home tour"

I would love to share what we did. Though our house is quite a bit larger than yours, this method still worked, and we are so pleased I took the time to research a more environmentally sound solution. We installed two QuietCool whole house fans (you would only need one). For the days of smoke and extreme heat, we use a portable LG AC, the highest rated one available, which we bought at Home Depot; we vent it out our chimney rather than window so it takes up less space. So far this year it hasn't been needed once, and we store the AC in our garage for most of the year. Not only is AC very expensive, it's also terrible for the environment, and shuts people inside their homes. I've been saddened by all the people in our neighborhood running AC this year, which can be annoyingly noisy, when they could just run whole house fans when it's cooler outside!

An added benefit of whole house fans is that you refresh your home with outdoor air every time you run it. Our house feels and smells great during and afterwards - a beautiful gentle breeze flushes the house. Outdoor air is healthier than indoor on all but smoky or other disaster days. 

With the whole house fans, there are a few things you should know, which many consumers overlook. I called the manufacturer and discussed our attic ventilation with them. We needed to increase attic ventilation in order to have enough space for the heat to vent out effectively; we hired a roofer to add some vents. Many people skip this step and then the unit doesn't work optimally. (They also offer a model for homes without attics.) The whole house fans lower your home's thermal mass, so the home stays cooler, even when you're not running the unit. The fans are very quiet when run on low; on high they are noticeable, but the sound doesn't bother us. Aside from ensuring proper flow and unit size, we also got skylight covers and window shades for the windows that didn't already have them. We also bought outdoor umbrellas for our patio, and continue to grow a garden with shade trees. All of this results in a home that is wonderfully cool and feels connected with the environment. Before we took these measures our home regularly exceeded 90 degrees, which was unbearable for indoors; now on the very hottest days the house does get into the 80s, but cools down once we can run the fans because it's cooler outdoors, maybe starting around 6 pm, depending on the day. And if we really can't stand it we can set up the AC as needed, rather than run AC as default. 

When our furnace goes (in a few years?) we will replace it with an electric heat pump, which also runs cooling; if you're going to do AC this is the quieter, more environmentally sound way. We will still run the whole house fans for at least 95% of the year; the AC function would only be utilized on the hottest, smokiest days.  

Elizabeth

I’m having a Mitsubishi mini-split system installed right now, for just the two upstairs bedrooms. Cheapest quote from reputable installer (Nahman) was $18k. Others ranged up to $22k. I’m having ducts installed in the ceiling (from the attic space), rather than those big wall units, which I hate. But price is not much different for either. Mini-splits do both heating and cooling, meaning I could get rid of the baseboard heaters in those rooms, which is also nice. 

I would suggest trying a few AC window units to get you through the hot months - in each bedroom and in common spaces where you spend most of your time. It’s not elegant/seamless but it is not a huge up front cost and if you get a unit designed to handle the room size you are cooling, it allows for some respite from the heat. I haven’t looked for window AC units here in the Bay Area; in NYC they were sold at all major appliance stores. 

We installed a complete HVAC system with central heating and AC for our 1250 square foot home last summer. We used Element Home and it was $15k. We got 3-4 different quotes all around the same range but Element Home was the most professional and straight forward with their quote and they did the entire installation in one day, with maybe a dozen techs all at once. I would recommend them if you end up going ahead with central AC. We were very happy we went with the central AC route last fall because it was both hot and smoky. The portable AC we used previously just brought all the smoke in but our central air system doesn't seem to do that too much, or at least our air filter is able to keep up with what it does bring in.