Anyone know the difference between a residential vs a manufactured home HVAC? New issue arose. We purchased a pre-owned double-wide in good condition. The prior owner upgraded everything including installing a high efficiency HVAC which we iniially thought was great. We move the home into our community and the local gas company is going to “red tag” the HVAC unity because (they claim) it is not rated for a manufactured home. We called the licensed/commercial plumbing outfit that installed the furnace and they “said” that what they can install on private property is different than what can be installed in a manufactured home in a community. Anyone have any thoughts, tips, hints, tricks on our options? Thanks in advance!
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@PFM, as per your post:
- “Anyone know the difference between a residential vs manufactured home HVAC…”
- “…the local gas company is going to ‘red tag’ the HVAC unit because (they claim) it is not rated for a manufactured home…”
- “…We called the licensed/commercial plumbing outfit that installed the furnace and they ‘said’ that what they can install on private property is different than what can be installed in a manufactured home in a community…”
My Husband and I have 2 MHPs in South Carolina and some Park Owned Homes.
HVAC units are the main reason I am not a fan of POHs.
We pay to install & fix a lot of HVAC units.
For our older, smaller Mobile Homes we install Window Heat/Air Conditioners that work wonderfully.
Our HVAC units run off Electricity.
When we (or Tenant) move a Mobile Home into our Mobile Home Park, the City (who inspects Mobile Home Setups & Electrical Connections) does not require that the HVAC unit be hooked up.
The City just wants to be able to inspect the Electrical Connection for the HVAC.
Once the City passes the inspections for Mobile Home Setup & Electrical Connections, the City gives the “Green Light” to the Electrical & Gas Companies to turn on the Utilities.
We do have an older, smaller Mobile Home that has a Gas Furnace (no Central Air - just Window Air Units). This Mobile Home was in the MHP when we purchased the Park.
At the time of the purchase of the MHP this Mobile Home was transferred to the New Park’s Name & the Electric & Gas Company turned on Gas (for Furnace & Range) with no issues.
I would gather more “detailed information” from the Gas Company as to what the Gas Company requires in order to “Turn On” the Gas.
We wish you the very best!
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I’m far from an HVAC expert, but based on my limited knowledge traditional gas furnaces are installed in compartments that are air tight from the rest of the house, while HVAC compartments in mobile homes are not considered air tight from the rest of the home. MH HVAC furnaces are thus more expensive as they’re designed to never leak any gases in the surrounding air, which could pollute the living areas.
I would personally be very concerned about your furnace, and would seek the opinion of another HVAC company. If the other company confirms this is a problem, I’d ask the original HVAC company to make it right and potentially threaten to report their actions to the licensing board.
(just emphasizing once again that this is just my opinion and how I would react as a non expert on this subject)
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We have always decommissioned the legacy furnaces inside the home (turned it into a linen closet) and then tapped into the HVAC ducting with a package unit for both AC and heat. It has worked well for us, and we usually place it outside near the kitchen.
Our units are purchased online, installed by an electrician on our crew, and then inspected, turned on for the first time by a licensed HVAC guy. Our last 3.5 ton unit on a 16x76 cost about $3,500 installed. These are all electric units because we don’t want to deal with too many utilities - for the same reasons you have noted.
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I am a huge fan of mini-splits! In a few of the park models I have purchased I have converted the a/c and heat over to mini-splits and I absolutely love them. Not sure how well they would work in northern climates for heat but they work great in our southern climate.
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Many APOLOGIES for not responding to your kind input so many months back!
@Noel_S your suggestion is the one that actually worked. After posting this thread I did call the State licensing board (LB) and conveyed the conversation I had with the contractor. The LB told me, “…it does NOT make a difference where the unit is installed (private or community), if it is installed in a MH then the unit MUST be rated as such.” I used the phrase the LB said to me in my nice and professional letter to the contractor which was, “…the law is the law.” After sending my certified letter to the contractor with a (respond by) date, I received a call from the contractor apologizing for the confusion and asking the soonest date they could come out to change out the furnace. Within two (2) weeks the issue was resolved.
I did not look back at this post because the issue got resolved so quickly. Thank you all again for your input!
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Thank you for updating us on how it went, and for following through. The contractor installed a furnace that could have given a kid carbon monoxide poisoning. You did the right thing by not letting it go.