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

Are you aware something about air handlers? Should you’re nodding your head sure, good for you. You’re forward of the sport. Should you don’t, you’re not alone. Most householders don’t perceive the workings of an HVAC system.

That’s nice, so long as nothing breaks down otherwise you want a alternative. That’s the time when some specialised data would come most in useful.

We’ve bought tens of hundreds of merchandise that make the air hotter, colder, drier, extra humid, and fewer dusty.

A part of our job as HVAC professionals is to demystify the gear in your house and to coach you on topics that individuals are asking about.

One piece of equipment that we don’t see fairly often is a stand-alone air handler. And if we don’t see it fairly often, it’s guess you haven’t any concept what it’s or what it does.

By the top of this text, you’ll know much more about it, and the way you would possibly profit from using one.

We’ll look at:

• What Is an Air Handler?
• Why Do You Want an Air Handler?
• Kinds of Air Handlers
• How A lot Electrical energy Does an Air Handler Use?
• Air Handlers Must Charge With Warmth Pumps and AC
• Air Handlers Can Be Configured to a Person’s Wants
• Who May Profit From an Air Handler?
• What Is the Value of an Air Handler?
• Value and Selection: What’s Proper for You?

What Is an Air Handler (Fan Coil Unit)?

An air handler, also called a “fan coil unit,” is principally a field formed like a furnace. It has a blower in it, both a variable-speed or an ECM blower. (Electronically commutated motors (ECM) are brushless motors developed by Normal Electrical which might be the most recent in blower motor effectivity.)

The air handler sits inside your property, very similar to a furnace.

It has an evaporator coil, and it may well have an electrical heater package deal, which accommodates warmth strips. The evaporator coil is the cooling package. It may even have an air filter as a part of the unit or separate from it.

Should you don’t have a furnace, that is a vital a part of an HVAC system. A furnace is technically an air handler. It doesn’t simply produce sizzling air within the winter; it has a blower that strikes air, so it’s busy in the summertime months as properly. It really works together with your air conditioner or warmth pump to take away the recent air from your property whereas its blower circulates conditioned air.

The electrical warmth strips in an air handler are just like the heating ingredient in a toaster. You provide electrical energy to the strips and so they flip pink.

There could also be as much as 5 banks of electrical warmth. The inner controls will reasonable these so that they don’t come on unexpectedly, in any other case, your lights would dim. The air handler itself has just one stage: it both heats at 100%, or it’s off.

Why Do You Want an Air Handler?

An air handler’s fundamental objective is to maneuver air by way of the ducts and your property. Fairly easy.

An air conditioner can expel as a lot sizzling air as it may well. Your furnace can generate a lot of warmth. However with out a blower, the within air would stagnate. It wants a power behind it in order that your HVAC can do its job.

You’d often pair an air handler with a warmth pump or an air conditioner. Should you ever want emergency or auxiliary warmth, you may at all times add the strips.

Different gadgets can add to your indoor air consolation. Humidifiers, dehumidifiers, a HEPA filter, and air purifying gadgets similar to a Reme Halo may be added as obligatory.

Kinds of Air Handlers

Like a furnace, air handlers come in numerous sorts. You should purchase a single-speed, two-speed, or variable-speed model. A single-speed, which is the most affordable choice, has two totally different modes: 100% on or 100% off. A two-speed has a setting decrease than 100% and may help flow into the air in your home extra evenly.

Variable-speed air handlers have a number of blower settings, from 100% capability to as little as round 40%. They modulate between speeds to supply optimum consolation. The precise variety of speeds will range relying on the model and mannequin.

As a result of it may well run at a slower velocity, it should do a fair higher job of conditioning all of the air in your house. You’ll see lowered vitality prices, elevated consolation, and have a unit that has much less beginning and stopping.

Let’s say you will have a multi-level residence, and the second ground is much less snug (within the winter, this could imply it’s colder). As soon as the primary ground is heated, the variable velocity operation out of your air handler can maintain that temperature regular whereas additionally permitting the warmth to unfold all through the house.

The result’s a house with out cold and warm spots, or wild spikes in sizzling or chilly.

How A lot Electrical energy Does an Air Handler (Fan Coil Unit) Use?

The ability required for the blower a part of the air handler isn’t a lot totally different than a furnace blower. The warmth strips are a unique matter.

It takes a good quantity of electrical energy to get these warmth strips glowing. If we look at a 110-volt electrical heater, that’s about 1500 watts. A toaster or hairdryer isn’t removed from that. A 1500 kW electrical warmth package deal to your air handler is about the identical as 15 electrical heaters. That will be like an electrical heater in each room.

That’s very expensive to function. That’s the primary cause air handlers are paired with warmth pumps, which offer warmth effectively.

The warmth strip packages are available 5, 7 ½, 10, 15, 20, and 25 kW. As you want extra warmth strips, the air handler must be greater.

Air Handlers Must Charge With Warmth Pumps and AC

That is a part of the complexity of HVAC programs: Simply since you need or want a sure factor doesn’t imply you may simply buy it and also you’re able to go. Sure gear must be matched with sure different gear.

As an example, air handlers have tonnages that match the warmth pump. In case your warmth pump is sized for 4 tons, your air handler must be the identical. We talked concerning the AHRI match. Should you don’t have an AHRI match, it might not work accurately, and the producer received’t guarantee the system. It is because indoor and outside items on electrical should “fee.”

“Score” means the settings on the air handler have to match the accessible settings in your air conditioner or warmth pump, or they received’t operate effectively. If they’re mismatched, they in all probability received’t work properly collectively as a result of they’re not speaking properly.

As an example, a warmth pump might need a variable-speed fan, which signifies that it may well run at dozens of various speeds. But when it’s paired with an air handler with a blower that has just one velocity, the variable-speed operate is nugatory.

Air Handlers Can Be Configured to a Person’s Wants

Identical to furnaces, you may configure the air handler in quite a lot of positions. They’re known as multi-position. In some properties, the furnace is within the basement, so air would blow air up and out the highest.

In different properties, the furnace is in a crawl house or on a slab, the system sits on the ground and the air is blown down into the duct system. Or you may configure it in order that air blows out from both facet.

Who May Profit From an Air Handler?

If a home-owner has some kind of warmth they’re proud of and don’t wish to change (similar to baseboard), and so they wish to set up air-con, they’d be a candidate for an air handler The identical is true in case you have electrical baseboard warmth, and also you don’t have gasoline, and also you need air-con in a ducted system. That will be time to transform to an air handler with a warmth pump.

Or when you’re constructing a home and also you don’t wish to or can not use gasoline, you may go all-electric with out a furnace. The draw back of that’s your electrical energy payments will skyrocket within the winter. These warmth strips will get a exercise when it will get actually chilly.

How A lot Does an Air Handler Value?

An air handler can value wherever from $2900 – $5800. This value contains set up. The worth variation is as a result of unit’s capability and the kind of blower it has. Warmth strips are an extra $300 – $600 put in.

Value and Selection: What’s Proper For You?

We all know: That is no small funding for a chunk of HVAC. 

The one technique to know the precise value of an air handler is to schedule an in-home estimate with an

skilled skilled. However when you realize components that have an effect on the price, you may ask extra knowledgeable questions and make a better-informed resolution when the time comes.

As you proceed to analysis alternative air conditioners, listed here are some articles that may make it easier to be taught extra earlier than you resolve on a system:

READ MORE:

How A lot Does a Warmth Pump Value to Exchange in 2021?

Warmth Pumps 101: The Final Listing of Warmth Pump FAQS

HVAC Purchaser’s Information

Should you’re prepared to speak to an HVAC consultant, you have to be conscious of all of your choices. A very powerful half is discovering an answer to your HVAC questions that you just’re proud of. Our free guidelines will offer you related inquiries to ask any HVAC contractor. By guaranteeing that the contractor you select addresses every of those areas, you’ll have peace of thoughts understanding that whomever you select, they’ll be ready to do the job proper.

And when you’re prepared to debate choices particular to your property, we’d love to sit down down with you. Should you reside in Central Ohio, enter your zipcode under to schedule your free in-home estimate at the moment.