AIS Heating & Air Conditioning

Daniel and his company are beyond excellent! His company, installers, and office staff clearly take the time for their customers and are willing to go the extra mile. I had my 28 yr old gas furnace and air conditioner replaced with new Bryant high efficiency units. I am a very research-oriented individual and consumer who likes to understand and know the details and specifications. This was not a project where exceptions were made. I performed months of research on all aspects of energy efficiency, equipment and manufacturers, and HVAC contractors. After interviewing and obtaining bids from at least 10 HVAC contractors, I narrowed it down to two HVAC contractors. AIS was the clearly the best choice for a multitude of reasons: *Bryant factory certified dealer (this reassured me b/c I knew AIS would have the most highly trained installers thereby guaranteeing a trouble free installation and years of service. Even the Dept of Energy, Consumer Reports, etc., state that the HVAC installation is more important than the brand of equipment.) *Diamond certified company *Competitive pricing *100% satisfaction guarantee *1st year of service included *Honeywell FC100 with MERV 11 filter box and filter included (this is a great air filtration brand and it has been clearly evident in our indoor air quality (IAQ). Honeywell delivers proven IAQ efficiency) *Furnace closest is completely Astro-foiled, which gives a clean, professional look *Manual J load calculation performed to ensure proper equipment sizing *Daniel, the owner, came out to provide the estimate (this meant a lot b/c it showed me that he is not one of those owners who is hands-off) As for specific equipment, I strongly considered having Trane/American Standard equipment installed, but Bryant/Carrier is rated equally strong per Consumer Reports reliability ratings (if I recall correctly, differences of < or = to 3% were insignificant). I specifically chose Bryant b/c of the greater availability of part vendors and certified technicians/contractors compared to Trane/American Standard. This was quite important b/c if I ever had equipment problems, I did not want to be with non-functioning units any longer than necessary. And, having great equipment installed by Diamond certified Bryant factory certified technicians left me with no doubts that I should not have any unexpected problems in the foreseeable future. Additionally, it was important that all my equipment (gas furnace, coil, and condenser) were made by the same company. In my case, all 3 were manufactured by Bryant. I did not want a coil made by ADP, which is very common with Trane units. And, the specific Bryant AC condenser I chose was the most efficient (high SEER, EER) and smallest footprint unit compared to Trane units in the same rated efficiency class. This was important given the available space I had for the condenser. I'd like to give a specific thank you to the lead installer Brian and second installer Andrew. They worked so diligently and thoroughly, I was amazed. They were very professional and courteous. I was able to easily sense that they took great pride in their workmanship and ensuring excellent customer service. And, thank you to the office personnel Giao and Jessica. They were so friendly, polite, and responsive to all my emails and calls, as well as keeping me informed of each step. Also, it was nice to see the owner Daniel come by during the install. This further showed that he goes the extra mile to ensure his customers are satisfied and the jobs performed by his crews are up to his satisfaction. He is a very involved and an easily reachable owner. He provided a quick reply to all my emails and calls. Thank you for maintaining such high standards for your business and employees, as it shows through in your company's work. I appreciate your high level of integrity and the quality of work that AIS delivers.

Positives: • They set up the AC system like I wanted them to both outside and in the rooms getting AC. It meant they had to run wiring a fair distance in the crawl space under the house, but they were perfectly fine with that. • They were reasonably quick in getting to me and in getting the work done (about 1 1/2 weeks after I accepted the bid). Of course, I did call them in early April rather than wait for the first heat wave to hit. • The crew were easy to talk to and looked to be both competent and thorough. • The AC is working well and also provides heat if I want it. One caveat - I haven't tested it in 95+ weather yet. • Very important for me -- the system is very quiet. OK, it was a bit pricey but worth it. Negatives: • The day before the installation, I called the sales guy to ask how wide the wall units were. He said he thought they were 26" but would get back to me if they were different from that. He was wrong - they were 33.5", but he never got back to me. I ended up wasting time and effort emptying and moving a 6' bookcase to make a space that then couldn't be used. • We had a columbine planted near (but not directly in front of) the breaker panel the crew worked on. The crew managed to stomp all over it, pretty much destroying it. My wife was pretty upset about that, especially since the columbine had belonged to her mother.

Great presentation. Estimator was very knowledgable. I didn't accept the bid as it was about the same price as another bid for a lesser unit.

I liked them because (1) furnace was best price of 3 quotes, (2) didn't go overboard with what I needed to help my needs, which was better circulation downstairs while my furnace is in the attic, by adding a 2-zone heating and 2 stage furnace, (3) custom built a house fan. I don't think any other company would have done this. They even accommodated my request to add some additional insulation around the fan during winter months when its not in use, (4) threw in for free a remote control for the downstairs thermostat. In addition to the PGE rebate and the federal tax credit, they have highly qualified, very neat and courteous union workers, and received a rebate from the union. Both rebates arrived quickly; still need to file for the $1500 tax credit this spring. Another minor problem afterwards was that once the two zone heating was done, I knew that the downstairs heat would rise and shut off the upstairs theromostat, so they were very accomodating and moved the upstairs one to my master bedroom so that room is heated well. Its tough to balance upstairs and downstairs heat in this sort of house, but they did a good job overall. Extremely professional people. It's great to see there's still good union work out there.

I HAD MY AIR CONDITIONER SERVICED AND ALL THAT NEEDED TO BE DONE WAS TO CHANGE THE FILTERS AND CLEAN THE LEAVES OUT; SO THAT THERE WILL NOT BE ANY OTHER PROBLEMS. THE CHARGE WAS GREAT AND CHEAP, THE SERVICE WAS GREAT AND FAST.