I was negotiating repair items on a deal last week. I represent the buyer. The property inspection revealed, among other things, that both A/C systems in the home were showing splits that were out of compliance with normal readings.
A “split” is the difference in temperature between the air that is drawn into the system through the intake and the temperature of the air as measured from the output grills.The difference should be between 15-20 degrees on a properly operating air conditioning system. So, if you measured the air at your air filter grill, where it is drawn into the system, and it is 78 degrees, then you measure the air temperature of the output grill, where the cold air blows out, the output air temperature should be somewhere between 58 and 63 degrees, representing a 15 to 20 degree “split”.
On this particular home, the splits were 9 degrees on one unit and 30 degrees on the other unit. That means a problem exists with both units. A high split means there may possibly be air flow restrictions caused by a dirty/clogged air filter, dirty/clogged coils, or perhaps a freon charge issue. Low splits indicate, among other possibilities, possible low charge on freon, which could mean a leak or a bad coil.
The only way to know for sure what the problem is is to have the unit checked out by an A/C company. Due to time limitations, and the Option Period near its end, we wrote into a proposed amendment that “Seller to have licensed HVAC company evaluate, service and repair both HVAC systems and document that units are operating as designed”. We didn’t have sufficient data to guess an amount to ask for, so we just wanted the systems fixed. Usually, I prefer to break everything down into dollar amounts and just ask for money to offset important repair issues, but it’s not always possible
What happened next was that the listing agent violated the Realtor Code of Ethics in multiple ways.