Have you read reviews or talked to anyone running the ideal air units? It would scare me to cut corners on AC. I’ve found that I end up buying things twice If try to buy cheap. Also do you have a relationship of some sort with an AC tech because I doubt there are very many ac techs familiar with ideal air parts. And are the parts readily available? Not that it’s rocket science just that some hvac peolple only service certain brands. In my case I opted for a Daikin unit because it’s a well trusted brand and the big reason is because I got a warranty.
I do understand why you want to go that route it does sound like a good price.
Do you not have any ground space at all beside your building? You could go with a package unit I just googled to see and a daikin 12.5 ton unit is 7121.00. If your handy enough or know a carpenter you could possibly install this without an ac tech as since it’s a package unit you won’t have to run any linesets.
Your best bet is to try and find an AC guy that is cool. Almost all of them tell people they don’t know that they double the price of the unit for labor. But it’s a competitive field and they wanna work. A lot of guys at the big hvac companies do installs on the side for cheaper also. Ask you cousin, friend, co worker about who they know that does ac work.
