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Potato Salad posted:Bet you a nickel there's inappropriate jumpers in that loving electrical hookup I'd take you up on that, but the maintenance guy borrowed all of them (and all of my pennies) to use as fuses when he saw me staring slack-jawed at his Payne job.
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Jul 17, 2018 05:00
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STR posted:I mean, they certainly did make it a bit more Comfortmaker. It's been hot as Heil here lately, hopefully they didn't get Rheemed too bad on that work. I'm sure it will be fine, they are obviously very well Traned. When you stay in an apartment and don't have to cover major property repairs, well that's just the Frost King on the cake.
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Jul 17, 2018 05:01
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At least they're not doing this kind of work with the heating, but it doesn't exactly get to Sub-Zero around here. Hopefully Bryant will Owens up to the work if something goes horribly wrong, but I've heard he can be pretty Ruud.
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Jul 17, 2018 05:04
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I wanted to do something with Lennox, but couldn't make it work anywhere. just like the real thing. 
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Jul 17, 2018 05:15
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It's okay, I think the rest of the thread can Copeland without any more bad puns. e: vvvv you win this round randomidiot fucked around with this message at 06:26 on Jul 17, 2018 |
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Jul 17, 2018 05:20
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Yeah I'm sure everyone is just scrolling past. 
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Jul 17, 2018 05:28
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Hey HVAC goons, I’m considering slapping a mini-split heat pump/ac into my rental house. It was built in the 1920s and there is no ductwork. It does have baseboard radiator heat (which I love since it doesn’t actually blow any dust around), so this would be more for the AC side of things, as my tenants currently use a window unit or two. The house is approximately 800 sq ft so I think an 18k BTU unit should suffice. I won’t have time to self install. Any ideas what the ballpark should be to drop one into an exterior wall, probably the same wall that has the electrical panel? I see units running around $1k, I just don’t want to get bent over for installation costs.
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Jul 17, 2018 06:34
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we had a minisplit priced out recently, I don't know if the SF is the same, because my wife was in charge of it, but it was around 1k for the unit and 2k for installation.
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Jul 17, 2018 19:48
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I like to sleep cold, and I set my newly installed (like within this month) 3 ton Goodman to 68 before I went to bed, I woke up and it's 100% humidity out and the house is 70%. The pan water sensor was red so I used a rag to sop up some of the water and it kicked back on. But I just noticed there's no gravity drain at all for the pan itself. Is this normal? I seem to recall the old unit they had plumbed in a drain for the unit and the pan. Should the installer fix this or am I stuck with leaving a cheap wet dry vac in the attic?
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Jul 24, 2018 11:38
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Pimblor posted:I like to sleep cold, and I set my newly installed (like within this month) 3 ton Goodman to 68 before I went to bed, I woke up and it's 100% humidity out and the house is 70%. The pan water sensor was red so I used a rag to sop up some of the water and it kicked back on. But I just noticed there's no gravity drain at all for the pan itself. Is this normal? I seem to recall the old unit they had plumbed in a drain for the unit and the pan. Should the installer fix this or am I stuck with leaving a cheap wet dry vac in the attic? You need a condensate drain, either gravity or a pump, and the installer should have hooked one up. It is a ridiculous for them to have overlooked that.
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Jul 24, 2018 13:18
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glynnenstein posted:You need a condensate drain, either gravity or a pump, and the installer should have hooked one up. It is a ridiculous for them to have overlooked that. Ok good to know. I called the installer and they're going to fix it this afternoon.
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Jul 24, 2018 14:27
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Mine also doesn't have a drain so if it ever fills up I'm hosed. Well until I add one, anyway.
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Jul 24, 2018 15:02
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I'm assuming you're talking about the overflow pan right, not the one that's built into the AHU? Cause if they didn't pipe on into the airhandler those are some dumb installers. Overflow pan doesn't need a drain per se, but it's a good idea to have a separate run for it though. Ideally with a ball valve in line so you can drain it easily if it fills up.
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Jul 24, 2018 15:31
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Yes the drain pan. The ahu does have a drain pipe to the outside and the installer actually did a relatively good job with the install of it from what I can tell.
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Jul 24, 2018 17:24
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ExplodingSims posted:I'm assuming you're talking about the overflow pan right, not the one that's built into the AHU? Cause if they didn't pipe on into the airhandler those are some dumb installers. The AHU definitely has a line, but the overflow pan doesn't. It filled up enough overnight that it tripped the water sensor and shut the unit down.
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Jul 24, 2018 20:47
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Yeah, that's kind of its purpose. But that's why I said it's a good idea of installers ro run a separate drain line for it, with a ball valve for easy draining when that happens. May be worth asking your tech if you have a primary float switch installed at the AHU as well, as that will (hopefully) stop the unit from overflowing like that.
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Jul 24, 2018 21:10
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ExplodingSims posted:Yeah, that's kind of its purpose. Worked pretty well I'd say. Guy just came and went before I caught your post. He found that there was some door or baffle that wasn't latched right during installation which was causing water to get sucked off the coil and drain into the overflow pan. The main drain line from the AHU dumps water like a drunk pissing in a fountain. It wasn't more than a cup of water in the overflow pan. I'll keep an eye on it.
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Jul 24, 2018 22:07
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Trying to install central air and a new furnace. Been getting quotes around 13-14k which I feel is pretty reasonable. Few questions though: My house has a single return vent basically at the furnace in a downstairs closet. Sucks but what can you do. Is there any significant difference between placing my air filter at that return vent versus inside the blower compartment? Also, I want to get a variable speed blower and run my fan all day long. Is the HVAC smart enough to run the fan at minimum speed most of the time and kick it up when it needs to if I use an Ecobee instead of their proprietary thermostat?
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Jul 25, 2018 16:29
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as far as I know, none of the 3rd party thermostats can talk rs-485 to variable air handlers, so you'll have whatever built in logic is in the furnace for "Fan" calls and "Cool/Heat" calls, multi-stage fan only with R/W/Y/G/B wiring seems unlikely.
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Jul 25, 2018 17:46
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Yeah I don't need multistage with fan only. But as long as the furnace can go: "Fan only -> low" "Cool/heat -> increase speed as needed" then we're good.
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Jul 25, 2018 19:52
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potatoducks posted:Yeah I don't need multistage with fan only. But as long as the furnace can go: That's likely on almost any furnace/air handler with a variable blower, it'll have one speed for fan and one for (each stage) of heat/cool (if it'll emulate 2-stage) with the standard wires. Should be called out int he manual for whatever you're considering.
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Jul 26, 2018 00:49
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It's hot as balls in Los Angeles, any good guides on how to use my central air most efficiently? My understanding is that it's better to leave it running at the highest temp I can stand than wait for the house to get unbearably hot/leave it off at work and then cool it down to a reasonable level, but I don't know that for sure. I also probably need to update the thin curtains that came with my house to help avoid cool loss/heat gain. My windows are relatively new.
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Jul 26, 2018 20:35
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potatoducks posted:Trying to install central air and a new furnace. Been getting quotes around 13-14k which I feel is pretty reasonable. Few questions though: Woah is 13-14K reasonable for an AC and furnace? That seems like a ton of money.
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Jul 26, 2018 21:34
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Jaxyon posted:It's hot as balls in Los Angeles, any good guides on how to use my central air most efficiently? My personal temp settings which are a compromise between efficiency, recovery time, and comfort 7:30am-6pm: 78° 6pm-11pm: 74° 11pm-7:30am: 73° (but in the cooler months sometimes bump it down to 72° because it doesn't run as much and gets humid.) The heat pump has an easier time reaching its setpoint at night, and we're not home during most days so I try to work that to my advantage. Even on very hot days, it takes quite a while for the house to warm up from 73° so it doesn't run much during the daytime.
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Jul 26, 2018 21:59
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A/C unfortunately gave out, and I'm looking between a couple of estimates for a replacement (other vendors were no-shows or in one case just unprofessional). The condenser is approaching 20 years old, but the indoor furnace is <5 yrs and in what seems to be good shape. Both vendors that came in suggested a 4-ton unit independently. Warranties, thermostat promos, etc seemed about the same for both. First vendor: -$5,760 Lennox Airflo 14.5 SEER -$6,910 Rheem 16 SEER Second Vendor: -$5,060 Trane 14 SEER -$6,280 Trane 14 SEER + Furnace (combined heat/A/C circulation) Based on the thread responses, the Trane sounds like the better choice. It doesn't seem to make sense to replace the furnace, but the salesman was pitching it as a "why wouldn't you?" based on efficiency improvements and installation costs if it needs to be replaced independently. Are these prices reasonable, and should I forego the new furnace? AreWeDrunkYet fucked around with this message at 03:39 on Jul 27, 2018 |
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Jul 27, 2018 03:31
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I would say replace the furnace, it's not really a huge amount more, and you'll have a brand new blower assembly, boards, etc... I dont really see any reason not too if you can swing it.
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Jul 27, 2018 04:44
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Naffer posted:Woah is 13-14K reasonable for an AC and furnace? That seems like a ton of money. depends on the market, make/model, and if it's a replacement or retrofit. When I replaced my system I needed some ductwork modifications and ended up in that range.
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Jul 27, 2018 04:49
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My parents just got a quote of 22K to replace both of their units in their 4 bedroom house. 
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Jul 27, 2018 05:01
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Qwijib0 posted:depends on the market, make/model, and if it's a replacement or retrofit. When I replaced my system I needed some ductwork modifications and ended up in that range. It can be, but it all depends on the equipment more than anything. The name brand ones, Trane, Carrier, Lennox, etc, tend to be more expensive. And then the higher the SEER rating the higher the price. I've seen an install quoted as high as $50,000 before.
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Jul 27, 2018 05:21
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AreWeDrunkYet posted:A/C unfortunately gave out, and I'm looking between a couple of estimates for a replacement (other vendors were no-shows or in one case just unprofessional). The condenser is approaching 20 years old, but the indoor furnace is <5 yrs and in what seems to be good shape. Both vendors that came in suggested a 4-ton unit independently. Warranties, thermostat promos, etc seemed about the same for both. Ask for the model numbers and the AHRI certificate for the pair of the condensor and coil. My condensor is 17.5 SEER but paired with my coil it's 15. Without knowing both halves of the equation you don't know what you're getting. They should be matched and registered in the AHRI lookup database otherwise you may be getting a poo poo deal. If the furnace is only 4 years old, you're not going to be improving on the efficiency, which is 80% for a standard single stage. I'd consider just doing the AC. The pricing on that is super weird- why is he selling you a furnace you don't need for $1200 installed? I'd be kinda creeped out about that, wondering what's going on behind the scenes. The story that you'd make the investment back in efficiency is very thin to nonexistant. Where I'm at (Southeast PA), going from 13 to 16 SEER takes something like 14 years to get ROI. You can fun a few calculators (one two) and check.
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Jul 27, 2018 18:12
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Possibly Dumb HVAC question. Just moved into a new house. Large 2 story, 3400 sq feet. 2 HVAC units, one for each floor. (2.5 ton and 2 ton) We like it cold in the house, so downstairs is set to 70 right now, and upstairs to 72. Downstairs just isn't comfortable. The thermostat says it's 70, but humidity is staying in the mid 60's (65 currently). (It feels warmer than 70 tbh) Upstairs is much nicer even set at 72, though sometimes the thermostat shows 71. Humidity upstairs is in the low 50's usually. We kept our old house at 72 and it was just fine, I really want to bump it up a couple degrees but it's just not as pleasant as we want it to be. I must be doing something wrong with the settings. Should I bump upstairs higher and downstairs lower? Look into a dehumidifier for downstairs? I'm going to call the company that installed it, but since this is new construction not sure how far I'll get with them.
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Aug 6, 2018 17:59
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What's up with my AC? It's cool but not cold, and it looks like I'm over $800 in the hole now with nothing to show for it. I got a 15 SEER unit installed back when you could get the tax credit and it worked perfectly until 2 weeks ago. I called out a different local company with great reviews online to come take a look. He tells me my outdoor unit is dirty (it was), I needed the TXV adjusted, a hard start kit since I had a TXV and that my outdoor unit is 2 ton while indoors it's 3 ton. I have no idea it he's right or not. He also adjusted the blower to blow slower. Anyway, he does his work and it worked... for 2 weeks. So this time I decide to check it myself. The fan outside wasn't spinning. I pull the quick disconnect, open up the panel and immediately notice that the starter cap is bulging out both ends. I take it out, test it with my multimeter and this thing had zero capacitance on both its fan and compressor sides. Somehow the guy didn't notice the bulging top 2 weeks ago when he was attaching the hard start kit to its terminals. So I call the company and they send out the same guy. I tell him it's not cold and the starter cap is dead. He goes out, verifies this, comes back inside and tells me that it'll be $300 to swap the cap. For a $30 part. I politely told him to go pound sand. I went out, bought the right cap and swapped it in. The fan spins now, but I'm right back where I started. It's cool now but not cold, so it runs constantly. I also can't find the manuals anywhere that were resting on top of filter slot. He might have swiped them. I got a couple questions. 1. how do I verify if my indoor and outdoor stuff is indeed mismatched in capacity? 2. could a hard start kit kill my starter cap? 3. do I even need a hard start kit if my system worked fine for 7 years without one? 4. what should I do to get cold AC again? kid sinister fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Aug 7, 2018 |
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Aug 6, 2018 23:59
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It sounds like you need a better company for service, but "hard start caps" are also called "compressor savers" and they are very much a good thing. It definitely didn't kill your old cap, and $300 to swap it is absolutely ridiculous. Good luck with your troubles. It's really difficult to find a good tech.
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Aug 7, 2018 04:27
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skipdogg posted:Possibly Dumb HVAC question. Just moved into a new house. Large 2 story, 3400 sq feet. 2 HVAC units, one for each floor. (2.5 ton and 2 ton) We like it cold in the house, so downstairs is set to 70 right now, and upstairs to 72. Sounds like it might be a bit oversized on the downstairs part there. Sounds like it's pulling down too fast, and not running long enough to properly dehumidify in there. Not too much that could be done about that unfortunately, but you could look into seeing if the fan can be slowed down if you have a tech out there to look at it. Although if it's new enough, it may have a dehumidify mode built into it. If it has an ECM motor it can run it slower while the compressor runs to pull moisture out. kid sinister posted:What's up with my AC? It's cool but not cold, and it looks like I'm over $800 in the hole now with nothing to show for it. 1. Two ways. Either look at the BTU rating and divide it by 12000, or look at the model number, depends on the make, but there should be a string of 3 numbers in the middle you can divide by 12 and that will give you the tonnage. 2. Not really no, it was probably on it's way out already. They tend to go pretty quickly, and two weeks is plenty of time for it to go from decent to ready to pop. 3. Not necessarily, but it won't really hurt anything, and can actually be pretty beneficial since it helps lower the starting amps. 4. Have a different tech come out and look at things. Sounds like a flow issue, if he was adjusting the TXV, (assuming it's an adjustable type anyways) sounds like you might be having some issues with the refrigerant feeding into the coils properly. There's really not much reason to be adjusting a TXV unless things are really bad, so I would be starting there. Also could try setting the blower back to it's original speed as well.
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Aug 7, 2018 04:39
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ExplodingSims posted:1. Two ways. Either look at the BTU rating and divide it by 12000, or look at the model number, depends on the make, but there should be a string of 3 numbers in the middle you can divide by 12 and that will give you the tonnage. Hey, thanks for replying! To me, it does indeed look like a bunch of mismatched poo poo. I thought I got a 15 SEER back in the day, but according to the model number on the condenser outside, it's a Goodman model SSX160241BA. According to what I found Googling around, that's a 16 SEER 2 ton. As for the coils inside, they're Goodman model CAPF3636B6DA, which should be 3 tons at 13 SEER. The F in the third character of the model number stands for Flowrator instead of a TXV too. However, the condenser manual specifies a TXV. How screwed am I? kid sinister fucked around with this message at 18:02 on Aug 7, 2018 |
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Aug 7, 2018 17:59
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kid sinister posted:Hey, thanks for replying! Sounds like a standard Goodman install. The equipment isn't an issue - it's middle quality at the right price. The red flag is when a supposed pro is suggesting Goodman - they sell to ANYONE, so places/people who can't get certified end up defaulting to using those. You have essentially an unsupported system, and now something has changed and it's not clear what is broken and standard diagnostics are going to be difficult. A goodman "flowrater" is basically a fixed orifice. They come with different pistons to set the orifice size. You kinda need to drain the system to see if you have the right one for your condenser. So this is going to suck, unless you can find some documentation that shows what piston was ordered/installed (it could be the correct one for that coil/condenser combo).
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Aug 7, 2018 22:51
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Motronic posted:Sounds like a standard Goodman install. Eh, as it turns out, the original company that installed it didn't go out of business like I thought, they just moved to the other side of the county. The must be somewhat reputable if the guy was trying to upsell me to Amana. I just found my original invoice from 7 years ago and it says I got an expansion valve. It also says they mismatched the condenser and coils too. Anyway, my valve has "MWP 680" written on it. kid sinister fucked around with this message at 00:06 on Aug 8, 2018 |
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Aug 8, 2018 00:04
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kid sinister posted:Eh, as it turns out, the original company that installed it didn't go out of business like I thought, they just moved to the other side of the county. The must be somewhat reputable if the guy was trying to upsell me to Amana. 99% certain that is going to stand for max working pressure 680 (PSIG).. Without you having the tools to take the necessary measurements anything we say here is really spitballing. However, I find it odd they were adjusting a 7 year old txv. Generally the failure modes of a txv are that the head/sensing bulb lose their charge and dont work at all, or the screen in them plugs up and restricts flow. Otherwise, there isn't really anything else to go wrong. Sounds like the guy was just trying whatever he could without knowing for sure. I recommend getting a reputable company to come look at it.
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Aug 8, 2018 02:15
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Hello HVAC thread, I need some advice: Monday afternoon I discovered my AC unit was leaking water. It must have been doing this for days since it appears to be very slow. At first I assumed the condensate pump was clogged / broken so I took it apart and cleaned it but it appears to work fine. The drain pipe was trickling water out OK so I assume it's not clogged. After I vacuumed up all the water & turned the unit back on I discovered that the water seems to be very slowly leaking out of the seam between the furnace body and one of the ducts. There's no condensation on the outside of the ducts or furnace itself, and there is a heavy duty dehumidifier running at the other end of the basement keeping the air fairly dry.    This is after about 12 hours of operation. I vacuumed that boot mat dry at around 9pm Tuesday and took these photos this morning at 9 am, so about a half cup of water but the unit didn't run most of that time. That rusted screw makes me think this isn't the first time this has happened. I bought the house in the beginning of July and had the AC set to 70 for most of the rest of the month and never saw any water on the floor. I moved in last week and turned it down to 72 during the day and 75 at night so it wouldn't run when I am trying to fall asleep, and it has been pretty humid the last week aswell so that might explain why it's just happening now. The previous owners had the AC unit inspected & repaired 2 months ago. Is this evidence of something inside the ducts being a problem?
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Aug 8, 2018 18:43
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I have an interesting question. Last year, I had some ductless split units installed in the rooms on the second floor of my cape cod. They work great, but interestingly, due to the available space to mount the unit I had to use larger units than the space requires. (I had to use the floor mount ones, which start at 9000 BTU instead of the wall mount that go down to 5000. The rooms stay nice and cool, but I was curious if I could use some of that cooling downstairs. There's a couple small rooms right below the upstairs rooms, and the knee walls of the attic make a perfect spot for me to put a vent on the wall, and duct it to the ceiling of the room below. Maybe install an small inline booster fan as well. it'd just be a two foot duct, with one elbow. This would let me pull some of the cold air downstairs. The house is mostly open, so it's not like there's several doors between the downstairs room and upstairs room, just one actual wall/door, so I'd just put a transom vent in the wall so I'm not sucking/blowing from and to completely enclosed rooms. The room with the 9k unit in it is about 10x12, (the unit is enough for 450 sqft) and the room I'd pull it into is 12x12 so I wouldn't be over the square footage anyways. I found a few silent inline fans, and I can wire up an outlet in the knee wall and a switch on the wall so I can turn off/on the vent fan. I figure with that, I can cool the rooms pretty nicely, and each setup is only about $80. What is the goon think consensus of my plan?
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Aug 8, 2018 18:58
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