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Nevets posted:Monday afternoon I discovered my AC unit was leaking water. Not an HVAC guy, but I'd guess there's a leak inside the coil housing somewhere. Either the pan to tubing attachment, or possibly the pan itself has rusted out or cracked. Can your remove an access panel around that area and see whats up inside?
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Aug 8, 2018 19:52
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iForge posted:I recommend getting a reputable company to come look at it. So I did that. I got the original installers out. The stupid thing just needed refrigerant. He had to reverse what the first guy did, but now it's blowing cold again! Cheap too. 
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Aug 8, 2018 21:23
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kid sinister posted:So I did that. I got the original installers out. The stupid thing just needed refrigerant. He had to reverse what the first guy did, but now it's blowing cold again! Cheap too. Holy hell - you had a repair guy out there that was too stupid to figure out the fastest and most profitable thing for them to do would have fixed it? For the sake of everyone in your area make sure you write some reviews for that place.
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Aug 8, 2018 21:50
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Motronic posted:Holy hell - you had a repair guy out there that was too stupid to figure out the fastest and most profitable thing for them to do would have fixed it? Already done. Also, thank you all for your help. If you come around St. Louis, I owe you a beer. kid sinister fucked around with this message at 22:27 on Aug 8, 2018 |
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Aug 8, 2018 22:02
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kid sinister posted:So I did that. I got the original installers out. The stupid thing just needed refrigerant. He had to reverse what the first guy did, but now it's blowing cold again! Cheap too. Now just bear in mind, systems don't consume refrigerant, so that means you have a leak somewhere and unless they fixed it you will have the same problem anywhere between a couple months to a couple years down the road.
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Aug 10, 2018 01:56
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Nevets posted:previous owners had the AC unit inspected & repaired 2 months ago. They lied or got a bullshit inspector. This is what did my hvac in, you probably have a blockage on the drip pan that lets some drain properly but not all. Pull the access door and inspect. Clean the coils while you’re at it.
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Aug 10, 2018 16:47
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There isn't an access door  , just a panel they cut out of the existing duct & then taped back shut. I took the drain line out entirely Wednessday night, I'm pretty sure the problem is where it screws into the pan I'm getting leakage. There were some traces of teflon tape left but the threads were fairly loose so I think that's where the leaking was occuring, then dripping down the inside of the duct and coming out where the duct met the furnace body.  I replaced the tape but I wasn't able to get the drain line to screw in very tight since doing so would leave my drain line pointing up at 3 o'clock. It still seems to have helped and I'm getting much less leakage now, maybe only 1/2 cup per day.  Tomorrow I'm going to hit up Home Depot and buy the parts to rebuild the drain line myself. I'm going to get a compression fitting or a flexible clamp to connect the right angle and p-trap and vertical pipe, so I can screw in the fitting to the drain pan nice and tight and then connect the rest of the line. While I'm there I'll buy some (actual) duct tape so I can open up the duct to make sure the pan is fine then re-tape it closed.
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Aug 10, 2018 18:29
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iForge posted:Now just bear in mind, systems don't consume refrigerant, so that means you have a leak somewhere and unless they fixed it you will have the same problem anywhere between a couple months to a couple years down the road. How bad does that happen compared to a car AC system? Car ACs bounce and shake around a lot more, so some loss is expected over the years.
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Aug 10, 2018 22:27
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kid sinister posted:How bad does that happen compared to a car AC system? Car ACs bounce and shake around a lot more, so some loss is expected over the years. It depends entirely on the size of the leak and where it is in the system as you can imagine. If (when) it happens again, decide if its worth it for you to have someone spend the time to find and fix it, or if a top-up every year or every other year is better.
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Aug 10, 2018 23:23
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is it fair to say car ac units last as long as they do thanks to the rubber hoses in-between the hardpipes?
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Aug 11, 2018 03:08
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Pimblor posted:is it fair to say car ac units last as long as they do thanks to the rubber hoses in-between the hardpipes? That rubber is a requirement. Your engine is on somewhat flexible mounts and will move around a little bit, so there has to be some flex in the lines that go to the condenser and the evaporator. If everything was hard piped, it wouldn't last a week.
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Aug 11, 2018 13:12
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kid sinister posted:How bad does that happen compared to a car AC system? Car ACs bounce and shake around a lot more, so some loss is expected over the years. Cars have BARRER HOSES (as iForge said), as opposed to 100% hard piping as in residential. They leak. Their joints leak. It's expected that they leak. Hard piped copper is not expected to leak. If it does you have a legit problem.
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Aug 12, 2018 02:28
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I've got an A/C, dehumidifier, mold question. So my house has a large master bedroom right over the garage, and the garage is underground on the rear and side of the house. It gets real cold in the winter but real warm/damp in the summer, and I'm seeing some wet spots on the ceiling drywall towards the back corner in a kind of rectangular pattern. I'm guessing there's metal or something above it that's just got a temperature disparity or something, causing that wetness/mold spotting. I don't have a drain in the garage but should I just be buying a large dehumidifier and hooking up a hose that jsut goes outside the garage door to drain? And if so does anyone have recommendations on a unit? I know they kinda suck up energy but I'd like to keep it as light on the power bill as possible even if up front costs are higher. Given how the garage seems to be whatever temp it is outside, I hat to just run it forever like I'm trying to dehumidify planet Earth. The master bedroom is at the end of the house and being over the garage and with no attic above it (I believe this was an addition on top of the garage at some point) definitely stays like 4 degrees warmer than the rest of the house, so I was thinking maybe it could use it's own A/C window unit, or one of those freestanding units that also works as a dehumidifier. Or would fixing the problem below in the garage naturally eliminate that need?
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Aug 13, 2018 21:34
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My buddy is an HVAC tech and found this on a recent jobsite https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXUcSVwTTqI
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Aug 18, 2018 18:29
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Jerk McJerkface posted:
It's not the worst plan-- going up to down means the cold air also wants to follow that path so you're likely to get some benefit. If the return air path is back through the house though, now you're going to be cooling the whole place (poorly), rather than looping the room air through the ductless unit. If you're going to try it, I'd have a powered supply and return duct rather than just the one to have a better shot at encouraging the air to stay looped locally.
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Aug 20, 2018 02:08
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Is 7 inch flex duct common? I'm trying to repair the previous owners fuckup of using duct tape to affix flex duct to rigid in the attic I bought an 8 inch worm clamp, which was too big (it got down to about 7.25 inches at the smallest). I then bought a 6 inch worm clamp, which was way too small (at about 6.8 inches at max size) This is above the ceiling, and the only access method was cutting a hole in it, so I'd prefer to do something permanent. I was avoiding large zip ties because I didn't know how long they'd last in the heat of the attic. I think this is probably the size I need https://www.lowes.com/pd/6-1-16-in-to-7-in-dia-Stainless-Steel-Adjustable-Clamp/3878536
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Sep 12, 2018 01:04
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Looking in to adding a mini-split to my soon-to-be office. Those following along other threads will (soon) recognize this as "the room behind that terrifying door in the back of my garage." Which brands should I be looking at? My dad has ~5 Fujitsu units ( (Some #) ASU24RLB + (5) AOU18RLXFZ) which he is very happy with for the two years (on average) that he has had them installed. They are not all on a single property, and so far so good they're putting up with the desert heat. I am leaning that way, but looking at their dealer locator I've found 2 companies that appear to be at all on the level, but one doesn't seem to do small residential jobs anymore, and the other one all of the negative reviews (~5%) are for $600 start/run capacitor swaps, every one from people who seemingly didn't get a quote ahead of time. While I know there are some bad apples in any review system, and you should ask "how much" before they start work,  . The vendor even replied attempting to justify the cost.I'm pending one bid from "the local person everyone uses" (recall the studs from my plumbing line? Yeah it's that company, not that installer.) They're also the ones you use when you must pay the most. They are a Lennox dealer, and after thinking he said Linux twice I understood him. He spitballed $4200 in my driveway, which seems at least $1000 too much. DkHelmet posted: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. Neat, thank you. Jaxyon posted:It's hot as balls in Los Angeles, any good guides on how to use my central air most efficiently? Hello from also los angeles. Thick curtains, double paned windows, and insulation. R-value will save your bacon. It was night and day when we insulated our house. Same AC unit ran half as long or less. Blowing cellulose into your attic is probably $2500 before rebates, same for your walls. Change your filter.
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Sep 12, 2018 05:07
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devicenull posted:Is 7 inch flex duct common? I'm trying to repair the previous owners fuckup of using duct tape to affix flex duct to rigid in the attic Eh, The zipties are fine. To do it the proper way, all you need to do is tape the inner liner to the collar, then a ziptie, then pull the insulation over that, and ziptie again. Those zipties hold up just fine in like 130* attics, so they should fine in yours. H110Hawk posted:Looking in to adding a mini-split to my soon-to-be office. Those following along other threads will (soon) recognize this as "the room behind that terrifying door in the back of my garage." As far as brands go, Mitsubishi and Fujistu are pretty much top of the line. But realistically? They're all pretty much the same. I mean that literally too, pretty much all the big brands (Trane, Lennox, Carrier) are rebadged units. Though if you wanna go for a budget unit, Midea is pretty good, while not being a lot of money. Kastien can attest to this.  I dunno, $4200 seems pretty decent, and Lennox equipment is generally pretty good. Though, I'm pretty sure their mini-split is just a rebadged Mitsubishi. ExplodingSims fucked around with this message at 05:29 on Sep 12, 2018 |
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Sep 12, 2018 05:25
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ExplodingSims posted:As far as brands go, Mitsubishi and Fujistu are pretty much top of the line. I'll see if they can solo install it through a series of sketchy ratchet straps. Good to know on the Lennox, I was hoping to get one of the Japanese megaconglomerate brands. I want a unit that's going to last and be quiet to run. It's not a particularly difficult install, but it will be running basically 12 hours a day. Fair enough on the price, I had $3200 for 1 inside + 1 outside unit in my head for unknown reasons. It's around 25' of refrigerant lines, 50' of electrical, plus whatever is needed to mount the unit to the ground (concrete pad?) Single zone 12k btu. Edit: Got the bid. $4650 https://www.lennoxpros.com/mpb012s4s-1p-mini-split-heat-pump-outdoor-unit-single-zone/p/15U43 https://www.lennoxpros.com/ms8-hi-18p1a-mini-split-single-zone-heat-pump-indoor-unit-208-230v1-phase60-hz18000-btuh-capacity/p/82W99 Those appear to be mismatched so I'm going to ask them about that. I hate that manufacturers don't put MSRP on their websites. (This is not exclusive to this industry.) H110Hawk fucked around with this message at 01:20 on Sep 13, 2018 |
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Sep 12, 2018 05:48
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H110Hawk posted:Edit: Got the bid. $4650 Well then, the sketchy company that charges $600 for a capacitor swap thinks I need a 2 ton unit for this 10x20 room (ish), which has insulation and modern doors/windows. When asked why I needed such a big unit when one not much larger cools my 1250 sq ft house he sorta sputtered and went down to 1.5 tons. $6,758 I asked for the model numbers and he said verbally Grainger item 49CK54, the estimate says Fujitsu Halcyon system.https://www.grainger.com/product/FRIEDRICH-Split-System-Heat-Pump-49CK54 I retract my opinion of the other vendor being too high.
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Sep 21, 2018 21:34
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The advantage of inverter-driven ductless systems like that Freidrich J system, is that they can modulate themselves down if the load isn't very high. They're great for contractors (and customers) because there's no such thing as oversizing a unit, which can happen with standard on/off systems. so you size it up a bit to avoid "under performing unit" callbacks, and the magickal box inside regulates the cooling or heating power to whatever is needed. So that unit would probably work, but yeah you probably don't actually need two full tons. That said, find someone to do an actual load calc.
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Sep 21, 2018 22:01
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Is there a general consensus on the in-duct ionization air purifiers? The house I recently bought had one that is a Aprilaire branded version of this exact model: https://engineeringair.com/products/plasma-air-international-model-100-in-duct-bi-polar-ionization-air-purifiers That site, by the way, is the only site I could find on the entire internet that actually sells the device and replacement tubes. The tubes (and the unit for that matter) seem ridiculously overpriced for what they are, which doesn't help to counter my thinking that they are snake oil. Additionally, I think I may have found a study that showed that they release dangerous levels of ozone as well. The fact that they seem to be only available to HVAC contractors strikes me as proof that they are a scam.
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Sep 22, 2018 00:34
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B-Nasty posted:Is there a general consensus on the in-duct ionization air purifiers? That's actually their selling point. MRC48B posted:The advantage of inverter-driven ductless systems like that Freidrich J system, is that they can modulate themselves down if the load isn't very high. Yeah, that's what has me going towards these minisplit heat pump dealies: The "only draw what you need" aspect is really nice once the room is up to temp. I just don't want to pay a ton (  )extra for capacity I don't need. Looking at this comparison it seems it's $400 and a surprising number of db: https://www.grainger.com/product/compare#compareSkus%3D454H42%2C49CK54 . Seems the higher BTU one supports a much lower CFM on low. The DBA of the 12k btu unit is the same as the equivalent Lennox on both the 12k and 19k versions.I will admit to going into this one prejudiced against this contractor.
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Sep 22, 2018 00:43
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MRC48B posted:That said, find someone to do an actual load calc. On this topic: I've been generating load calc reports (Manual J, S, D) for my family's HVAC business for a few years now and I'm thinking about doing some freelancing on my own. Is there actually any demand for this? I've noticed more towns requiring Manual S reports this year (in MA).
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Sep 24, 2018 17:54
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 I'm going to contact the Lennox company and ask which matched unit they want to use so I can get my AHRI certificate. Somehow it's the loudest indoor unit at its lowest speed, but I might also be reading the wrong units information. I also need to remind myself that my dishwasher I can barely hear running is like 49dba. The Mitsubishi+Daikin is one company who does a "value" and a "high end" install, they really like their Daikin, claiming a 10 year parts warranty, and an add-on $250 10 year labor warranty. The Fujitsu company sketched me out, didn't give me accurate model numbers, and really thought I needed a 24k unit for a room half the size of a 2-car garage. I likely don't need the HERS certificate, I'm going to ask about it. It was listed as optional. I realize there is an unknown amount of sales tax in all of these bids, and I'm going to ask the two remaining companies what that will be since I don't have a parts and labor breakout. Overall I am leaning Mitsubishi, that company seemed to do the most listening and when I described what I wanted, and told me straight out when something I said was a bad idea plus why. https://www.lennoxpros.com/docs/Technical/210633.pdf http://meus1.mylinkdrive.com/files/MSZ-GL12NA-U1-MUZ-GL12NA-U1_ProductDataSheet.pdf I know this is rambling, typing it out into the void helps me think.
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Sep 27, 2018 01:26
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A while ago I posted about my blower motor not starting. I let it run all summer and now I have tried to replace it tonight. The wires on the new motor did not match exactly, I had a brown white in addition to the brown. After wiring it up I think I have done something wrong. 1) I wired black to a multi prong device that appears to be a relay 2) I wired blue to a standalone black wire (this matched my old motor) 3) I left red disconnected 4) I wired white in the furnace to one side of my cap, and white from my motor to the same side 5) I wired brown to the other side of the cap 6) I left brown-white disconnected The motor just hummed, it did not start. I could start it by spinning by hand. So I swapped the browns, hooking up brown-white and leaving brown disconnected. The furnace did not start. I could start it by spinning by hand. I hooked up both browns, and it started in it's own! But the run speed was pretty slow, and i detected a slight burning smell. I also tried putting brown on one side of the cap, brown white on the other side, and going white in the furnace straight to white in the motor. Same problem with the burning smell. I am certain i made a rookie wiring mistake, can anyone identify it based on my description here?
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Oct 11, 2018 03:14
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Brown and brown/white almost always go to the capacitor on a generic motor like that. Then you should have two power wires, that may go into the speed taps. Look on the side of the motor, there should be a wiring diagram for it.
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Oct 11, 2018 19:20
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In hindsight, I believe the 'burning smell' was actually the PB blaster residue from getting the fan off the old blower.
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Oct 11, 2018 20:13
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Boston will be getting a cold weekend, so I wanted to make sure the heat (forced air of some sort) was working properly. I found out that only two out of five vents had hot air flowing through it, and not particularly much of it. The other three were stone cold. I called the landlord and two times he sent a technician over, who I know at the very least replaced the thermostat and the filters - and apparently fixed the fan belt or something that was broken. Now there is some improvement, where the hot vents have a bit more airflow and the cold vents have a very faint draft. But, two of the five vents are still super toasty, and the other three are still very cold. Why are only some of the vents hot? I feel really awful because I've emailed the landlord a few times already about the heat being hosed up, so I want to try and figure out what's going on before I go back to him. Here's what I know: - Forced air of some sort, probably a furnace or some sort of heater - Thermostat has recently been replaced with a new one, and is working properly - Two vents, which are somewhat closer to the heater, are very hot and have some airflow through it (but it's not like an AC or something) - Three vents, which have older grating and are further away from the heater (but not by too much compared to the other two) are stone cold and have little to no airflow - This house is old as poo poo Given that two vents are very hot and the rest are completely cold, and there's airflow through the hot ones and a little bit but not much airflow through the cold ones (and the air is cold), I have a feeling that the problem lies with the ducts themselves - right? Is it possible that the cold vents are connected to hosed up ducts, and the hot ones have working ducts? What should I investigate about the heating system to figure out what's going on? Ideally whatever I can figure out myself, someone with zero HVAC training.
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Oct 13, 2018 01:09
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milk moosie posted:Boston will be getting a cold weekend, so I wanted to make sure the heat (forced air of some sort) was working properly. I found out that only two out of five vents had hot air flowing through it, and not particularly much of it. The other three were stone cold. I called the landlord and two times he sent a technician over Don't feel bad that your landlord is sending out apparently the worlds worst HVAC technician. Are you there when the tech is there? Are they being told 3/5ths of your vents don't work? You need to be there and demonstrate the problem, as obviously your landlord isn't telling the technician what is broken, severely underpaying them, they're scamming your landlord, or some combination of the above. When they say "it works" ask them what temperature the air is blowing out of all 5 vents, and go feel them for yourself before they leave.
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Oct 13, 2018 01:30
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Yeah, I meant to do that, but he zipped the gently caress outta there and didn't want to stick around. To his credit, the thermostat is new, the filters were changed, the fan was fixed, and the vents that do have air flowing through them are toasty (though they aren't blowing a lot of air). I'll call them up again if I can't quite figure it out, and I actually think I've hit my limit in terms of what I can do. Went down into the basement myself, and learned a few things: - The heater itself is pretty old and makes what I can only assume is a worrying noise - There are actually six vents, one was hidden behind a chest of drawers. That probably needs to be uncovered (drat, how am I gonna do that), but it works fine. - All three of the vents with new, white-painted grates (one of which is the above) have warm air flowing through them perfectly well, and their ducts are also warm - One of the vents with an old grate is also getting warm air through it, but it's right under my desk, gently caress (though not blocked) - The remaining two vents (one in the living room, one in the bedroom towards the living room) are stone cold, and their ducts are as well - I assume there's no flow through them So that's 4/6 vents working about as well as they could given the heater, and 2/6 not getting warm air blown through them. The ones with no air have cold ducts, all the way to where they connect to the heater. There's a couple parameters here: - The temperature of the air being pushed, and - The amount/speed of the air being pushed For the former, what air is there is pretty warm. For the latter, it's not as much as I would expected - kinda weak, if you ask me. We need to figure out: - Why the other two vents are cold - What governs the amount of airflow and how to increase it if possible And that's where I'd need a technician to step in. Hopefully one that's interested in solving the problem. Pics:  ^^^ The two cold ducts.  ^^^ Where the two cold ducts connect to the heater, a sort of metal box connected(?) to the main blue heater. That metal box is cold, by the way.  ^^^ Where all the other ducts connect to the heater. Maybe that's a clue?   ^^^ The heater itself. No idea what kind of heater it is or what I can learn about it. edit: It just occurred to me that there might be a pretty obvious explanation here: the cold ones are return vents. Which means that the living room isn't heated at all...how do I know if a vent is meant to be a return vent? Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 02:00 on Oct 13, 2018 |
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Oct 13, 2018 01:48
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That looks like the return duct. They don't blow hot air, they suck air back in to be warmed. E:Beaten. So the living room only has a return duct? Yeah, that's more than just a quick service call. E2: Not just cheaply serviced but cheaply installed. Harveygod fucked around with this message at 02:04 on Oct 13, 2018 |
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Oct 13, 2018 02:01
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Harveygod posted:That looks like the return duct. They don't blow hot air, they suck air back in to be warmed. This. The "cold" ducts are Returns. they bring air back to the furnace.
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Oct 13, 2018 02:03
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Harveygod posted:That looks like the return duct. They don't blow hot air, they suck air back in to be warmed. Yeah, I just realized that. 4 supply, 2 return I guess works for me. In that case, the concern I have is that the airflow is kinda low, but that's hard to gauge without experiencing it. Is there a particular amount of airflow that I should expect, or some kind of minimum? There is this in the living room:  which I didn't see before, and seems like a supply vent, but I didn't check any ducts going that way and I don't recall if it was getting air through it. I can check again. EDIT: Yep, it's a supply vent - with about the same amount of airflow as the others. Harveygod posted:E:Beaten. So the living room only has a return duct? Yeah, that's more than just a quick service call. This house is old as gently caress, I don't think anything here was installed before 1920. Hell, when the thermostat was replaced, it left behind a patch of old flowery wallpaper. --- Also, here's a clip of the noise it makes: https://imgur.com/a/GEXJZyE It's a kind of wub-wub-wub-wub-wub-wub-wub-wub-wub-wub noise. Choppy and weird. Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 02:27 on Oct 13, 2018 |
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Oct 13, 2018 02:03
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Shortly after turning the heat on for the first time this year my Nest started reporting that there was no power on the RH wire. Did all the Nest support steps like checking for popped breakers and such and no luck. Put a multimeter on the red wire and sure enough it's got like 20 millivolts on it. Is my next step to call a pro or is there still something I can check out myself?
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Oct 13, 2018 21:10
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that the NEST tstat only works on 24V systems, not millivolt stuff?
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Oct 13, 2018 22:50
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No, you're right, there should be 24vac on the red wire and that's why the Nest is having a fit. So something is going on elsewhere in the system.
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Oct 13, 2018 23:12
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I mean, the first thing to check then would be to make sure your unit isnt using a millivolt power system. Since it sounds like you have a meter, the first step would be to find the AHU and see pop the cover panel off. See if you have 24V coming from the transformer. See if you have a popped fuse or something, and then go from there.
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Oct 14, 2018 01:19
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It’s not millivolt, the Nest has been working for several years now. So it’s got to be a 24VAC system. I’m guessing I should just call a pro as I don’t even know what panel on the unit to open to check the voltage on the red.
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Oct 15, 2018 14:49
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Aprilaire 600 humidifier question: The tech installed the outdoor temperature sensor in the furnace combustion intake pipe. The furnace is from 2015. Is this going to provide the right temp to the humidifier control? Or should it be run to the outside? Here are some pics. The install looks amateurish (horrible wiring) and the hole made in the fresh air intake pipe isn’t even sealed.   
Jealous Cow fucked around with this message at 18:26 on Oct 15, 2018 |
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Oct 15, 2018 16:31
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