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It just made sense. We've done a lot of business with this company and have a good rapport with them so we don't feel like they really lied or anything. He showed us all the part quotes and said he could 100% fix the old unit but he couldn't guarantee that something else wouldn't burn out/break. The wife and I talked it over and it just makes sense to go with a new unit.
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Dec 16, 2019 19:42
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Are they going back with another Trane?
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Dec 16, 2019 22:49
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No, we're going with an Amana with a pretty excellent warranty.
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Dec 17, 2019 05:04
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I have a follow up with my HVAC guy on this, but I figured I'd check here to see if anyone else had any ideas. I have an empire dv252Sg nat gas heater on my (enclosed) back porch. This is my first winter in this house so really my first time needing to use it. Got the pilot lit no problem, went to turn up the thermostat and nothing. Called my HVAC guy and he came out and advised replacing the thermopile as the voltage was low. Got a new thermopile from the mfg, burner fired right up after installation. Had the burner running for a bit, turned it back and went to turn it up later to no avail. I checked the voltage with the multimeter and it was low on the terminals with the thermostat set to off (about 200mv). I bought a second thermopile, swapped it out and the same thing occurred. It works fine at first but after using it the voltage drops and it’s unable to kick on the burner a second time, or if you light the pilot and let it sit unused for a while. I’m able to get it working if I shut it off completely (including the pilot) and let it sit for a bit before turning it back up. Has anyone seen this sort of thing before?
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Dec 22, 2019 03:07
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Frinkahedron posted:I think I only have the one aux heat and then the emergency heat. To resolve this mystery, it turned out that the aux and emergency heat lines were tied together at the air handler and we only have the one electric heat backup option to the heat pump, so it didn't matter what W and X2 were on the old thermostat. X2 was wired to the emergency heat option on the old thermostat and W was wired to aux heat when it kicked on by itself, so I just copied that. When in doubt, get a multimeter. Frinkahedron fucked around with this message at 03:05 on Dec 23, 2019 |
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Dec 23, 2019 03:02
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We bought a house a couple years ago that supposedly had the basement finished by the previous homeowners. Our basement unit handles the basement and the main floor. There's also been some weird airflow issues like a fairly noticeable negative pressure in the basement that pulls the door shut to the basement, and a significant draft in that stairwell. When I was taking a closer look around the basement HVAC room a few months ago, I noticed that the return duct is basically directly open to the room. So the return design right now for this system is: 1) 20x20 filtered return on the main floor 2) 12x12 filtered return in the basement 3) Effectively a ~8x16 unfiltered return in the HVAC room Now my thought is that the original HVAC installer left that return open for the builder to extend it to the basement properly, and that the previous homeowner completely missed it's existence and ran off another duct for the basement return. Am I correct that I should just close off that unfiltered return?
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Dec 26, 2019 14:23
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For ~reasons~, I'm going to be putting a used 3.0t-3.5t compressor on my 1111sqft house. In the interest of preventing excessive wear and humidity issues from short-cycling, I want to put in an OFF Delay, and I think it needs to be on the low-current, control side of the compressor relay circuit. I'm thinking a 30 minute delay timer, starting from compressor-ON (ensure the compressor runs at least 30 minutes). How would I even begin to approach this, and how smart of a circuit would I need to achieve this goal? Is 30m too short? I realize this thing is oversize as gently caress for my application but it's just a stopgap until I can afford a full system replacement.
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Jan 2, 2020 05:18
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get a smart thermostat that allows you to set min offs and min on times. You should also set very high temp differential, this will also maximize load and run time.
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Jan 2, 2020 05:45
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MRC48B posted:get a smart thermostat that allows you to set min offs and min on times. Oh hell  I didn't even think of that. Good call.
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Jan 2, 2020 06:15
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Also kick the fan speed up a setting on the indoor unit for (slightly) more load on the evap.
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Jan 2, 2020 21:46
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MRC48B posted:Also kick the fan speed up a setting on the indoor unit for (slightly) more load on the evap. Good call. I'll have to dig into it to see if that's even an option on it. I wouldn't even have known unless you'd said something, thanks!
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Jan 2, 2020 23:17
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Furnace issues, Carrier 58CTA: Before the fire kicks in, my furnace makes this... grinding noise, that would be a buzz if it were faster. Kind of like a large version of a computer fan that doesn't have a lot of time left in it. I did a little reading and I figure that means it's the inducer fan/motor. Some questions: I know how to turn off power and gas to the furnace, is this a relatively easy diy? Is there anything upstream/downstream I would need to check? Are there 3rd-party replacement parts for things like this or am I stuck getting the OEM part?
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Jan 8, 2020 20:57
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That appears to be a single speed fan, so maybe start with checking the stat/run cap. e: also, turn the furnace off and see if the fan spins free/doesn't grind when moving it by hand.
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Jan 8, 2020 21:12
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Motronic posted:That appears to be a single speed fan, so maybe start with checking the stat/run cap. It's a 2-speed inducer according to Carrier's site, the blower is fixed-speed though. But will check that 2nd part tonight.
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Jan 8, 2020 21:23
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Phy posted:It's a 2-speed inducer according to Carrier's site, the blower is fixed-speed though. But will check that 2nd part tonight. Wait, so the noise is as the draft inducer fan turns on, not the blower?
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Jan 8, 2020 21:35
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The noise begins before the audible ignition of the flame, and I thought the intended sequence of events was 1. Draft inducer turns on 2. Flame turns on 3. Blower turns on therefore it should be the inducer?
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Jan 8, 2020 22:54
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Phy posted:The noise begins before the audible ignition of the flame, and I thought the intended sequence of events was That sounds correct. If you get up to it hopefully they've installed a quarter-turn gas shutoff valve. There should be an error code it's blinking at you for failure to detect a draft. Pull your thermostat (or kill power) and try to turn your inducer by hand. I bet the bearing on it is shot. If it is, kill power formally at the breaker and replace it. It's fairly straight forward if you have the right tools, but getting the parts might be a multi-day affair if you can't find a local parts counter willing to sell to you. Watch some youtube videos on it.
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Jan 8, 2020 23:03
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I just bought my first home, and with it my first HVAC system. It's a forced air system with a gas furnace in the basement and central air, I think something like 20 years old; the ducts are much older, judging by the registers and return grate. Some of the upstairs registers get barely any airflow, not sure if that's just a capacity issue or if there's deeper issues. I get lots of flyers in the mail for HVAC service plans, duct cleaning, disinfectant, silver/gold/platinum packages, etc. What's actually worth paying for, and what should I be looking for? Is it worth having a guy come out yearly?
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Jan 9, 2020 14:48
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First thing you should look for are dampers in your basement near the unit. Do you seem to have registers that get a ton of airflow? We already know that some aren't getting much at all. You can adjust the dampers to choke off registers that get too much airflow, and that will push air towards the registers getting very little. You are essentially balancing the system to try to even out air flow, although the dampers installed in home ductwork are usually pretty crappy, it will still help. You're going to want to look at your duct and look for handles, or even just wing nuts sticking out of the duct. Those will be your dampers. You could pay for a duct cleaning if you just moved in, but I personally don't think it's going to affect your performance that much. Probably a good idea if you have bad allergies and the previous owners had pets or something. If your unit is really 20 years old, I would start thinking of replacing it. That is really old for a residential HVAC system. Might even pay for itself just by getting a more efficient unit.
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Jan 9, 2020 22:13
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H110Hawk posted:That sounds correct. If you get up to it hopefully they've installed a quarter-turn gas shutoff valve. There should be an error code it's blinking at you for failure to detect a draft. Pull your thermostat (or kill power) and try to turn your inducer by hand. I bet the bearing on it is shot. If it is, kill power formally at the breaker and replace it. It's fairly straight forward if you have the right tools, but getting the parts might be a multi-day affair if you can't find a local parts counter willing to sell to you. Watch some youtube videos on it. Ok, so: Yes, there's a 1/4-turn valve Took the back panel off, no error code blinking Killed power at the breaker, inducer turns easily by hand and does not feel particularly grindy Restored power and allowed furnace cycle to start, grindy/buzzy noise obviously concurrent with spin-up of inducer So I'm wondering if it's an out-of balance fan rather than the motor bearings, but I did some quick calling around yesterday and I can get the fan/motor assembly locally for $200 (it's like 500 on Canadian websites), so it might be easier to replace the whole shot rather than gamble on doing just the fan.
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Jan 10, 2020 19:52
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Motor Bearings can be worn out and yet still spin easily by hand. Replace the entire assembly. You were lucky to get a failure mode that told you before it seized up permanently.
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Jan 10, 2020 22:47
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I have a roughly 1500 sqft house, with a nice Coleman Heatpump and AC, about 10 years old. I have it serviced regularly and it is working great. I updated to an Ecobee thermostat and have 3 sensors in various rooms. We have 9 vents total in the house, I wanted to read about something but of course search didn't help much, so I will post: Have any of you braved smart vents? It seems like some of them require hubs or need a subscription? I don't mind trying tech out but I do not want to get something totally garbage.
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Jan 12, 2020 03:54
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What do you want the smart vents for? Is there a balancing issue or something?
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Jan 12, 2020 07:07
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Oh hey, that would be good detail to add. My wife sometimes thinks that the bedroom is not as warm as the rest of the house so I was trying to think of a way to help with that.
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Jan 12, 2020 21:53
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Do you have floor registers with built-in dampers or dampers in the supply lines themselves? You could try closing some of the vents that seem to get more airflow to get more to the bedroom. Just don't go crazy with this; heat pumps in heat mode need a good amount of airflow over the coil to work properly. I'd be worried that IoShit devices that start closing off vents don't really care about what it might do to your supply-side static pressure.
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Jan 12, 2020 23:17
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Thank you for the advice. I won't worry about it. Cheers!
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Jan 13, 2020 01:00
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My fiance and I are looking at buying a house with a hot water system with a gas-fired boiler as its primary source of heat. About half of the radiators are original to the house (c. 1930 according to county records,) the other half have been replaced with low profile baseboard units. What do I need to know about maintaining a system like this and is there anything I should ask the inspector to look at specifically? I've lived in houses with every variant of forced hot air but never have had to maintain a hot water system.
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Jan 19, 2020 06:19
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corgski posted:My fiance and I are looking at buying a house with a hot water system with a gas-fired boiler as its primary source of heat. About half of the radiators are original to the house (c. 1930 according to county records,) the other half have been replaced with low profile baseboard units. What do I need to know about maintaining a system like this and is there anything I should ask the inspector to look at specifically? Auto fill valve? Auto fill valve in on position? Properly installed expansion tank on heat loop? Drain valve in working condition? Pump in working condition? Pump installed in a manner it can be serviced? (i.e. flat flanges so it can be taken out of the system without soldering) System quiet (i.e. properly bled) when operated? I mean, there's more. And any inspector you hire shouldn't need a list to figure it out.
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Jan 19, 2020 16:38
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MRC48B posted:Motor Bearings can be worn out and yet still spin easily by hand. Replace the entire assembly. I ended up being able to wait until today and the end of our cold snap to do the replacement. With the old motor in hand there's definitely a rough spot in rotation that I wasn't able to feel with it installed. The new motor is much quieter and the temperature in the house still comes up when the furnace runs, so I think that's sorted. Thanks for the advice!
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Jan 20, 2020 02:18
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Hey HVAC experts, can any of you help guide me through the process of fixing my A/C woes? A bit of background: north Texas, hvac can’t keep up when summer hits high 90s and above. My ductwork in the attic is all flex duct with that old school plastic outer lining (none of it is suspended from the ceiling), the caveat being that most of that lining has deteriorated and left my ducts exposed/uninsulated. My insulation is also old and shallow (~5” deep). I’ve had a couple of companies come out and got wildly different opinions... Company 1: redo all the ductwork (to code, hanging from ceiling) to a new layout/design, and new plenum boxes, put in more insulation (R13). Grand total $5500, but knocked down to $4500 when I said I wasn’t making a decision today and they added a “decide today discount.” Company 2: blow in R49 up to 16.5”, add ~20 soffit baffles around the edge of the attic, fix the existing ducting with new vapor barrier (he claims ducts themselves are fine, just need fresh insulation), and add an attic tent. Grand total <$2000 Company 3: A third company has told me the furnace is overheating (burning to touch), the cfm coming out of the system is ~350 when he expects well over 1k and that fixing my duct work won’t do anything. Sounds like another upsell because the airflow in the house feels fine, and the only real problem is just that the system runs constantly on the hot summer days. Obviously I want to go with the cheaper and easier option, and company 1 feels a little “used car salesman”-esque with the amount of times they’ve called since the guy left, but is a new duct layout an overall better idea? My system and airflow is fine now with the current layout, so I think they’re up-selling me hard, but I’m also no expert. It feels to me like patching what I have will work, but some have said flex duct isn’t easy to do that with. And overall, if a new layout/ductwork is best vs good air sealing and more insulation, is it too much of an undertaking for a homeowner to DIY? FWIW, I am a mechanical engineer and would feel comfortable buying manual D and figuring all of it out (with respect to proper flow, duct sizing, etc) if necessary. Gin_Rummy fucked around with this message at 20:53 on Jan 25, 2020 |
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Jan 25, 2020 20:46
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Someone not suggesting you basically bury your attic in insulation should be discounted out of hand unless you have a strict budget you need to adhere to and your ductwork has other leaks or is on its last legs. Option 1 person seems like they're trying to sell you a used Buick with the hard sell. Option 2 person sounds great even before I got to the price. Make sure this includes all the work to get your attic insulation ready - can lights need to be verified as rated for insulation contact, other things need little dams built around them, you probably could go for a little air sealing as well. If you have a huge attic hatch you should insulate and seal that as well. That's actually really fast and easy if it's just a literal hatch and not an integrated ladder thing. Do your walls have insulation in them? If not, add it there too. Preventing heat exchange passively means you don't have to burn energy to do it wildly inefficiently through HVAC. Option 3 person should be filling out one of those little worksheets that takes into account everything about the house. How old is your furnace? I would ask for a option 4 person, or call up option 2 person and ask what about option 3 person's bid is right/wrong and why. They should all be taking the time to explain these things to you in clear language. Here in Los Angeles County it's around $2000/option to do things (attic insulation, lovely ductwork, wall insulation) so I can't imagine it being massively more expensive there, even accounting for the I presume larger house.
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Jan 25, 2020 21:06
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H110Hawk posted:Someone not suggesting you basically bury your attic in insulation should be discounted out of hand unless you have a strict budget you need to adhere to and your ductwork has other leaks or is on its last legs. Option 1 person seems like they're trying to sell you a used Buick with the hard sell. Well, to be fair... the duct work IS very rough. I’m thinking the new vapor barrier proposed by company 2 would solve it, but I’ve had other HVAC people (impartial people from online, not contractors bidding) telling me that would be throwing money in the wind. I’m skeptical on that, personally. quote:Option 2 person sounds great even before I got to the price. Make sure this includes all the work to get your attic insulation ready - can lights need to be verified as rated for insulation contact, other things need little dams built around them, you probably could go for a little air sealing as well. If you have a huge attic hatch you should insulate and seal that as well. That's actually really fast and easy if it's just a literal hatch and not an integrated ladder thing. Do your walls have insulation in them? If not, add it there too. Preventing heat exchange passively means you don't have to burn energy to do it wildly inefficiently through HVAC. This company is on the level, for sure. His quote included boxing up and poly sealing my one canned light fixture and cleaning up their mess (which is trivial, but no one else includes that in their quote  ) Unfortunately, at the end of the day his company seems to be primarily insulation, so maybe he just isn’t as educated on whether or not my HVAC stuff is good now/would be better with more insulation.In any case, I’m definitely going to have a couple more companies come look. I feel like the best option would be to replace my existing duct work to the same layout, with patching up the current ductwork as a good alternative, but we’ll see if any of those other companies agree.
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Jan 25, 2020 21:19
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I also like option 2 if the duct work is actually serviceable and just needs sealing and insulation. This option improves efficiency overall and will yield long term benefits. That being said, where is the air handler/furnace located and how old is it? If it's in the attic or the duct work needs further work later, I guarantee that the installers will not respect your fresh blown insulation while doing their work.
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Jan 26, 2020 01:12
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angryrobots posted:I also like option 2 if the duct work is actually serviceable and just needs sealing and insulation. This option improves efficiency overall and will yield long term benefits. It is indeed in the attic with the current ducts. You raise a good point and I agree... I’m currently mulling over the idea of actually just running new ducts myself before it heats up again this year. The material isn’t that expensive, and I’d probably still have plenty in my budget to let Company 2 come in after (at a cheaper price, since they won’t have to wrap ducts anymore) and fill my attic with good insulation. However, if I were to let Company 2 handle it overall, how can I be sure that the old ductwork isn’t full of dust, crushed down, etc? I was told by one person that, unless done very carefully, attempting to salvage the existing ducts would just lead to crushed sections and wasted time. Any thoughts on that? Gin_Rummy fucked around with this message at 01:21 on Jan 26, 2020 |
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Jan 26, 2020 01:18
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Gin_Rummy posted:It is indeed in the attic with the current ducts. You raise a good point and I agree... I’m currently mulling over the idea of actually just running new ducts myself before it heats up again this year. The material isn’t that expensive, and I’d probably still have plenty in my budget to let Company 2 come in after (at a cheaper price, since they won’t have to wrap ducts anymore) and fill my attic with good insulation. If you're willing to do the hard part (ductwork) then you can 100% diy the insulation blowing. Your ducting and furnace may well be on their way out. You need to find people who are willing to explain why in clear terms. "it's 30 years old" is actually somewhat valid, but they should be able to speak to the why it matters. Old stuff was wildly inefficient and might actually be hot to the touch under normal operation (though that seems dangerous.)
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Jan 26, 2020 01:25
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I'm moving out of an apartment. I had installed a nest thermostat and im going to put the old one back. The old one has a jumper cables between RH and RC - which terminal should I put the red wire from the furnace in to? Only R and W wires from the furnace
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Jan 26, 2020 16:49
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If there is a jumper between them it doesn't matter. RH/RC is a legacy thing from when heat and cool used separate power supplies.
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Jan 26, 2020 18:16
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Gin_Rummy posted:Hey HVAC experts, can any of you help guide me through the process of fixing my A/C woes? Former North Texan here. Option 2 sounds like the most honest company, and I can speak from personal experience that adding a bunch of insulation helps a ton. Doing so got the AC (a 5 ton unit) to actually maintain temp all day, though it still ran most of the day. Before that, the house would get up to 80+ during the day. It can maintain 70 all day now (parents still live there), and it actually cycles occasionally. It's a lost cause if you turn it up at all during the day when you're gone, unless you come back after the sun has gone down, but it'll maintain as long as you give it a head start before the sun comes up. Electric bill went down a bit, gas bill in the winter went way down. Adding some attic ventilation helps a lot too, if that's an option.
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Jan 26, 2020 19:50
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So two questions for you all: Background: When we had the compressor and furnace replaced this fall, we also had them add in two extra returns to help with the noise at the main return and seeing doors close, etc., due to pressure differential. The main return is right outside our master bedroom in the hallway, and we added one return to our master bedroom and the other to another room toward the front of the house that sees sun the whole day, etc, in the hope that adding the return would help with heat issues during the summer. The returns definitely helped, but it also seems like the return at the far room isn't having the effect we were expecting. My guess is that between the short run of the return in our bedroom to the furnace compared to the longer run (probably at least 3x) to the far room, most of the return air is coming from the main return + our bedroom return. So question 1) I'm thinking to first try putting in a higher MER filter in the return in our bedroom, so that maybe the far return becomes more preferential since the static pressure drop would be less. Question 2) The filters that they gave us that we've been using since the replacement, are very basic non-pleated type. What does everyone on here generally recommend? Thanks!
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Jan 27, 2020 08:45
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Do you have balancing dampers in the supply ducts to each vent? You may without even knowing it, and they might need adjusting. Normally the balancing is done with the supply ducts not the returns, and the returns just need to be big enough.
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Jan 27, 2020 12:19
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