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Has anyone put in a Mr Cool diy; and how stupid am I for even entertaining it.
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Aug 9, 2022 01:34
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devicenull posted:Good for you! And good that the builder is coming back after 8 years to fix this! Yeah got a call from the insulation company who will come this friday. I was nervous and in a hurry last week. I was worried maybe they'd be assholes about this and try and stiff me so I was thinking I had a long fight ahead of me. So I went bought a bunch of insulation last week (just 100 euros worth) for the pipes and wrapped them with an extra 100mm of fiberglass insulation, just incase. So I will have that 100mm of insulation around the pipes + blown in insulation on top. Should be really well insulated now. Winter's gonna be interesting... I already did some measurements and this morning it was 7C outside, checked the temps for outgoing and ingoing air post heat exchanger and it's 89% efficient now, what a jump from 60%
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Aug 9, 2022 11:28
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I just reinstalled my window A/C and I did it ALL BY MYSELF!  And it only took me three trips to Home Depot. Do I need to worry about caulking the gaps between the A/C and the window to prevent air leakage? Or is that major overkill? Right now it seems to be cooling pretty well — better than it did before, in fact. I. M. Gei fucked around with this message at 00:19 on Aug 11, 2022 |
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Aug 11, 2022 00:15
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Dont use caulk for that, use foam tape. Way easier to replace or remove.
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Aug 11, 2022 02:45
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I. M. Gei posted:I just reinstalled my window A/C and I did it ALL BY MYSELF! Three rounds down to one 
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Aug 11, 2022 03:01
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freeasinbeer posted:Has anyone put in a Mr Cool diy; and how stupid am I for even entertaining it. I did, it was fine. I used the Southwire calculator to determine the gauge wire I needed for a sub panel, but it'll work for just a wiring connection, just use the right amperage. I watched a bunch of videos, it was fairly straightforward, though the extra coils of lineset look a little goofy. I think my posts are in the electrical thread? I put it in the garage, it keeps it at 60 in the winter and 80 in the summer. It works a lot better after I insulated the garage ceiling. Any specific questions? I think I was all in around $2200, with the unit being ~$1500. I got lucky with finding a bundle of 6ga wire cheap, and I put in a sub panel.
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Aug 12, 2022 01:43
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MRC48B posted:Dont use caulk for that, use foam tape. Way easier to replace or remove. Should I cover the curtain guide area with foam too? The A/C came with some when I first bought it.
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Aug 12, 2022 19:23
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Any gaps to outside need to be sealed with foam tape. FWIW my window unit also came with (adhesive-backed) foam board that goes over the slide out sides.
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Aug 14, 2022 02:53
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I just moved into a new house with all electric baseboards in every room. They are mostly original 1938, and have been painted white. I have taken them off to paint the walls, and feel I should replace them, mostly because they are ugly from being painted. Is there any kind of improvements for baseboards? They are just resistors, so it doesn't seem that anything other than the cheapest/whatever looks find at home depot would be better. Searching on the internet seems to say that hydronic ones are better/more efficient, but I havent figured out how adding mass to the resistor makes it more efficient. I guess the idea is that the energy stays in the oil instead of venting out of the room? I realize that best course of action is probably just screw the old ones back onto the wall, so that might happen in some of the rooms.
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Aug 16, 2022 19:19
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blindjoe posted:I havent figured out how adding mass to the resistor makes it more efficient. I guess the idea is that the energy stays in the oil instead of venting out of the room?
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Aug 16, 2022 19:27
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Relevant Technology Connections video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-jmSjy2ArM The tl;dw version is simply that for resistive heaters, wattage is all that matters. The amount of power they take in is the amount of heat they put out.
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Aug 16, 2022 20:06
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That channel is delightful, thanks for sharing.
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Aug 16, 2022 20:51
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So that's what it used to look like: And after last night (promised last friday but there were problems with the blower)  Now that's looking more like what it should. Will be interesting once winter's here...
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Aug 17, 2022 05:18
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His Divine Shadow posted:So that's what it used to look like: So a question from someone with no clue about attics. Is it bad that all the joists and ductwork are completely covered now? What happens if work needs done up there? We’ve got one of our ac units in the attic but otherwise it looks like your first picture. The insulation is old and this will be our first winter, so I have no idea how good the insulation still is. However, I’d be hesitant to put blown insulation in my attic just because the AC unit is up there and I’m not sure how that would affect maintenance, etc.
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Aug 17, 2022 10:56
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You'd have to dig it away basically in order to get at stuff and try and put it back later. But we can access the guts of our HRV unit from the mud room. It's just ducts up there, all the electronics are inside. It's also a super simple unit, rotary heat exchanger, belt drive, simple fans that I already changed the bearing in one fan on. Don't think blown in insulation gets much different with age unless it gets wet. It'll settle some.
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Aug 17, 2022 12:26
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nwin posted:So a question from someone with no clue about attics. I’ve had a bunch of contractors complain about this and try to steer me towards batts (guys are going to falling through the ceiling!). And I don’t get it really—60 seconds with a snow shovel maybe? Also if your guys are falling through my ceiling fire them because they’re idiots?
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Aug 17, 2022 12:31
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It's lantern fly season in Philadelphia and that means they get into your cooling tower 40 stories up and the meat rots but the exoskeleton and wings stick around to clog your strainer. We have a shutdown to replace a leaking 1.5" takeoff so I am doing some PMs before we start filling.
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Aug 17, 2022 13:55
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the poi posted:Also if your guys are falling through my ceiling fire them because they’re
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Aug 17, 2022 16:15
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meatpimp posted:Finally got the quote from Trane. Resolution: I ended up getting another couple quotes and almost all of them said 4 ton was fine for my existing ductwork. I ended up going with a single-stage variable speed furnace and a 2 stage AC unit. Went with Goodman and got a 10 year parts and labor warranty with a lifetime warranty on the compressor. I also found in my research the Reme Halo LED air purifier that combines UV light with some type of hydrogen peroxide generator to clean and remove odors from the air. Everyone I've asked said it's top of the mark right now. We'll see... they are installing next Monday.
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Aug 17, 2022 17:39
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EVERYWHERE 
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How much are you paying if you don't mind sharing?
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Aug 17, 2022 18:26
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skipdogg posted:How much are you paying if you don't mind sharing? 4 ton AC / 100k btu furnace (2 stage, I didn't notice that at first), with 10 year parts and labor and lifetime compressor warranty, including 4" filter, humidifier and Reme LED was $11.2k. From what I've seen, that's price competitive, Carrier and Trane would be about $14.5k for the same spec.
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Aug 17, 2022 21:53
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UV lights are usually worthless, but the ozone ionizers do work. NC Wyeth Death Cult posted:It's lantern fly season in Philadelphia and that means they get into your cooling tower 40 stories up and the meat rots but the exoskeleton and wings stick around to clog your strainer. We have a shutdown to replace a leaking 1.5" takeoff so I am doing some PMs before we start filling. mmm. crunchy.
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Aug 17, 2022 23:29
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I am playing a stupid game with my downstairs air handler. About a week and a half ago when we were on vacation, I saw that the Ecobee attached to it had gone offline. We got home and I found that the air handler itself was unpowered (the heartbeat light on it was not blinking like normal). The breaker had not tripped, and when I flipped the cutoff switch off and back on it came back on. A few minutes later it shut down again. I flipped the cutoff switch a second time and this time the control board stayed on for about a day before shutting down - heat/cool were off during this time so the blower and such were not actually running at any point. I got an HVAC guy to come look at the system when we got back from vacation on Thursday. He claimed that he was seeing only 80V on the circuit from the distribution panel, but I didn't see his meter to independently verify that measurement. The breaker in the panel was mislabeled as BOILER so he didn't find which breaker the air handler was attached to - I figured it out after he left. That circuit doesn't actually seem to be attached to the HWH in any way, so it seems to exclusively be servicing the air handler. He told me I needed to find an electrician, which I've been trying to do since then, but finding an available electrician in North Jersey has been impossible for the last several months (been trying to hire one for reasons unrelated to this problem). Last night it seemed to be working okay and the A/C was running when it shut off again. I decided to begin investigating the problem in more depth myself. I was somewhat suspicious of the condensate pump because I hadn't heard it running in a while. The wiring inside the air handler is shown below:  The white Romex on top is from the breaker panel, the black cable below that has the wires that go to the condensate pump. The wires that run off to the left are the ones for the air handler. There are no other wires running to the condensate pump. The condensate pump tank was quite full, which added to my suspicion that it was not working properly and was responsible for these shenanigans somehow. I unwired and removed the condensate pump, emptied the tank, cleaned the internals as best I could, and hooked everything back up. When I turned the breaker back on, the air handler did not show any power to the control board at all. I removed the condensate pump from the circuit entirely but same result. At this point I'm pretty confused. I don't have a voltmeter or even a voltage detector pen at the moment, though I plan to get one, but messing around with live 120VAC to test voltages is at the edge of what I'm comfortable doing. We have a sump pit now so what I'd like to do is just remove the condensate pump entirely and run tubing into the sump pit to drain the condensate, but I am perplexed by these compounding weird electricity issues.
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Aug 20, 2022 15:31
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chutwig posted:I am playing a stupid game with my downstairs air handler. About a week and a half ago when we were on vacation, I saw that the Ecobee attached to it had gone offline. We got home and I found that the air handler itself was unpowered (the heartbeat light on it was not blinking like normal). The breaker had not tripped, and when I flipped the cutoff switch off and back on it came back on. A few minutes later it shut down again. I flipped the cutoff switch a second time and this time the control board stayed on for about a day before shutting down - heat/cool were off during this time so the blower and such were not actually running at any point. Is there anything else attached to the drain line that has wires on it? A common issue would be an overflow switch that trips and interrupts power to the thermostat. This might be part of the condensate pump, but it might also be a separate device that's attached to the drain line somewhere. You're definitely going to need a multimeter to continue any further - even if you don't want to touch the 120v coming in, you can start to look at the low voltage control wiring to try and rule out an issue. If you get a multimeter that has alligator clips you can safely confirm the incoming voltage by attaching them, turning on the breaker, and then looking at what it says, while also not touching any part of it.
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Aug 20, 2022 15:38
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devicenull posted:Is there anything else attached to the drain line that has wires on it? A common issue would be an overflow switch that trips and interrupts power to the thermostat. This might be part of the condensate pump, but it might also be a separate device that's attached to the drain line somewhere. I just came home from Lowe’s with a few things including a non contact voltage sensor. When I turned the breaker on, it detected voltage on the side between the breaker and cutoff switch but nothing after the cutoff (or too low to detect). So, uh, that switch seems like a good place to start.
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Aug 20, 2022 16:27
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lol if your problem is a 75 cent light switch.
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Aug 20, 2022 16:49
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MRC48B posted:lol if your problem is a 75 cent light switch. It would totally explain the symptoms. Bonus points if it's just backstabs on the switch going bad.
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Aug 20, 2022 18:23
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Motronic posted:It would totally explain the symptoms. Bonus points if it's just backstabs on the switch going bad. It looks like some part of the old switch had started to slowly overheat/melt over time:  If backstabbing is what the Internet tells me it is, the wires on the switch were all anchored to the screws; I don't know why that little piece of copper wire at the far end of the switch is protruding from the back like that. I replaced it with a new switch and the air handler came right on.
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Aug 20, 2022 19:07
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lol. So it used to be backstabbed, that stopped working and somebody just put it on the screw terminals without replacing the already-heat-damaged switch. Nice job. Even if this wasn't the problem (it probably was) it was definitely A problem.
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Aug 20, 2022 19:09
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chutwig posted:It looks like some part of the old switch had started to slowly overheat/melt over time: That explains the 80v the HVAC guy saw, but it's weird he didn't bother to check the switch. Swapping a switch like that should be well within their abilities.
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Aug 20, 2022 20:38
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New HVAC system installed tomorrow... so I'm setting the thermostat to about 64* tonight to try to blow the thing up. It won't die, but it's my last chance to kill it naturally.
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Aug 21, 2022 21:06
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meatpimp posted:4 ton AC / 100k btu furnace (2 stage, I didn't notice that at first), with 10 year parts and labor and lifetime compressor warranty, including 4" filter, humidifier and Reme LED was $11.2k. From what I've seen, that's price competitive, Carrier and Trane would be about $14.5k for the same spec. FWIW my parents dropped over $15k on a Daikin 5 ton system. Variable speed fan with 2 stage gas furnace and straight AC, 4" filter, some kind of air purifier, communicating thermostat, some duct rework. Thermostat refuses to connect to the internet, app for it has solid 1 star reviews (all pretty much for the same reason, thermostat itself won't connect to 99% of routers apparently), turns into a single stage and runs flat out with any other thermostat. 
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Aug 22, 2022 01:27
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STR posted:FWIW my parents dropped over $15k on a Daikin 5 ton system. Variable speed fan with 2 stage gas furnace and straight AC, 4" filter, some kind of air purifier, communicating thermostat, some duct rework. They paid for that? Because until you see it working properly it sounds a whole lot like the installers problem. Edit: or it works fine with their thermostat it just has the added feature of not connecting to the internet?
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Aug 22, 2022 02:44
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Last week my a/c broke and I had it replaced yesterday. My new system is working, but the noise of the air moving through two of the ceiling vents seems very loud. All vents are fully open. If I remove the vents the noise goes away completely, so I'm sure there isn't anything wrong with the system itself. I've searched online for "quiet vents" but have come up empty handed. I'm pretty sure this fan is blowing harder and created more noise. both systems were 3 ton with heat pump, but the new system is a Lennox brand, 16 seer instead of 12, and is a two phase system. The previous system was carrier brand, about 20 years old and used the old refrigerant. total area being cooled is a bit under 1700 square feet. Any suggestions on reducing the noise? I think it is only loud with it's second phase. It's fine except for the afternoons when it is trying to cool down, and then it blows hard and loud for about 2 hours. Also, when the installers came out they said they had to remove my google thermostat because it would not work with the new system, but I don't see anything online saying it would not be compatible. I don't care to much but we only had the thermostat for two months so it feels like a shame to throw it away already.
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Aug 24, 2022 22:58
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Looch posted:Last week my a/c broke and I had it replaced yesterday. My new system is working, but the noise of the air moving through two of the ceiling vents seems very loud. All vents are fully open. If I remove the vents the noise goes away completely, so I'm sure there isn't anything wrong with the system itself. I've searched online for "quiet vents" but have come up empty handed. I'm pretty sure this fan is blowing harder and created more noise. They did you a favor. It might still be returnable if you have the box, or sell it on Facebook marketplace. Ask the installers about the noise. The may have changed up something in your ductwork that we can't diagnose here. Is the new forced air unit (the blower itself) higher cfm?
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Aug 24, 2022 23:17
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H110Hawk posted:They did you a favor. It might still be returnable if you have the box, or sell it on Facebook marketplace. The new blower is up to 1150 from what I can tell in the manual, but I don't have any information from the old one anymore. I called the installers and they'll come out in a few weeks and take a look to see if they need to adjust something. I'll keep my fingers crossed they can figure something out.
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Aug 26, 2022 22:09
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H110Hawk posted:They paid for that? Because until you see it working properly it sounds a whole lot like the installers problem. The latter. It works fine, the thermostat just won't do the internet. I got it to connect long enough to download a firmware update (and it pretty much wouldn't let you bypass it, couldn't even change the temp once the update notice popped up), and it hasn't been able to connect to their router since.
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Aug 28, 2022 22:27
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STR posted:The latter. It works fine, the thermostat just won't do the internet. I got it to connect long enough to download a firmware update (and it pretty much wouldn't let you bypass it, couldn't even change the temp once the update notice popped up), and it hasn't been able to connect to their router since. Ugh gently caress that. (The thermostat should fulfill its primary purpose first and foremost, deal with the internet/firmware as a tertiary thing. Unless it literally has a bug that can cause the compressor to physically break.)
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Aug 29, 2022 04:39
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Soooo, anyone work/operate commercial low-pressure boilers? What kind of lead time are you getting with treatment and testing chemicals?
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Aug 29, 2022 13:00
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Steam or water? I haven’t seen any issues getting chemicals lately.
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Aug 29, 2022 15:47
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