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horse_ebookmarklet posted:Yeah on the disclosure they mentioned the house flooded about 3 inches in the basement. They installed a pump in the ducts, installed a second pump in the sump pit, regraded the yard, and removed the basement walkout the water came in. The whole block flooded, the city came in and provided home owners with tie ins to the municipal storm sewer for discharge of sump water. I hadn't heard of this before, at first I was concerned it was an illegal connection. Yea, one of those pumps you linked is definitely the right idea. They probably just went "well there's a sump pump, just dump the water down there". I would 100% cap them. For the actual registers, I'd just dump a bunch of spray foam down them. For the inlets near the furnace, try to find a sheet metal cap that fits on, and caulk/mastic it in place. Note that under-slab ducts may be transite (asbestos), so avoid cutting anything that isn't metal. I'd wait a couple months after capping them before doing any sort of radon testing... if you don't already know you have a problem, it could very well be because those are uncapped.
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Sep 22, 2023 00:51
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devicenull posted:Yea, one of those pumps you linked is definitely the right idea. They probably just went "well there's a sump pump, just dump the water down there". Ok so I got around to this project. There was a ton of water sitting down in that hole. A ton. Looked murky and gross. First, I had to swap the furnace switch to a switch+outlet combo. I think it went fine, both the furnace and pump work. Donno if its an issue but the conduit seems to be the ground in this circuit, weird old house stuff?  Second, I ran the condensate line (clear tube to right) outside to where the sumps tie into the municipal storm sewer. I still gotta put some silicon sealant goop around the holes.  Third, setup the pump. I ran a couple liters of water through it, seems to work fine.  Three questions: Does this look correctly done? Is the clear PVC outside in direct sun light going to be a problem? I don't care about discoloring. I only thought of this after finishing everything and securing the line in the ceiling and walls. Do I worry about winterizing this thing? We get hard winters, -40F is possible. Blow compressed air into the line from inside? Run non-toxic polypropylene glycol through the pump? I got a radon guy who claims to do in slab mitigation all the time.... we will see what the next steps are depending on test results.
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Sep 23, 2023 22:02
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Yea, that clear plastic tubing will eventually decay in the sun. At least it's in a place where it won't flood your breaker panel (unlike mine). Anything you can do to keep the sun off it will help, something like this would work: https://www.homedepot.com/p/HYDROMA...2100x/311572606 Unless your basement gets to below freezing, you shouldn't have to worry about it. Just make sure the pipe is pitched so that any water on the inside is within the area that doesn't freeze.
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Sep 24, 2023 00:13
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I'd like to replace my 20+ year old gas furnace before it fails. The tree hugger in me wants to replace it with a heat pump, but I'm not sure whether to try to use my existing ductwork and registers or go whole-house ductless. I already have a newer AC unit (R-410A, but only 13 SEER) which makes the decision feel more complicated since it doesn't really need replacing. The downstairs naturally stays cool in the summer, it only needs to come on in the later part of hot days. I grew up in a warm climate so I am more concerned with having good heating and not feeling too guilty about using it. I'm also not sure whether I need gas or electric backup heat (if I use the ducts). I have a newer wood stove in the living room, but I don't want to require that it be used to make the space comfortable. I have portable electric heaters for guests, pets, etc. Living in the PNW, my impression is that if I get an extended capacity unit I probably won't need backup heat. The house is 3br, about 1,600 sqft with old leaky windows and was built in 1979. Of that, 330 sqft is a bonus room above the garage which has a separate window rattler AC and in-wall forced air electric heat, another problem I'd like to address. So far I've had four contractors out and only two have wanted to go up into the (unconditioned) attic where the existing furnace and AC are. Of those, one told me the static pressure in my ducts was a bit high but happily quoted me a variety of options (including replacing the gas furnace). The other one told me that there isn't enough clearance around the existing furnace to be permitted (and that it was installed wrong) and politely told me that he hated my ductwork and the idea of having to do any work in my cramped attic. He proposed the whole-house ductless approach, which I hadn't thought a lot about. Ductless would also solve the bonus room problem, since it just becomes another zone. I went into this thinking I might replace the furnace in the downstairs and put a mini split in the bonus room. But now after reading up on the Mitsubishi Hyper Heat system he proposed I am intrigued (23 SEER, COP of up to 4, pretty impressive). Of course, I would have to decide how many heads and where they can go. He wants to run the lines via the crawl space and then straight up exterior walls. In exchange for a huge pile of cash I would get zones, high efficiency, and the whole system would be easier to maintain since everything with moving parts would be easily accessible. I don't feel attached to my ducts, and I know they are less efficient even in ideal conditions, but punching a bunch of holes in my foundation and running lines up the outside walls and having to regularly clean indoor units also feels like a tradeoff. I'd also be giving up a place to do filtration and bring in outside air, right? Which might become more desirable if/when I replace my windows (which may be a while since I'm not made of money). Then of course there's the question of sizing. None of the contractors did a Manual J (as far as I know), and mostly recommended equipment that matched the rating of the existing furnace (60k). So I did a DIY Manual J using coolcalc.net and it said I needed 37k of heating. Which happened to match what the Mitsubishi guy proposed. If I go by what my old furnace was, that could be undersized. But maybe replacing the windows would be enough to offset that. The 42k unit is $3k more, and possibly oversized (?). Sorry for the long post but if you can't tell by now I've gone from never thinking about when and how to spend this kind of money to obsessing about it for the last month. I'd appreciate any thoughts people might have about how to make these decisions, how much I should be spending, etc.
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Sep 29, 2023 19:20
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I'm not reading all that but I would just reuse your ducts unless you REALLY want to set money on fire for no reason running lines to every room. Look at it as reduce / reuse / recycle.
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Sep 29, 2023 20:03
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Got a new HVAC system installed this summer, and when I turned on the heat this evening (which I think I've only done a few times), I noticed that it was super loud. A little louder than my old pre-replacement unit, and waaaay louder than the very quiet A/C I've been enjoying this summer. After giving it a while to see if it would quiet down and observing that it wasn't doing so, I went into the garage and noticed that it was also making a whistling sound. I also noticed a black circle on the wall next to the unit that wasn't there pre-installation. I don't go into the garage much so I'm not sure if that's something that's accumulated slowly over time or if that's all from the hour or so that I was running the heat. June picture from right before the replacement:  Quick video from tonight, please excuse my weird frantic camerawork (I've very sleep-deprived after travelling like 18 hours today to get home from Tokyo): https://i.imgur.com/2FhW84G.mp4 Anyway, I'm assuming something there's a leak or something hosed up with the insulation for that pipe in the front of the unit causing both the whistling and (what I'm guessing is) wall soot. Does that make sense? This should all be under warranty still so I'm gonna call the HVAC company tomorrow, but I'd love to get a second opinion from folks here on if my assumption here is oversimplifying what could be multiple problems. I don't super trust the HVAC company unfortunately. Thank you for any expertise you can provide! edit: okay the sound option isn't appearing on that embedded version of the video, but if you right-click and pick "Open video in new tab" you can toggle the sound on from there to hear the uneven whistling. surf rock fucked around with this message at 03:09 on Oct 1, 2023 |
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Oct 1, 2023 02:59
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Uh, wall soot? Is it soot or scorching? Either way - not good. I would go so far as to say it's bad. Take some clear pictures and wipe it once with a wet rag. Make sure it's soot (surface) and not scorch (the wall burning.) Soot is pollution you should be shooting out of the exhaust into the atmosphere (but probably shouldn't be making much of in the first place) and scorching is a unplug it problem.
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Oct 1, 2023 03:52
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nothing in that video should be making soot-- it looks like an air handler with resistive backup heat. Black particulate matter escaping from the refrigeration entry hole is not normal. If you can live without it tonight, I'd cut the power if you can't find a good explanation. It's possible the installers scorched the wall when brazing that connection-- if you don't see or feel heat escaping that hole, that's a reasonable explanation.
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Oct 1, 2023 04:12
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Qwijib0 posted:It's possible the installers scorched the wall when brazing that connection-- if you don't see or feel heat escaping that hole, that's a reasonable explanation. In regards to the noise, I have no idea. I don't think you have anything moving in there except for the blower motor, which should be making the same sounds regardless of a heat or cool call, unless maybe it's a variable speed setup or something. The whistling just sounds like air escaping from small cracks and seams, which is not uncommon in my experience. I took some heat-rated HVAC foil tape and taped over some on my unit. SpartanIvy fucked around with this message at 15:06 on Oct 1, 2023 |
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Oct 1, 2023 15:01
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Okay, y'all were right about the brazing and the whistling sound being a little air gap. Unfortunately, the loud noise is the result of my heat pump having been replaced with an AC-only unit. Apparently it has a 10 kw backup electric heater and that's it. I'm extremely excited to see if the HVAC company makes it right or tells me that I should've investigated the invoice more closely or whatever and tells me to gently caress off. 
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Oct 2, 2023 16:43
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Why was it replaced originally? What do you have in writing?
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Oct 2, 2023 17:06
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It entirely depends on what your invoice says and I hope it says heat pump on it because you're in a tough spot otherwise.
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Oct 2, 2023 17:48
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surf rock posted:I'm extremely excited to see if the HVAC company makes it right or tells me that I should've investigated the invoice more closely or whatever and tells me to gently caress off. I assure you the HVAC company would have been happy to sell you a more expensive piece of equipment. This is either what you unknowingly (or don't remember) chose or there was a mistake/equipment substitution on their part which they should make right because your invoice will be clearly for a heat pump unit.
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Oct 2, 2023 17:50
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Motronic posted:I assure you the HVAC company would have been happy to sell you a more expensive piece of equipment. This is either what you unknowingly (or don't remember) chose or there was a mistake/equipment substitution on their part which they should make right because your invoice will be clearly for a heat pump unit. You might be surprised. I floated the idea of upgrading my AC to a heatpump unit when it eventually dies to my last HVAC contractor that was doing some duct work for me, and he flat out said they don't install heatpump units at all. They only install AC+Gas Furnace setups. However, I imagine no HVAC contractor would install an AC unit with ONLY the resistive heating backup without specifically clearing it with the homeowner first. So I'm hoping the non-heatpump unit was an oversight.
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Oct 2, 2023 18:27
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Okay, fortunately they are going to replace it with the heat pump. The invoice actually did say A/C, but it was a copy/paste error by the sales rep and they admitted as much. Apparently it was also registered in their inventory system as me receiving the heat pump version, which I'm sure helped my case. Thank loving Christ.
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Oct 2, 2023 18:27
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surf rock posted:Okay, fortunately they are going to replace it with the heat pump. That's great news! Your HVAC contractor is more honest than my last one, which had a very hard "if it's not verbatim on the invoice then gently caress you" policy.
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Oct 2, 2023 18:30
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surf rock posted:Okay, fortunately they are going to replace it with the heat pump. Unfortunate circumstance, great outcome handled well by the company. This is the kind of company you keep around and tell everyone else about.
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Oct 2, 2023 18:43
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Motronic posted:Unfortunate circumstance, great outcome handled well by the company. This is the kind of company you keep around and tell everyone else about. All. Day. Write them every review they want. (leave out the exact details but include that there was a mistake that they immediately and completely fixed without any arguing.) Congratulations. I'm impressed there was enough electricity to install a 10kw resistive heater. My 5ton heat pump only has 20a @ 240v at the "inside" unit. That's not even 5kw.
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Oct 2, 2023 20:10
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yeah if they fix it with zero weaseling, uh, keep em.
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Oct 2, 2023 22:57
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H110Hawk posted:I'm not reading all that but I would just reuse your ducts unless you REALLY want to set money on fire for no reason running lines to every room. Look at it as reduce / reuse / recycle. I've decided I want to reuse my ducts for a variety of reasons. Turns out ducted/ductless costs about the same, but ducts have fewer mechanical points of failure / things to keep clean. When it comes to picking a contractor, should I be concerned that nobody talks about doing a heat load calculation? They all ask for square footage. Should I be insisting that they do it and show me their work? I did my own Manual J using coolcalc.net but I don't trust it because I have never done this before. My gas furnace is supposedly 61k and coolcalc says I need 37k so I don't know what to believe.
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Oct 4, 2023 02:25
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Converting the registers in my house from baseboard to floor for aesthetic preference as my first DIY HVAC job. Bad idea? Waste of time? We are having the carpet removed and hardwood floor installed in the coming months so this is my chance.
kreeningsons fucked around with this message at 03:06 on Oct 6, 2023 |
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Oct 6, 2023 02:56
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Keep the surface area approximately the same and it should be fine.
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Oct 6, 2023 03:17
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Not sure if anyone remembers my home warranty HVAC saga from December22/Jan23 - but thanks to whomever suggested I file a license complaint. Got my refund check dropped in the mail today!
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Oct 6, 2023 14:09
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BonoMan posted:Not sure if anyone remembers my home warranty HVAC saga from December22/Jan23 - but thanks to whomever suggested I file a license complaint. Got my refund check dropped in the mail today!  The wheels of government grind slowly but I'm glad it sounds like they have ground over this company for you. Hopefully the check is both in the mail, addressed to you, and does not bounce when deposited.
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Oct 9, 2023 00:48
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I have an interesting situation that I'm hoping this crowd has some suggestions on. Recently moved into a new house (1960s build). There is a laundry chute from the second floor to the basement. Shown below, the ducting has become disjointed so dropping clothes is no longer an option (unless you want it to disappear into the wall). Can anyone think how I can get this realigned without ripping apart drywall on the first floor? The misalignment is about six feet down from the top of the chute. My only thought so far is to drop some kind of liner down the chute, attached at the top, to act as a sort of bypass sleeve.
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Oct 9, 2023 22:36
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SirPablo posted:I have an interesting situation that I'm hoping this crowd has some suggestions on. Recently moved into a new house (1960s build). There is a laundry chute from the second floor to the basement. Shown below, the ducting has become disjointed so dropping clothes is no longer an option (unless you want it to disappear into the wall). Can anyone think how I can get this realigned without ripping apart drywall on the first floor? The misalignment is about six feet down from the top of the chute. My only thought so far is to drop some kind of liner down the chute, attached at the top, to act as a sort of bypass sleeve. Drywall is meant to be cut and patched. You will not get this realigned AND clipped back together without doing that.
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Oct 9, 2023 22:52
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SirPablo posted:I have an interesting situation that I'm hoping this crowd has some suggestions on. Recently moved into a new house (1960s build). There is a laundry chute from the second floor to the basement. Shown below, the ducting has become disjointed so dropping clothes is no longer an option (unless you want it to disappear into the wall). Can anyone think how I can get this realigned without ripping apart drywall on the first floor? The misalignment is about six feet down from the top of the chute. My only thought so far is to drop some kind of liner down the chute, attached at the top, to act as a sort of bypass sleeve. Do you have a small child you can lower into the chute?
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Oct 10, 2023 00:08
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You're going to need about 6ft of semi rigid plastic tubing and 2 cans of "great stuff".
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Oct 10, 2023 00:11
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I haven't cleaned the heat exchanger in my oil furnace (been here 5 years) and it was doing some hard starting during the coldest parts of last year. Threw the meter on it and couldn't get it any better than this, Ahhhhhh!!! Cleaned the exchanger.....pretty sure it got all crapped up when I had a clogged fuel filter early last season. Lots of garbage to vacuum out, which I was particularly avoiding because I don't have the right vacuum for it but a shop vac bag + hepa filter seems to have done the job just fine (the right vac costs about $800). I also found that one of the clean out plugs was broken and leaking. Someone (I know who....not Gary this time) broke the bolt and "fixed" it buy shoving a smaller nut on the remainder of the broken bolt. They also used putty instead of gaskets. I know the local company that serviced it last and called to ask them exactly what kind of work this was. Lots of apologies but again, this is why I do my own poo poo. At least when I break something I know not only how it happened, but that it did happen. Nicked the "captive bolt" off with the oxy torch and threw a new one in there, welded the head to the back. It's as serviceable as the original part but I'm still going to see if I can get replacements and just put them on the shelf for next time. This seems like it's a $15 part. The proper gaskets were $3.50 each. "While I was in there" I cleaned the chimney with this goddamn torture device: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0946QPDJ5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (seriously it worked well, it's just heavy when you're pushing 30 feet of it up a chimney, but at least I didn't have to get on the roof) It's burning great now, but I still need to do the rest of the annual maintenance regular stuff (nozzle/electrodes/filter), finally replace the barometric damper that loving gary caulked shut (what the hell?) and I'll try to target 12% CO2 more exactly and after a longer run.  I consider this a moderate success for now. And I never did post the whole "installing a steam humidifier" from last year which.......I need to pipe the fresh water supply in permanently when I'm done with this.
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Oct 10, 2023 01:24
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god I am glad I never really had to do oil (except in tech school), so much mess, so little benefit over LP or hot water biomass.
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Oct 10, 2023 01:32
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Yeah, it's a complete mess and we love it in the northeast. This will absolutely be replaced with some manner of heat pump - air source at worst - with second stage propane. Just not quite yet.
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Oct 10, 2023 01:33
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devicenull posted:Do you have a small child you can lower into the chute? Unfortunately the smallest is a bit too large. H110Hawk posted:You're going to need about 6ft of semi rigid plastic tubing and 2 cans of "great stuff". Will check out.
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Oct 10, 2023 01:34
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uh, I'm not sure h110 read that post. if this is for laundry not air, you need to cut yourself an access and physically clip the duct back together. great stuff would only fill the gaps with goop that dries into foam, which still leaves you with a misalignment and snagging problem. or drywall over the accesses and abandon it, modern fire code hates laundry chutes with a passion (they are perfect chimneys)
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Oct 10, 2023 01:39
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Oh I did. Just gotta get it juuuuust right so the clothes don't catch. It was a joke.
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Oct 10, 2023 01:42
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H110Hawk posted:Oh I did. Just gotta get it juuuuust right so the clothes don't catch. It was a joke. :\ MRC48B posted:or drywall over the accesses and abandon it, modern fire code hates laundry chutes with a passion (they are perfect chimneys) This seems like better advice. Looking at current code, the chute is definitely a long ways away from meeting it. Access points are not self closing and even worse, it terminates within three feet of the gas furnace (simply dropping clothing on the floor). Thanks, will just look at closing it up.
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Oct 10, 2023 02:25
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SirPablo posted::\ My house growing up had this exact same arrangement down to the chute dropping right next to the furnace. We had a really big box to drop clothes in to. I loved throwing things down it as a kid. Wish I still had a laundry chute even if code hates it.
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Oct 10, 2023 12:49
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Had an HVAC guy out here to do an annual furnace inspection / maintenance, and he said the inducer motor is going. The furnace is 11 years old and out of warranty. It's a Rheem high efficiency variable speed system. (I can get the model number if it helps) Estimate was $2100 for the inducer motor replacement (generic part) or $2900 (OEM). They also gave me replacement options which ranged from $12k (Lennox ML296UH-090XV48C) to $14.5k (Lennox SLP99UH-090XV36C). Is it just me or are all these prices really high? In my Googling around, I'm seeing significantly lower prices than these from those "what should it cost?" sites. Am I missing something or is this company just a ripoff? Thanks!
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Oct 13, 2023 17:29
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My parents had a furnace installed two years ago for 5k CAD, Lennox 2stage 70k unit unsure of model #. Those prices look like "our schedule is full and so is everyone else's" pricing, but I'm no HVAC expert. Only way to know is to get more quotes from your area.
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Oct 13, 2023 17:40
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I guess the other question would be if I decide to replace the whole thing anyway (TBD), any reason I shouldn't just go with a heat pump? We do get some quite cold weather here (~10 days in the -10 to 0 range with decent winds last year) but we've been thinking about getting a gas fireplace insert anyway and I assume that could pick up the slack on any super cold days? Dr. Eldarion fucked around with this message at 18:12 on Oct 13, 2023 |
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Oct 13, 2023 18:09
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Dr. Eldarion posted:Had an HVAC guy out here to do an annual furnace inspection / maintenance, and he said the inducer motor is going. The furnace is 11 years old and out of warranty. It's a Rheem high efficiency variable speed system. (I can get the model number if it helps) I'm almost 2 decades out of doing any residential stuff so what the gently caress do I know, but that seems like it's in the neighborhood of 10x of what I'd expect the part to cost.
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Oct 13, 2023 19:52
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