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Thanks for the replies! Yeah it seemed... not quite right. They've called me twice since they left a few hours ago too and left messages asking me to call back. The high pressure definitely seems like a red flag. I searched around on a local subreddit and apparently despite them being a large allegedly reputable company with tons of good Google feedback lots of people have had bad experiences especially WRT being overcharged. I have another more well-regarded company comping next week to provide a second opinion on the part and new estimates if it's bad.
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Oct 13, 2023 20:03
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See if you can find someone with a pretty old website but still has a standalone office, that seems to have been the sweet spot I've found locally when trying to find someone to do a big job like this. They're small enough that they're not dumping a ton of money into marketing, but big enough that they've got an office with a desk that you can call, rather than just trying to get a hold of "the guy" while he's out on jobs.
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Oct 13, 2023 20:13
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Dr. Eldarion posted:Yeah it seemed... not quite right. They've called me twice since they left a few hours ago too and left messages asking me to call back. The high pressure definitely seems like a red flag. It's absolutely a red flag, and that part is likely between $250-350 for an OEM one. It will take absolutely no more than 45 minutes to install.
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Oct 13, 2023 22:26
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Is there any middle ground between 'just open a window and let the heat/cold out' and 'full blown centrally installed heat recovery air exchanger' in terms of getting fresh air in the house during winter or the height of summer? Our climate is lovely enough that probably 7-8 months of the year we're either using AC or heat. I'd really like to get some fresh air in the house more often, and CO2 levels get surprisingly high for just two people and a cat living here.
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Oct 14, 2023 01:45
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Rescue Toaster posted:Is there any middle ground between 'just open a window and let the heat/cold out' and 'full blown centrally installed heat recovery air exchanger' in terms of getting fresh air in the house during winter or the height of summer? Our climate is lovely enough that probably 7-8 months of the year we're either using AC or heat. There are several "more economical"* ERV solutions on the market these days, If you own and can cut holes in the wall, there are a few multi fan ERV solutions that might work. If you rent there is some dude who makes window mount erv units out of his garage in wisconsin. I'm actually thinking really hard about buying one for my brother who is in the same boat. *aka less effective
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Oct 14, 2023 01:49
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We don't rent but I don't necessarily want to sink a ton of money into this house right now, as we might be looking at moving in the next year or two. So semi-permanent or lower-impact stuff, even if not as good as full blown central system are worth considering.
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Oct 14, 2023 02:00
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bad news they're all expensive, the window one is 700, http://www.purifresh.com/erv.html the oscillating fan ones are at least 3hundred. ERVs are still a luxury item. open a window.
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Oct 14, 2023 02:06
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Fair enough. Though I'm curious how on earth I could calculate the payoff for something like that compared to opening two windows and letting a breeze blow through my house when it's either 15F, 0% humidity or 88F and 80% humidity outside.
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Oct 14, 2023 02:08
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unless you can specifically measure the temperature, humidity, and volume of air going in and out through that window, you can't. you could guess, but the payoff is likely over 10 years. ERVs make the most financial sense in institutional, commercial and industrial facilities where the amount of fresh air you are bringing in is both a legal requirement, and large.
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Oct 14, 2023 02:13
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We live in a small house and just use the bathroom vent to create negative pressure to bring in fresh air from wherever. Works pretty well for us
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Oct 14, 2023 03:15
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I've got no heat right now and I'm trying to figure out why. The thermostat (Nest, six months old) seems to be communicating with the furnace. The furnace kicks on, but the air it blows out is cold. It's a Carrier Weathermaker 9200 manufactured in 1997, so I know it's at the end of its life, but I was hoping to replace it in the spring when I might have savings again. Any ideas?
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Oct 14, 2023 18:59
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sounds like the furnace isn't heating. do you own and are you capable of using a multi meter? otherwise call someone. edit: sorry that post is basically useless for helping you troubleshoot. you need to dig deeper MRC48B fucked around with this message at 19:31 on Oct 14, 2023 |
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Oct 14, 2023 19:24
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MRC48B posted:sounds like the furnace isn't heating. do you own and are you capable of using a multi meter? otherwise call someone. I'm happy to dig deeper, just tell me where to point the multimeter! I'm mainly annoyed that it worked for the two weeks we had the house in the spring, then we swapped the thermostat and a tech out yesterday to clean everything and now it's not working.
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Oct 14, 2023 19:45
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Call the tech back?
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Oct 14, 2023 19:52
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yeah call his rear end back there. if he touched it yesterday and it doesn't heat today, and he didn't tell you about any issues, its his fault regardless.
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Oct 14, 2023 22:25
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Also throw your nest in the trash before it kills your hvac.
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Oct 16, 2023 02:09
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H110Hawk posted:Also throw your nest in the trash before it kills your hvac. 100% this. It's even entirely possible it's the actual problem here. If you must low effort IoT your thermostat at least get an ecobee.
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Oct 16, 2023 02:11
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H110Hawk posted:Also throw your nest in the trash before it kills your hvac. More details on this? Edit: this I guess? https://www.reddit.com/r/homeautomation/comments/a5tci5/hvac_guy_said_nest_thermostats_are_bad_for/
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Oct 16, 2023 04:46
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MRC48B posted:yeah call his rear end back there. if he touched it yesterday and it doesn't heat today, and he didn't tell you about any issues, its his fault regardless. I can't wait to see him tomorrow, since he also messed with the attached humidifier, which turns out to leak and that was a fun bonus surprise! I'm guessing he's going to use "it's 26 yrs old" to explain why it's no longer heat, though. H110Hawk posted:Also throw your nest in the trash before it kills your hvac. That's on the list as well.
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Oct 16, 2023 05:02
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Dr. Eldarion posted:More details on this? It's some of those thing (I just skimmed) and that Nests use cheap SSRs in the base (solid state relays). They keep saying they've fixed this issue yet it keeps on occurring. A traditional relay is on or off. That's pretty much it outside of very odd mechanical situations - things like burnt contacts that would normally just break the thing outright or physical contamination which should not be happening inside of a sealed device. Most times this results in the relay no longer being able to close the contacts and supply current to the load device. SSRs can break in all kinds of interesting ways. They can break like a traditional relay, they can break so they are always on. They can break so they are passing partial voltage and current. That last one I've watched with my own eyes multiple times. Passing just enough current to make the contactor on an HVAC compressor buzz. Then there is a call for cooling so it closes the Y SSR entirely along with the G. You get cooling, thermostat satisfies, G is released, Y is kinda sorta released back to this buzzing state. It eventually is passing enough current to keep the contactor pulled in. Now you have a refrigeration loop running with no airflow over the evaporator. It freezes the condenser coil, which is potential damage number one. This sends the head pressure skyward. In a good system it will go off on high head pressure even with the contactor pulled in. Then everything in the system stabilizes over the course of an hour or so, contactor is still pulled in, high head pressure switch releases and the cycle repeats - but an hour wasn't enogh to melt the entire evap coil. So as this cycle continues to repeat you're building more and more ice on the evap, which distorts its fins and potentially even the frame its in and the ductwork/case it's in. While hammering your compressor with high head pressure repeatedly. Catch it doing this and most homeowners don't know what to do or if something is even wrong. The once that do think something is wrong at best pull the thermostat off the wall since they knew you could do that because they self installed or whatever. That still doesn't stop it because the failure is in the base. There is no monitoring/supervision of these SSRs by the thermostat so it has no way to alert or do anything when they fail. The customer or someone is eventually advised to turn off the system, deenergizing the SSR and it goes back to a "normal" state, things thaw, maybe it's still okay, turn it back on and everything seem to be "normal" again. Then it isn't, because the SSR reverts to its failed behavior either immediately, after it's first time being energized, or simply randomly. Repeat this high wear/damage cycle multiple times before nest customer service finally sends out a new base. ANY of these SSRs can fail in ways like this and cause all kinds of equipment damage depending on the specific equipment and scenario. I just happened to watch the cooling one with my own eyes on my own equipment and one other setup. There have also been multiple complaints of simply bad/damaging behavior programmed right into the stat - like it's trying to be too clever for its own good and the coders are not knowledgeable enough to know that the things they are doing can damage equipment. To be clear, these issues are completely distinct of the "C wire issue" and can not be resolved by having/adding a C wire. These thermostats are just poorly built overpriced iot junk. Motronic fucked around with this message at 13:56 on Oct 16, 2023 |
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Oct 16, 2023 13:50
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The boiler is dead, long live the boiler: My boiler started leaking and finally had to be replaced. It happened this April, right at the end of heat season. The new one is installed and working great. One question, the new black iron steam pipes sort of smell oily, likely it's the oil from the new pipes. I sent the plumber a message but haven't heard back from him, curious if I can clean them with TSP or something?
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Oct 16, 2023 14:08
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Super-NintendoUser posted:The boiler is dead, long live the boiler: You can clean them with any degreaser. Unpainted black iron pipe is in oiled to prevent corrosion at the end of the manufacturing process. Oil is used to cut threads, etc. Any decent dish soap and hot water with a couple rags you don't care about should do fine. You will not get it all. Some of it is just going to have to "cook off".
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Oct 16, 2023 14:29
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Motronic posted:Nest info Thanks for all the details! That sucks, we've been happy with our Nest and in general all the Google integration. 
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Oct 16, 2023 14:41
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Dr. Eldarion posted:Thanks for all the details! That sucks, we've been happy with our Nest and in general all the Google integration. It's almost like a silicon valley startup that was sold to an internet data collection and adverting company isn't a great place to buy HVAC equipment from. Who would have figured?
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Oct 16, 2023 14:50
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Skimmed the last 20 pages and didn’t see this come up so: Old uninsulated house, want to get a ductless mini split with say 3 zones, ground floor living room/dining room, upstairs office, upstairs master bed. Live in the northeast so 95° days are about the most I currently see. Goal is to cool the rooms I use the most with less energy usage and noise than a window unit in each space. Do I care about brand these days? The reading I’ve done seems to uniformly talk about Mitsubishis as the best of the best but I don’t know that I need cutting edge.
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Oct 17, 2023 17:10
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Can you insulate and air seal first? Or is that out of the question for your construction style? Because that will pay for itself in conditioning costs after one maaaaaaybe two years. Depending on how bad it is literally 1 winter can pay for it in reduced energy bills. Plus insulated houses are quieter and more "cozy".
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Oct 18, 2023 02:29
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How bad is it to switch from the middle of an AC call to a gas heat call? I was messing with my thermostat and accidentally switched it to heat and it took me a few minutes for me to realize it was blowing warm air. It had turned off the AC compressor and fired up the gas furnace pretty quickly and I'm concerned the rapid thermal change on the coil might have damaged it since it was very cold from being in the middle of an AC call. Once I realized what had happened, I turned it immediately off and then switched it to blower-only. Any chance I damaged the coil?
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Oct 18, 2023 03:49
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No its probably fine. Just don't do it as a hobby.
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Oct 18, 2023 13:24
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H110Hawk posted:Can you insulate and air seal first? Or is that out of the question for your construction style? Because that will pay for itself in conditioning costs after one maaaaaaybe two years. Depending on how bad it is literally 1 winter can pay for it in reduced energy bills. To my understanding fixing that in one fell swoop would mean pulling trim and demoing plaster and lathe on nearly all the exterior walls and the (finished) attic ceiling, doing the work (plus whatever else needs done while the walls are open, various electric things and running Pex for the radiators) and buttoning it all up. That seems like more disruption to the livability of the house than I can tolerate if I DIY and out of my budget to pay a guy for. Right now I’ve been insulating spaces as I can make work happen in them, which admittedly is frustratingly slow.
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Oct 18, 2023 13:35
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What's your exterior wall situation? Have you talked to an insulation contractor, or even better, had an energy audit done on your house? We had wall insulation blown into the outer walls from the outside. We have vinyl siding so they were able to peel that back, drill holes in the sheathing, and blow insulation into the walls that way, and then cover the holes and reapply the siding. Zero inside damage. And it all started with a home energy audit, for us done by a partnership between the gas and electricity company.
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Oct 18, 2023 14:37
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FISHMANPET posted:What's your exterior wall situation? Have you talked to an insulation contractor, or even better, had an energy audit done on your house? We had wall insulation blown into the outer walls from the outside. We have vinyl siding so they were able to peel that back, drill holes in the sheathing, and blow insulation into the walls that way, and then cover the holes and reapply the siding. Zero inside damage. And it all started with a home energy audit, for us done by a partnership between the gas and electricity company. Brick on the ground floor and cedar shake up top. I haven't really looked into an audit since there seems to be a lot of obvious stuff to be done. the yeti fucked around with this message at 14:44 on Oct 18, 2023 |
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Oct 18, 2023 14:42
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the yeti posted:Brick on the ground floor and cedar shake up top. You should absolutely be looking at loose fill blown in from the outside.
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Oct 18, 2023 14:50
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Motronic posted:You should absolutely be looking at loose fill blown in from the outside. Word. I had the impression that wasn't a thing for old brick houses but I can certainly look into it.
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Oct 18, 2023 15:00
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It depends, but have someone out to give you a bid - it's free. Your state might even pay you some money to do it. We had our whole house insulated for like $1000 after rebates, but we had an ideal setup for it. You can't even buy a mini split to diy your proposed setup for that much. Or they will say "no your walls are cursed" and you will be out a few hours of time.
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Oct 18, 2023 15:25
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the yeti posted:Word. I had the impression that wasn't a thing for old brick houses but I can certainly look into it. They typically drill a 2-3" hole at the top and bottom of each stud bay. They can core drill the bricks and replace the cores or perhaps even remove bricks and put them back in (you'd likely need a mason to do this for them). They can also do this from the inside but it's messier for you. Patching the plaster is no big deal because it's just small holes. How annoying this will be also depends on if you can match the color/wanted to paint that wall anyway. Anyone doing this work SHOULD be aware of any local energy performance rebates, but it really wouldn't hurt to call your energy provider(s) and see if they offer a free energy audit. While the thing to be done may be "obvious" they can help triage and estimate costs as well as tell you where there are incentives.
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Oct 18, 2023 16:03
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D-D-Double post. I bought a used Fieldpiece MR45 recovery machine real cheap on ebay because it had a smashed display. I filled out the request form on Fieldpiece's site to ask for a part number/price/ordering info. They just sent me one for free. Showed up today and the machine is back at 100%. That's how you do customer service and keep people buying and talking up your gear.
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Oct 18, 2023 17:19
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Motronic posted:D-D-Double post. Hell yeah. I dream of getting a set of gauges, a recovery machine, and other tools and experimenting with heat pump systems for fun. It seems like there's tons of potential tinkering fun in heat pumps and you can pick up old fridges and window AC units for nothing.
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Oct 18, 2023 17:31
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Motronic posted:D-D-Double post. Some guys sneer at fieldpiece because the plastic they use makes their stuff feel like Fisher price toys, but every thing ive bought from them has been quality poo poo.
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Oct 18, 2023 21:44
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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) Update on this: I had a new guy from the reddit-recommended company come out. He said the noise that the inducer motor was making is totally normal, and the only thing needing attention soon is a capacitor. $340 replacement. He also mentioned a few things to keep an eye on in the coming years, but said none of them need to be worried about yet. When I asked how much life he thinks the furnace has left in it, he went on in detail for a few minutes about what sorts of things tend to go wrong with furnaces and how he saw no evidence that any of them were an issue with mine yet. Seems like I might have a keeper? Thanks, everyone, for affirming my suspicion that the previous guy was full of crap.
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Oct 18, 2023 22:04
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Dr. Eldarion posted:Update on this: I had a new guy from the reddit-recommended company come out. He said the noise that the inducer motor was making is totally normal, and the only thing needing attention soon is a capacitor. $340 replacement. He also mentioned a few things to keep an eye on in the coming years, but said none of them need to be worried about yet. When I asked how much life he thinks the furnace has left in it, he went on in detail for a few minutes about what sorts of things tend to go wrong with furnaces and how he saw no evidence that any of them were an issue with mine yet. Seems like I might have a keeper? Capacitors are $34 and we can show you how to replace one with a few pictures of your furnace and the sticker on the capacitor.
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Oct 18, 2023 22:07
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