|
Are the high velocity products like SpacePak any good? The AC/furnace in my house is pretty old, and very poorly installed (to give you an idea... gravity is the only thing holding the furnace onto the ductwork in the slab, you can push the furnance around whereever you want. Also, they didn't bother to cut the refrigerant lines to size, so there's tons of slack sprawling across the attic). We also know the ductwork in our house is lovely. It's all run under the slab, and I was able to get a camera down there. There's tons of raw exposed concrete and so much dust. We also have a (not-very) mysterious spot on the kitchen floor that gets either warm or cold depending on if the AC/furnace is running. I'm assuming the ductwork is a total loss, I haven't been able to find any way of fixing it short of jackhammering up the slab. I'm assuming that replacing all the ductwork with high velocity stuff would be cheaper then standard ductwork (half the house is accessible via the attic, the other half would require dropping the ceiling drywall). I'm in NJ, so heating and cooling are both requirements... I'm not sure how much a heat pump would be able to keep up. devicenull fucked around with this message at 01:26 on Aug 6, 2016 |
#
¿
Aug 6, 2016 01:18
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 19:47 |
|
|
borkencode posted:Yeah, switch is on (I've turned it off an on again). I do have a multimeter, but didn't try checking anything on the inside, I'll see if I can figure out which wires should be 120 volts. Sometimes people put a sensor on the condensate line, so that if it backs up the furnace turns off rather then flooding your house. I think they're usually inline with the thermostat power supply. Also you might have a switch on the furnace that kills power if the panels are off. Look for a button around the edges. Two hours of troubleshooting are responsible for me knowing both of these things.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 29, 2016 00:56
|
|
|
Alereon posted:I was looking at a dehumidifier because we have cool, humid days where I can't really turn the AC on (or can't turn it any lower) to reduce humidity while maintaining an acceptable temperature. We also have some very dry days in the winter, hence considering the humidifier. Installing both seems like an inelegant solution, that's why I was wondering if there were any boxes that would just monitor the humidity and keep it within a set normal range. Is your house still humid when your AC is running? It sounds like your AC might be dramatically oversized, so it's not able to dehumidify before it hits the target temperature.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 27, 2016 21:23
|
|
|
Ripoff posted:Hooking up the wire isn't a problem, I could honestly probably fish some fishing line through the existing hole and stretch some 20 gauge wire in there in a matter of 15 minutes. Getting access to the drat HVAC unit to connect it is the big problem, as they literally have it behind a locked door. What kind of lock? Bumping some locks isn't exactly hard....
|
|
#
¿
Dec 7, 2016 01:54
|
|
Hell, I'd bribe them all day if I could find one of the guys around here, but they're rarely, if ever, to be found.
|
wolrah posted:Does EcoBee actually require the fifth wire to work? Nest recommends it but generally works fine on a standard 3/4 wire system. It connects a small amount of power through that's not enough to trigger the system in most cases but is enough to charge. Yes, it does.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 8, 2016 00:36
|
|
|
wolrah posted:Well then, good and moderately annoying to know. I was considering switching over to one because I hear they're easier to integrate with homebrew scripts and such, but I only have four wires. They come with a thing you can use: https://www.ecobee.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/ecobee3_InstallationGuide.pdf (page 11). You install it in the furnace, and it magically turns 4 wires into 5! I used it despite running new cable for our thermostat, because I saw some reports that the relays in the ecobee can heat it up so it stops registering temperature properly. The PEK moves those relays into the furnace.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 9, 2016 00:38
|
|
|
So, NJ has some incentives for energy efficiency (50% rebate up to some amount, 0% interest loans). I was initially going to use these just to get our attic insulation upgraded... but then I took a look at our air conditioning. The label on our condenser looks something like this:  So, manufactured in 89, uses R22. I'm somewhat amazed it still works. Any guesses on the SEER rating, or is it too old to be rated like that? Am I correct in assuming we're living on borrowed time with this? Is the fact that all my ductwork is in the slab going to be a problem? devicenull fucked around with this message at 01:01 on Jan 6, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Jan 6, 2017 00:55
|
|
|
glynnenstein posted:That would come in around an 8 SEER. We've only lived here ~1 year at this point. We had someone come look at the furnace, but not the AC. The initial install seems to have been shoddy: * The condenser is installed way too close to the house (I couldn't get a clean picture of the label, there's an inch or two between the condenser and the house). * They didn't cut the lines to the right length, so they're just kinda looped in the attic. * The condensate pump is plugged in by poking a hole in the drywall and running the cord through. * The coil appears to be completely inaccessible, and probably hasn't been cleaned since the furnace was replaced (in 2004)... and hopefully it was cleaned then. I cut some of the ducting to get to it, it had a nice thick mat of dust on the side I could see. * Duck tape is used on various ducts. * I believe the outer frame here is mostly cosmetic, but it's pretty rusty:  It managed to work all summer though, and seemed to cool the house pretty well! Based on what we've found, the previous owners did the minimum necessary maintenance. I'd be fairly surprised if they had done anything to it.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 6, 2017 01:59
|
|
|
ExplodingSims posted:Also, what with that time box thing hanging off the side? I believe it's some kind of load shedding device, that the previous owners opted into. The program no longer appears to be active, so I never bothered removing it. Saving some trivial amount on your power bill for a few months a year (from what I found, it was like $5 for 3-4 months), to not have your AC working at peak times does not sound like a good tradeoff.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 6, 2017 14:25
|
|
|
sanchez posted:As someone with heat pumps and ecobees, you really should. They allow you to be very spergy about the aux heat settings and the graphs and monitoring in the web portal is very useful for tweaking them. I have our max aux heat set to 28f and aux heat temp differential set to 2f, so it wont' come on at all unless its <28 outside and >2f below the set point inside. I found it was better to do that and barely turn the heat down at night (70 daytime, 68 night) than do a big setback and have it run for hours trying to bring the house back up to temp. If your coil is upstream of the aux heat strips in the air handler, ecobee will also allow you to run the aux heat and compressor simultaneously which supposedly helps efficiency a bit. I'm curious why you would only be able to run both if the coil is upstream?
|
|
#
¿
Jan 13, 2017 00:24
|
|
|
Do heat pumps ever really make sense when natural gas is available? I've been playing around with heatcalc.xls, and it seems that it's always more expensive to heat with a heat pump. We pay $0.82/therm, and $0.16/kWh, so it doesn't seem like it would make any sense to switch. We'd probably still need a furnace to deal with the cold days (electrical resistance heating seems like a terrible idea), so it's not like we'd be saving any money on that.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 24, 2017 01:25
|
|
|
coyo7e posted:Unless you've already performed or had someone perform a blower door test, you're probably looking at an uphill battle in terms of saving yourself tons of money by just throwing a heat pump (or most appliances outside of water heaters) at your house. The buildling shell (well-fitted insulation, sealant foam in all the holes drilled in studs and sheathing where wires and plumbing run through, checking the crawlspace and attic) are all what you should shoudl get done before you start playing around with online heat calculators. If you don't know the difference between a thermal bypass and an air bypass or latent versus sensible heat, then I suggest you check out Residential Energy: Cost Savings and Comfort for Existing Buildings (you can get a copy from https://www.residential-energy.com or check with your local used bookstore for an old copy, and there's some iffy-legally-speaking copies online of some older editions), or simply find someone to come and perform a residential energy use index and energy audit on your home. Thanks! We're currently getting quotes for air sealing + blown in insulation in the attic. We have what's original to the house (from the 60s), where it's present at all... a bunch of it got removed due to water damage or terrible decay. I'm still waiting on the results of the energy audit. We know our AC is from 1989 and uses R22, so replacement in the near future seems pretty likely. I'd prefer to do it on my terms (rather then waiting for failure), especially when I can get a $10k interest free loan from the state for it. One of the big reasons for thinking about a heat pump was that we may end up getting solar panels in the next few years... it seemed that would end up giving us "free" heat for a good part of the year. I'm not really thinking we'd ever see a payback here, the average temperature here last month was 37F according to my bill, and we only ended up using $100 in gas (and it should go down even more, now that I realized I have a failed ecobee sensor that thought we were home all day so it never lowered the setpoint). Unless a heat pump were only a few hundred more then AC alone, I doubt we'd ever get a significant payback from it.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 25, 2017 01:31
|
|
|
coyo7e posted:If nobody ever mentions the words "blower door test" and they're claiming to be coming in to seal your home by Hah, I'm surprised you have't heard about R22 yet. It's a old refrigerant that's not produced anymore (because it's terrible for the ozone layer). Prices have shot up dramatically these days, and it's apparently getting harder to find. Go back a page or two here, and you can find pics of my ancient AC. We had one place come out and do a blower door test.. I think the number they gave me was around 750cfm (but I haven't received the final report, so I'm not completely sure). They were talking about air sealing *before* doing the blown in. I've already done a bunch of that (I've gone through 5 of the 24oz spray foam cans already), and I'm confident that's part of what they're going to do. I'm in the middle of NJ, and the state currently has some incentives - http://www.njcleanenergy.com/hp . My house is 1400sqft, on a slab.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 25, 2017 02:31
|
|
a bunch of blown-in insulation into your attic, run far and run fast. A 60s-70s-era home's shell is going to be absolutely porous with 1" to 4" holes drilled all over in the studs, etc. You're throwing around some terminology I'm not yet familiar with such as the R22 (which appears to be an outdated model of AC unit which shits ozone everywhere or something), and unless you've been doing a lot of personal homework I'd be curious where you heard that name-dropped, because I've taken a couple dozen credits and never heard that come up (yet, hands-on HVAC maintenance is next term).
|
Motronic posted:So you have existing ductwork and want to........tear it out? That doesn't make a lot of sense. HVLP systems are pretty much designed for retrofits into places where normal ducting would be too large/obtrusive. See the other post about ceiling fans. And the other one about how noisy HVLP systems can be. Nah, you confused me with someone else. We were actually considering new ductwork (all ours is buried in the slab... fun), but not really seriously.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 26, 2017 00:09
|
|
|
Motronic posted:Ahhh, that makes much more sense then. Yes, for a poo poo show ductwork runs HVLP is probably a trade-off that is worth making. Just make drat sure you have the right installers, because the noise can be largely mitigated by a properly balanced install. Most setups that are super noisy don't have sufficient return capacity in enough places. If we ever get the ducts moved, it seems pretty straightforward (assuming we run it all in the attic, and do ceiling registers). Only one floor, attic is pretty easily accessed. One major upgrade at a time though...
|
|
#
¿
Jan 28, 2017 01:13
|
|
|
So, dumb question... My house has two returns, a big one near the furnace, and a small one way off in the back of the house. The big one has a filter on it, but the small one doesn't. I had my head shoved up in the big one, and noticed the flex duct going to the small one is caked in dust. Should I have some type of filter on the small return? Back when we bought the house, the home inspector said it was normal to not have a filter there... but we've since found out he was a complete idiot. The small return is only 12x6ish, and I think it has 5 inch flex duct.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 18, 2017 02:08
|
|
|
MRC48B posted:Do you have a filter on the furnace itself? No, there's a filter on the main return grille and that's it. Replacing the flex might be feasible, but tricky. The return is in the attic, but there's not really enough head room to make it to where the return is. It might actually be easier to replace it with metal... I could make up a big ~15 ft section, and just push it through the attic. Attaching to where the existing return is might be a little tricky. lovely mspaint: 
devicenull fucked around with this message at 02:44 on Feb 18, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Feb 18, 2017 02:40
|
|
|
coyo7e posted:I'd be really interested in observing it because I have no experience however, I'd assume it'd at minimum be the equivalent of drilling two wells, which means that poo poo will get tore up. Err, I thought geothermal usually involves a water->air heat exchanger. So it's basically the same as a normal forced air heater, as far as heating/cooling the house goes.
|
|
#
¿
May 31, 2017 23:29
|
|
|
ExcessBLarg! posted:and we have another bedroom that's on the opposite side of the house that is always warm in the summer due to its distance from the air handler. Ecobee might help with your one bedroom, but it's going to be at the expense of making everything else in your house colder. Insulation/air sealing may be a better solution there. quote:Also, should I "definitely" replace our air handler / gas furnace at the same time, given that we're planning to live here a while?
|
|
#
¿
Aug 29, 2017 23:48
|
|
|
Steampunk Hitler posted:I have something weird going on with one of the thermostats in my house and I can’t for the life of me figure out what it is. There are thermostats that communicate with the furnance, but the ecobee works exactly the way you're saying here (essentially twisting wires together). The ecobee has no idea what the furnace is actually doing.. just what the ecobee is telling it to do. If it said 2nd stage heat, then the ecobee was telling the furnace 2nd stage heat. The temperature issue is pretty weird though. Do you have any of the remote sensors connected? Maybe try removing them if so? Is there a massive hole behind the ecobee where the wires come out? I'm wondering if your furnace is somehow pulling air from the attic or basement when it's running, through the hole behind the thermostat.. making the thermostat unaware of what temperature it is.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 28, 2017 14:54
|
|
|
Yu-Gi-Ho! posted:Seeing as it's persisted across two different systems (complete changeout - furnace, condenser, etc; wiring and ductwork are the only things that remained the same), and only happens on the AC side, I'm very heavily leaning toward the Nest being the issue. I was basically just looking for confirmation that the Nest was hosed. Current system is just as basic as the original early 80s system - single stage electric heat, single stage 2.5 ton refrigerated ac, plus fan control. Things like these exist: https://www.amazon.com/Venstar-ACC0410-Wire-Accessory-Thermostats/dp/B01IF3QXMC/ The Ecobee thermostats come with something similar.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 3, 2017 20:19
|
|
|
iForge posted:Sometimes you can smell some burning dust the first few times you run a gas heater for the season. If you smell gas or fumes get a qualified hvac guy to check your heat exchanger for cracks sooner than later, if you smell fumes, you could be breathing carbon monoxide. Also buy a carbon monoxide detector if you don't already have one.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 13, 2017 01:53
|
|
|
nwiniwn posted:I posted earlier that I have an ecobee thermostat installed on a system with natural gas for heating through a furnace (American Standard Freedom-95 Comfort R) and an electrical AC system (Furnace in the basement, AC unit outside). It lets you equalize the temperatures of your house a bit more. So if you've got a room that has sucky insulation, running the fan for at least 20 minutes an hour might help the temperature of that room match the rest of the house. Apparently you don't actually want to use that when you're using the AC. It'll dry out the AC coil, making your house more humid.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 2, 2018 01:21
|
|
|
Is 7 inch flex duct common? I'm trying to repair the previous owners fuckup of using duct tape to affix flex duct to rigid in the attic I bought an 8 inch worm clamp, which was too big (it got down to about 7.25 inches at the smallest). I then bought a 6 inch worm clamp, which was way too small (at about 6.8 inches at max size) This is above the ceiling, and the only access method was cutting a hole in it, so I'd prefer to do something permanent. I was avoiding large zip ties because I didn't know how long they'd last in the heat of the attic. I think this is probably the size I need https://www.lowes.com/pd/6-1-16-in-to-7-in-dia-Stainless-Steel-Adjustable-Clamp/3878536
|
|
#
¿
Sep 12, 2018 01:04
|
|
|
wolrah posted:How big of a deal is two-speed operation? My girlfriend's brother and sister-in-law just moved in to a new place that has a two speed Carrier HVAC system but only a classic round Honeywell thermostat. Would upgrading to a fancier thermostat that can take advantage of that be worthwhile? It's probably only wired for four conductors at this point but there's easy wiring access from the basement so it wouldn't be more than an hour or so to run a new line. Furnaces can usually be set to handle two speed operation by themselves (run at a slower speed for awhile, then kick up to high speed if there's still demand). Changing it probably wouldn't do a lot for you.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 1, 2019 00:00
|
|
|
TheBananaKing posted:Whole house dehumidifying. Anyone have any brand recommendations? The Santa Fe stuff looks nice and reasonable priced. Are they reliable? I have an Ultra-Aire 70H (same manufacturer as Sylvane afaik). I'm only about 18 months in, but I haven't had any issues with it yet. Mines up in the attic, and pulls air from the house and outputs it into the ductwork. It's definitely made a big difference comfort wise, the only thing to keep in mind is you'll be running AC more due to the heat (which is fine, since that also helps dehumdifiy). It's possible that sealing up your crawlspace + basement and getting a dehumidifier there would solve your problems. We're on a slab, so I don't really have any idea. I'd suggest maybe call up Sylvane and ask them. One of their employees posts in the IAQ part of hvac-talk.com a lot, he usually has pretty helpful advice (username teddy bear)
|
|
#
¿
Feb 2, 2019 02:09
|
|
|
STR posted:My apartment complex has on-site maintenance, so it's just the hourly labor for a callback. But maintenance does get scored on callbacks (also surveys from residents). Ecobee3 comes with this: https://support.ecobee.com/hc/en-us/articles/360009155051-Installing-your-ecobee-thermostat-with-the-Power-Extender-Kit-no-C-wire-
|
|
#
¿
Apr 1, 2019 13:47
|
|
|
nwin posted:I just moved into a 3 story townhouse in the DC area last week from Boston and it seems like it's way too hot in this place, namely on the third floor. What sort of insulation is in your attic? I've found window film like this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000KKM8EG/ helps to block a lot of the heat (and won't turn your place into a cave)
|
|
#
¿
May 26, 2019 14:35
|
|
|
skipdogg posted:Finally got up into the attic and took a few pictures. The last 2 are of the downstairs unit drain system. What's that thing in the first picture on the far left? It says OPEN, is that a fresh air intake that's stuck open?
|
|
#
¿
Jun 27, 2019 23:24
|
|
|
The internet seems to suggest delta-T on air conditioning should be 16-22F... mines 15... does this warrant getting someone out to look? Last year it looks like it was doing 19...ugh, that's probably not good.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 4, 2019 02:24
|
|
|
Gin_Rummy posted:Fortunately I’ve already got a few attic fans and whirly birds up there. I’m pretty much sold on adding more insulation, however my research has found that this guy might have just been uneducated with respect to the ducting... it’s Goodman/owl flex brand style (which was never meant to be used for this due to UV exposure), and according to a few websites, once that plastic exterior liner goes, you have to replace the ducting or you may have fiberglass blowing through your vents. I think all said and done, I’ll have him blow in the insulation and do the air sealing for me, but I might replace the duct work myself (depending on what a couple of other companies can tell me this week). How is UV getting into your attic? Insulated flex duct is a layer of plastic, insulation, and then another layer of plastic. Air only flows through that inner layer, so the outer layer being damaged can't really result in fiberglass getting inside (unless the damage was something that also damaged the inner layer). See if your electric company has some sort of energy efficiency program... you might be able to get a cheap/free energy audit and get actual data about what the problem is. You could also check out http://www.bpihomeowner.org/ and see about getting someone to tell you what the actual problem is. 5 inches of insulation (so a single fiberglass batt?) is definitely not going to be enough... https://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=home_sealing.hm_improvement_insulation_table Run far away from option 1.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 28, 2020 02:58
|
|
|
H110Hawk posted:Looking at replacing my HVAC system before its R-22 system decides to gently caress off into the ozone while it's 110F outside. There are 2 local contractors everyone uses and 1 of them I don't like. I pushed the Costco "give me a bid" button and a Lennox dealer showed up on my doorstep which is the same brand as the local contractor I don't like, win-win. 1250sqft well insulated house with double pane windows. No one did "manual J" or anything and all seemed to think my existing stuff was perfectly sized for the house and my ducts are new and in good shape. Both have clean contractor license histories and yelp reviews, insurance is active and valid, no hard sells, no one able to install it "today" or any pressure, they all have jobs backed up for weeks. I'm somewhat surprised you're only getting a 80% furnace on these. I don't think the variable speed ones are going to do much for you (and from what I know, they're massively more complicated when they break). You might consider getting a whole-house dehumidifier installed. Dust mites love higher humidity, and reducing it may help your allergies. Alternatively, some AC has a "dehumidify" mode where it runs the fan slower to help lower humidity. This is something you might have to ask them for explicitly though, when my AC got installed they didn't bother with the one extra wire it would have taken.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 26, 2020 17:29
|
|
|
Are products like this actually legit? Some of the wording on the site makes me think it's snake oil, but then I find tons of reviews saying it's great... ASHRAE seems to have a document stating that the PCO technology is at least doing *something*. Trying to address an issue where we have one or two rooms with weird smells that we can't find the source of.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 4, 2020 18:48
|
|
|
My understanding is they're using UV to react with Titanium Dioxide in some way (aka PCO) - even the bigger brands offer something like this: https://www.lennox.com/help/faqs/pureair-air-purification The specs for the 'nano induct' indicate it produces less then 0.05 ppm of ozone, so I'm not entirely sure it's just an ozone generator. I did find some scientific papers on it, but they're all coauthored by the guy behind air oasis, so I'm somewhat suspicious of them. I really wish I could address the smells some other way, but we've run out of things to try... carpet was removed, walls and ceiling were all repainted, there's not actually a HVAC duct anywhere near where the odor is.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 4, 2020 21:32
|
|
|
H110Hawk posted:Lennox and Trane both sell them for a grand and spend a lot of time telling you how safe they are but I didn't see any readily accessible specifications around it. Smelled like snake oil to me. Yea, some more research led me to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdjy1ESmX3E... I definitely trust the homechem people more then random company sponsored studies. Activated carbon whole house filter might be a good idea. I'll have to see if I can get one that fits. It's very tricky to upgrade the filter sizing I have. There's really only one place it can go, which is in the attic connected to the ~2ft wide flex duct that acts as the return. That might be a good thing to do once it cools off a little here... I'm not going to subject someone to the super hot attic temperatures over something as trivial as a weird smell in a couple rooms.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 5, 2020 01:06
|
|
|
H110Hawk posted:https://nordicpure.com/ probably has yours, though they are expensive and don't sell cookie dough anymore. Yea, that's where I got my current filters from. I just remembered that I had disabled the fresh air intake on my whole house dehumidifier because we were having issues with one room being much hotter then the rest. While this probably isn't the cause of the odor, I imagine it's definitely not helping. So, new goal is to find something that can control this based on CO2 levels. I had cobbled together something based on a raspberry pi + some relays, but it's probably a good time for a commercial product.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 5, 2020 01:35
|
|
|
Do you have a regular fan? Maybe toss that in the basement, and see if the dehumidifier still reads the same with a bunch of air movement. The fans on every dehumidifier I've seen are pretty anemic... I wonder if only part of the basement is that dry.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 7, 2020 00:54
|
|
|
Chimp_On_Stilts posted:This question is about indoor air purification - specifically, why is my HVAC releasing dirtier air than my air purifiers when both have HEPA filters attached? The HVAC ducts are likely not sealed well, and are picking up crap from whatever space they're in (attic, basement, etc). If you can reach them, you can go around with mastic and seal up every joint.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 24, 2020 23:49
|
|
|
MRC48B posted:Are people still worried about natural gas appliance safety in the hellscape year of 2020? In retrospect, I would have done a heat pump with gas furnance backup when replacing the HVAC. Best of both worlds! I don't know how much more expensive it would have been over a standard AC unit, but it's mostly the same components...
|
|
#
¿
Aug 26, 2020 15:01
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 19:47 |
|
|
STR posted:All original ducting in the attic, no attic access (it's a duplex), and you can see how "special" the duct is with all that duct tape and zip ties. That was us doing that - originally it was just blowing into that duct with a 2-3 inch gap on all sides. And yeah, the upright has water visibly flowing through it, but it's just down at the T connection level. The only time it's come to the top was when the drain got clogged with slime. The trap is there so your HVAC doesn't blow to the outside, and so stuff from the outside doesn't come in. I like that they pointlessly insulated the drain line that's in conditioned space, but used lovely duct tape to hold stuff together.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 2, 2020 00:54
|
|