HVAC thread: No returns, supplies are limited.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > HVAC thread: No returns, supplies are limited.

Alereon: Feb 6, 2004; Dehumanize yourself and face to Trumpshed; College Slice

Is there such a thing as a box that does humidification or dehumidification as-needed, like some sort of humidity management unit? Or do I really need to attach separate humidifiers and dehumidifiers to the ducts?

# ¿ Nov 26, 2016 22:49

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 21:05

Alereon: Feb 6, 2004; Dehumanize yourself and face to Trumpshed; College Slice

zharmad posted:

Generally, your air conditioner should be your dehumidifier. That's why it has a condensate pump to move the water outside. If you did have both, it would require a humidistat for each and some (not that complicated) additional wiring to make sure they weren't working against each other.

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.

# ¿ Nov 27, 2016 03:29

Alereon: Feb 6, 2004; Dehumanize yourself and face to Trumpshed; College Slice

devicenull posted:

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.

If the AC runs humidity is controlled, so that's great during the warmer seasons, but there are days when it's both cool and humid and the AC never runs. I guess I will put some time into thinking about if both a dehumidifier and a humidifier can be practically installed and if it's worth the effort.

# ¿ Nov 27, 2016 21:44

Alereon: Feb 6, 2004; Dehumanize yourself and face to Trumpshed; College Slice

I think I get the basics, but can anyone help explain the fine details on when my Honeywell VisionPro 8320WF thermostat decides to turn on electric aux heat in addition to my heat pump? Lockout temps are set correctly (0F compressor, which we will never see, 35F aux heat). My goal is minimal aux heat usage, I'm okay with the aux heat coming on in the morning on cold days, or if the heatpump can't maintain the set temp, but otherwise I'm okay with slow recovery times and being a couple degrees off of the set temp and don't want to pay for the aux heat to run much.

When I bought the house the aux heat ran most of the time, because the thermostat was set to "Comfort mode" which turns it on whenever the current temp is more than 1F below set temp. I changed this to "Economy / Manual Droop" mode. I thought this would turn on the aux heat whenever the current temp was below the set temp by the droop temp, but when I set the droop temp to 6F the aux heat was still turning on immediately when the schedule changed and the difference was 5F. I changed the droop temp to 10F, and this seemed to do what I want: In the morning the heat pump would come on, and if the house hadn't warmed up after an hour, the aux heat would come on until it reached the set temp, then the heat pump would hold it all day.

Recently I made two changes: Set the wake time 30 minutes earlier and added a mid-day program with warmer temps for someone who is staying home. Now, the aux heat seems to only turn for the mid-day hours, not the morning, even though the house isn't heating up to the set temps. This doesn't make sense to me, so it seems like I don't actually understand its logic and only accidentally got the behavior I wanted before.

Late edit: I guess the real answer is to get an Ecobee, it just chafes that this drat thing should be smart enough to do what I want, except everything about its functionality is so drat opaque.

Alereon fucked around with this message at 03:07 on Jan 10, 2017

# ¿ Jan 8, 2017 22:27

Alereon: Feb 6, 2004; Dehumanize yourself and face to Trumpshed; College Slice

MrYenko posted:

Anyone familiar with high-velocity AC systems? I'm probably gonna have to replace my central AC in the next decade, and these things seem to tick a whole bunch of boxes for me. Are they getting more common, or are they still super-rare?

I see people who've gone with high-velocity systems complaining of unbearable airflow noise.

# ¿ Jan 25, 2017 00:54

Alereon: Feb 6, 2004; Dehumanize yourself and face to Trumpshed; College Slice

Are variable capacity heat pumps a thing for residential forced air systems? It would seem nice to be able to pump a lot of heat on cold days without aux heat but not be oversized for the summer.

# ¿ Jan 25, 2017 04:26

Alereon: Feb 6, 2004; Dehumanize yourself and face to Trumpshed; College Slice

Thanks to improvements in efficiency you have a LOT more headroom on 120V with Energy Star models. You can get 8,000 BTU models that draw only ~6A, or go even higher while keeping reasonable load.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2017 00:41

Alereon: Feb 6, 2004; Dehumanize yourself and face to Trumpshed; College Slice

Portable units are much less efficient and effective though, since it's so much harder to duct out warm air effectively. That portable AC has an Energy Efficiency Ratio of about 9, versus around 12 for a current Energy Star window unit, or around 10-11 for cheap low-efficiency models. Also, for what its worth there is less dripping from high-efficiency window units now because they spray the condensate over the condenser coils, there are little scoops on the tips of the fan blades that dip into the condensate pool. The evaporation improves cooling, and while there can be some spray out the back it's not like the dribbling from older units.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2017 17:40

Alereon: Feb 6, 2004; Dehumanize yourself and face to Trumpshed; College Slice

Don't those UV sterilizers produce toxic levels of ozone?

# ¿ Apr 6, 2017 01:58

Alereon: Feb 6, 2004; Dehumanize yourself and face to Trumpshed; College Slice

ExplodingSims posted:

No? I'm pretty sure you'd have a lot more trouble buying them if everyone who used one was dropping dead.

Now, if you go sticking any UV bulb in there, like ones used for pools or what have you, you will have Ozone generation, but that's why you use UV-C lights.

I asked specifically because I'd heard of people getting sick as hell after installing these and needing them removed. Upon further review, while UV-C lamps do typically produce ozone, you can buy more expensive ones with filtering to cut out frequencies above <250nm (Ozone is generated at 240nm and below), which any solution from a reputable brand would do. Unfortunately it seems there are a lot of lovely ones that get sold by and to idiots.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2017 04:43

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 21:05

Alereon: Feb 6, 2004; Dehumanize yourself and face to Trumpshed; College Slice

Kjermzs posted:

So now the AC unit blows hot air up at the deck that's about 4ft away.

Replace this section of the deck with a metal vent grating and call it the Marilyn Monroe Memorial Deck.

# ¿ Jul 10, 2017 21:43

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