Do we have any members that are in the HVAC business? Our unit has been out for a while and it's getting hot. Whew!
Thanks in advance!
Thanks in advance!
A/C Guys?
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Oneofsix
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PMDo we have any members that are in the HVAC business? Our unit has been out for a while and it's getting hot. Whew!
Thanks in advance!
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jjwestbrook
Happy to be here
im in rock hill just south of Charlotte . where are you located @Sandman_NC
My AC doesn’t keep up, currently 72 in the House.
One side of the house is ice cold, the other side is warm.
What can I do?
One side of the house is ice cold, the other side is warm.
What can I do?
jjwestbrook
Happy to be here
well if it is low 90s outside and 72 inside I would say its doing pretty good. as far as the ice cold one side of house , warm on other look at airflow ( dirty coil , dirty blower wheel , air loss from ducts or insulation on ducts missing or inadequate)
To add to what JJ pointed out how smart is your thermostat?
I had the same issue with my house. Downstairs near the thermostat stayed nice but upstairs was +10 degrees mid summer. I upgraded to a smarter thermostat and it’s like I installed a whole new system. The unit has a remote temperature sensor we placed upstairs, and it also circulates air every 15 minutes if it’s idle. The house is much more balanced and I’m able to program it to be comfortable where we are throughout the day.
Once you’ve ruled out a system malfunction look at upgrading its brain.
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OP
Improper sized ducting from initial install most likely if all the supply registers are open. Any HVAC company can throw in a unit but can they engineer the individual rooms requirements?
It’s an addition that’s warmer.
I had extra insulation blown in, the coils was recently replaced also. I think the addition needs an inline blower added.
I had extra insulation blown in, the coils was recently replaced also. I think the addition needs an inline blower added.
Indeed. There really is an art and science to it. It also costs money and these days it’s much cheaper to just throw some flex duct (which I’ve seen crunched down to a fraction of its size to get it through various openings as well as be bent 90 degrees) and one central return.
For my parents house that we’re building, that is thankfully almost done, I specified using rigid duct with a supply and return in the rooms (not in bathrooms or laundry room). The supply side duct is wrapped and it has a variable speed blower and multistage compressor. It’s really quite and cools/heats well. I went over the sizing and air flow calculations before approving it and had a test and balance specified for completion.
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Our downstairs unit lost the fan motor during a power brown out last Tuesday. They came to fix it, and brought the wrong motor. They had to special order it, and they won’t be here till tomorrow to replace it. Fortunately it hasn’t gotten terribly hot inside, nothing that some strategically placed fans can’t overcome. And we can sleep upstairs which is a separate unit, If we get too hot.
My god I want all my customers to be like you. This is what will scare off half the freaking jacklegs in this business. Low price usually means corners cut to make money. I’d rather call on a mechanical engineer than a Walmart shopper anyday.
@MadMardigan If the original part of the house was designed for a specific flow of air and then the house gets an addition, the entire house ducting must be removed and resized. Even a new unit with the proper cubic feet per meter may need to be installed but of course most people would never correctly redo a comfort system when it’s a unseen necessity of a house. But they will buy $40,000 worth of useless cabinets.
Close the duct to the addition off and install a Mitsubishi mini split or two.
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Second that!!! I had a Mit mini split installed in my shop last year, best money I've ever spent. If I'm not careful it get's cold enough to hang meat....
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Self regulate, like a chick moves closer to a heat lamp.
Go to the colder side Luke.
Really you should get the heat and cooling load calculated. The numbers depend upon factors like type of lighting, exterior wall space, sun exposure, whether it's slab or not, etc. That being said, I just looked it up in the reference manual I have and it says that a one ton unit will cool about 550 residential sq ft if the wall area 25% glass and 700 sq ft if it is 15% glass (typical max for most walls per code in NC, at least when I built my house). So, you would probably want a half ton unit. Roughly speaking the charts also show you wanting about .6 to .75 cfm per sq foot too.
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Lol.
It’s all walls, except 1 wall is north facing with tall glass windows and a door.
Pretty much like noway said. A load calculation would determine the btus. On a one inside wall mounted unit to a one outdoor unit it would come to about 9000 btus. Mitsubishi sells three tiers of units. Normal SEER (seasonal energy efficiency rating) for a unitary heat pump is 14SEER. This M series unit is 23SEER. I have one doing my basement 500 square feet and am adding one to a back bedroom if I ever get a free day to work on my own stuff.
Builders series- new to US because we like shit. Made for contractors because most don’t give a damn about their customers after they leave. Not even made by the Japanese. Outsourced for cheap American Walmart buyers. Not even close in SEER rating to the products below.
Regular M series- used mostly unless you are in the mountains. Heats to really about 7 degrees but diminishing heat past 13 degrees. High quality, 72% of Europe and 90% of Asia use mini splits. Americans don’t because we can’t have that stuff because we never change and shop short term economics. Plus all I hear is it looks tacky on a wall. Americans are all about cosmetics.
Hyper Heat- throws some serious heat down to -5 degrees. Of course this is much more expensive. A must for western region of the state. I’ve seen nightmares when companies sell normal mini splits in the cold region of NC. Calculations in this region must be done on the heat side opposed to the cooling load in the east and piedmont.
Builders series- new to US because we like shit. Made for contractors because most don’t give a damn about their customers after they leave. Not even made by the Japanese. Outsourced for cheap American Walmart buyers. Not even close in SEER rating to the products below.
Regular M series- used mostly unless you are in the mountains. Heats to really about 7 degrees but diminishing heat past 13 degrees. High quality, 72% of Europe and 90% of Asia use mini splits. Americans don’t because we can’t have that stuff because we never change and shop short term economics. Plus all I hear is it looks tacky on a wall. Americans are all about cosmetics.
Hyper Heat- throws some serious heat down to -5 degrees. Of course this is much more expensive. A must for western region of the state. I’ve seen nightmares when companies sell normal mini splits in the cold region of NC. Calculations in this region must be done on the heat side opposed to the cooling load in the east and piedmont.
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Yup, got one in our Data Center, gets so cold I fall asleep at the consoles.
So face another crac unit towards it set on heat mode.Yup, got one in our Data Center, gets so cold I fall asleep at the consoles.
Believe it or not, we encountered this once. When it was corrected their cooling usage dropped precipitously.