What Type Of HVAC Does This House Have?

[EriKU19]

Hello Everyone,

Looking at a THREE story house in the Houston area that was foreclosed upon at about 90% of completion.

I was touring the house and noticed the lack of typical vents/registers I see on most houses in the area. In their place were these small round vents installed in the walls (but especially in the floors). They are about 2"-3" in size and sit slightly above the floor with a plastic frame.

Furthermore the house only contains ONE air conditioning unit on the outside. I thought this was quite strange since the house is 4800sq ft so I took a peak inside at the main level HVAC closet. I saw the typical HVAC/Blower Assy/Duct work but noticed 2 water lines (labled water in and water out) going into and coming from the assy (about 1.5 OD" in size). I do not remember seeing any copper lines that would have been from the outside A/C unit...but perhaps I overlooked them. I also did not check to see if the other 2 floors has HVAC units/closets.

Now I know 1 A/C unit is not enough to cool this large of a house...especially one with three floors in hell hot Houston..

What are your thoughts?


Here is a pic of the vents...I should have captured some of the HVAC closet


http://scnsinc.com/bp/hvac.jpg

[cororumrex]

Looks like a High Velocity System. Unico or Spacepak, I would need more info pictures of equipment, model numbers to tell you more.

[beenthere]

A HV system. Using a chiller.

[kokinhvac]

Looks like unico (high pressure duct).Could be water cooled

[EriKU19]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the quick replies.

Would this unico system cool this house efficiently with just one A/C unit? Normally on houses of this size you have 3-4 units that are zoned and cool the house..

I'll grab some more pictures today and post them up tonight.

Thanks again!

[adrianf]

How many thermostats are there?

[larobj63]

Sounds like a Unico Uni-chiller. Makes hot and cold water. It's basically an air to water heat pump. Unico officially calls it a "reverse cycle chiller". Chiller side makes sub 40 degree water, in heating it makes about 125 deg water.

The heating may or may not require back up, depending on your design day. The Unico Uni-chiller runs down to about 10* F ambient. There may be back up electric resistance if it gets colder than that where you live, or if the capacity falls off too much with declining ambient.

Again, it sounds like this system - no garuantee from that picture. :D

Edit: By the way, the uni-chiller is a very efficient system if set-up right....

[cororumrex]

Sounds like a Unico Uni-chiller. Makes hot and cold water. It's basically an air to water heat pump. Unico officially calls it a "reverse cycle chiller". Chiller side makes sub 40 degree water, in heating it makes about 125 deg water.

The heating may or may not require back up, depending on your design day. The Unico Uni-chiller runs down to about 10* F ambient. There may be back up electric resistance if it gets colder than that where you live, or if the capacity falls off too much with declining ambient.

Again, it sounds like this system - no garuantee from that picture. :D

Edit: By the way, the uni-chiller is a very efficient system if set-up right....

Thats the direction I was headed in, dident know if it could be a straight Unico Heatpump, Or a Unico A/c with Hot watercoil. Was waiting to see more pictures.

[ga-hvac-tech]

Sounds like a Unico Uni-chiller. Makes hot and cold water. It's basically an air to water heat pump. Unico officially calls it a "reverse cycle chiller". Chiller side makes sub 40 degree water, in heating it makes about 125 deg water.

The heating may or may not require back up, depending on your design day. The Unico Uni-chiller runs down to about 10* F ambient. There may be back up electric resistance if it gets colder than that where you live, or if the capacity falls off too much with declining ambient.

Again, it sounds like this system - no garuantee from that picture. :D

Edit: By the way, the uni-chiller is a very efficient system if set-up right....

I no longer live in Houston, but grew up there.

The winters get down to the high (or occasionally mid) 20's, and that is not really every week... A temp below 20D is rare.

Houston is a HUMID A/C market! :eek:

[larobj63]

I no longer live in Houston, but grew up there.

The winters get down to the high (or occasionally mid) 20's, and that is not really every week... A temp below 20D is rare.

Houston is a HUMID A/C market! :eek:

Right - good fit for their reversable chiller, IMO.