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We bought a piece of property (50 miles north of Houston) last summer with the intention of building a barn/workshop for me, followed shortly by a new house. Fast-forward a year or so, and the...

Yes, the ductwork is in the (unvented & insulated) attic. Could it be the fresh air intake is pulling in too much outside air when it runs? Can't remember if I mentioned it or not, but I'm just north...

I suppose that's possible, but it seems unlikely. There is no overlap in the systems, at least not back where the RH is being measured.

My house is shaped kind of like a big capital H. One system...

Here's some more weirdness for you to chew on. The bedroom-side unit has been turned off for most of the week (I think it quit cooling on Monday night) while we figured out what to do and now wait...

Yeah, that's what I thought six years ago.

I have fresh air intakes on both systems. I already have a contractor lined up to install the new equipment. I have room-by-room load calcs, but not duct evaluations.

I cannot replace ductwork at...

We only have trouble in a couple of places. The guest casita, with 4 exterior 18' walls and a (suspected) non-working zone control setup, is hard to cool. The TV room (the farthest room from the...

I'm going to try to make a long story significantly shorter and still include the necessary information. If I leave something out, please don't hesitate to ask - I'll post it as soon as I can.

Six...

I'm back...did everybody miss me?

Sorry for the long absence, but to answer your questions: No, nothing has been done to my HVAC setup (yet).

Well, that's not 100% accurate. Based on feedback I...

So I went and bought a $50 infrared thermometer at Lowe's; I know it's not nearly as fancy as the ones you guys use, but it'll have to do for now. With the t-stat on one of my units set to 76 and the...

Oh - I didn't realize it was that scientific :)

I can do that when I get back to town.

RH has been in the mid-50s since turning off the dehumidifiers. I think this is actually a slight improvement over what it had been. The other data I'll have to get next week; I'm getting ready to...

I don't think I'm supposed to post business names here. Send me an email (click on my member ID to get to it) and I'll get you the information.

For what it's worth, the dates are the last six days (i.e., the last set of figures was taken this morning).

Okay, I have about a week's worth of data to go on now. The most curious thing to me is the degree of apparent "randomness" as far as how long the compressors run:

Day 1 85deg 05h 11h...

Sorry - I keep forgetting to answer that question. Both t-stats are set on "Auto." I was always taught to leave them on that setting, not to set the fan to "On." So that never changes.
...

Your last question is exactly why I built MY house this way before I built anybody else's house this way. I specifically told my wife that I wanted to know whether or not it worked FIRST before I...

Adrian - did you have a bad day at work, buddy? Oh, wait - you're the one who was too lazy to read all the posts.

Go back and read them - the answers to your "questions" are there. Everyone else...

Ah, I see. Allow me to rephrase my question, in case some of you missed it at the beginning:

I have a $900 freaking doller per month utility bill for a 4200sf house. Yes, I would like to get the...

I realize this is a loaded question - akin to one of my potential buyers asking me, "What would it cost to build a 3,800sf ranch home?", but I'm going to ask it anyway: Relatively speaking (and with...

Do I need some kind of fancy tool to find that information, or can I use my handy-dandy Radio Shack digital thermometer & humidity meter, just held up to the register for a bit?

Man, I wish it were that easy, but my bills are pretty consistent. We actually did have the meter checked when we first moved in, because the utility bill jumped from about $250 per month to more...

After a little informal observation, I can report that the RH in the house appears to have gone down some since turning off the dehumidifiers and the fresh air intakes. It's only been a day or two,...

As a matter of fact, yes it is.

All the doors are 8'. All the eave overhangs are 2.5' - 3'. There are about 60 windows, totaling about 1000sf of glazing (all vinyl low-e double-pane etc.). Approximately 159sf of insulated glass on...

Yeah, during construction, that room (the one I assume you're referring to) became known as the "Oh-my-God room" (or, the more colorful "holy sh*t! room"). Everybody wanted to know when I was going...

I've got two of each. I had to have them come back about a month after we moved in (two years ago this month) and install the dehumes because the house was so muggy. I told them then that there was...

I honestly cannot remember the R-values of the insulation. I have about a 50-50 split of 4" and 6" exterior walls. They are packed from exterior sheathing to interior stud face with open-cell foam...

Classical -

Just checked out your website; should I call you, or your location in Conroe? I'm in High Meadow Ranch, between Magnolia and Tomball.

P.S. - Why doesn't this board have a "private...

I think some of the problem with my home is its shape; picture a big, square donut. We've got a large courtyard in the center of the home, which means I have twice the number of exterior walls as a...

Yep, that's the control. I'll get up in the other attic and shut the second one off this evening. Maybe I'll be able to see what the other box is.

Now that you mention it, the guys that were here doing the energy audit did say something about the house "holding temperature" very well. Apparently it also holds humidity.

As I said, I have...

Okay, I just climbed up in the attic and checked this out. There are two "April Aire" labeled controls on a piece of rigid (probably 6" or 8") duct that runs from where the return air enters the air...

Okay, I give up. Every time I think I've found a reputable contractor, I get hosed (intentional or not, I don't know). Even within the confines of this thread, I've been told everything from tear it...

Forgot to mention - I did a little experiment over the weekend. My t-stats have a timer feature that tells you to the nearest hour how long the compressor has been running. I reset the timers on both...

So do you think I am better off - for the time-being - just shutting the dehumidifiers off? If all they're doing is pulling in outside air all day long, seems like the thing to do is turn 'em off and...

The dehumidifiers - as I understand it - are set such that they do not run more than about 10 minutes out of every hour. The air handler does not run constantly. I have observed this in the early...

Okay, new question. We are getting ready to downsize the units - probably to two 3-ton units from the present pair of 5-ton units. The present units are 13 SEER. Contractor has presented quotes for...

Sorry - for some reason, these posts are not in the same order each time I click through. Sometimes they're most-recent-on-top, other times they're oldest-on-top. I frequently miss posts as I'm going...

I understand that; it was the same argument I used. Plumber got with local inspector, who verified that we had to use the rated BTU usage of each appliance in order to do the calculations. I...

Water heaters are gas; went with electric heat because of the gas water heaters. House was going to draw so many BTUs with gas heat that I would've had to upgrade to larger gas service, which was...

No idea. How do I find that out? Is that information on the contoller near the equipment?

No recirc pumps for hot water. I have to run dehumidifiers in summer or the house is like a swamp. Hoping to fix that problem with pending repairs. New units will be variable speed - already made...

Stupid question: What is a heat strip, and how would I verify whether or not it's on?

Answers to a few questions:

Magnolia (about 40 miles north of Houston)
Most recent utility bill was 17.1 cents/kwh
Approximately 3900 kwh used

I am probably going to go back with Amana Heat...

I am going to be brief, because I have a lot of information to pass along. Bear with me.

4216sf 1 story home built 2 years ago (I am the builder)
Bio-base foam insulation throughout
Unvented,...