I am SO confused...

[tiyanak]

I'm completely new to this site, only joined to hopefully get an answer. If this is in the wrong place, please let me know so I can post in the proper location.

So, here's my story.

I live in an apartment complex that isn't very well known for taking care of their residents. The ac thermostat worked just fine, but had no readings. It was an old mercury thermostat and all the red parts that are supposed to tell you things like what temperature it is in the apartment, and what temperature the ac is set to were either missing or off by about 30 degrees. I know I did not have the apartment set to 95 but that's what it was telling me. And no needle on the thermometer to tell me what the temperature actually was. So I complained to the office, they told me as long as my ac works, they give no s*ts.

Well, I guess I can understand. It wasn't a completely necessary replacement, just convenience and monitoring for me and my bills, so I went out and bought a new thermostat. This new one's nifty! You can program temperatures for days and times and it has a digital display and everything! <- should be taken as feigned excitement

So. I marked the wires, what colors went to what letters and all that, and replaced the thermostat. It took 45 minutes because I dropped the screwdriver at one point, and one of my ohhh soooo wonderful kitties decided it was play time and ran off with it >_< That was a fun game of tag... anyway, I hooked everything up properly, I think. I double-checked (I understand that an autoCAD drafting degree does not make me an electrician, I re-checked EVERYTHING and even read the manual!! *gasp*).

Now, the strangest thing happened. This one room - it should be the spare room but it's kinda turned into an office - used to be the coldest room in the apartment. If the rest of the apartment was 75 degrees, this room would be 65. At least. No matter what, it was always an exaggerated temperature. If the ac was on, it was freezing in this room. If the heat was on, it was boiling. Then I changed the thermostat. The apartment cools just fine. It's a 3/2, and both other bedrooms, the living room, kitchen, blah blah, are all the same temperature at 73 and it's nice! But this one room has gone from being the coldest to being a freakin' sauna. It smells like heater, it feels like heater, it feels like heater, I swear the heater is blowing in this room and only in this room.

There is 1 ac unit. There is 1 thermostat. Nothing changed except the thermostat. Literally 5 minutes before I took the old thermostat down, this room was cold. Ice box, freezing cold. Then I changed the thermostat, played with the programming, and let it run for a few minutes. This one room went from cold to hot in about 15 minutes and the rest of the apartment is fine. The whole apartment - every room except the office/spare bedroom - is a comfortable 73 degrees. This third room is currently 85.

HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE??????!!!!!!! Someone explain it to me before I check myself into a psych ward??! PLEASEEEEEE????!!!!!

[dumbkid]

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[tiyanak]

Is there fire dampers in the registers or in the duct work at all?

I'm not sure? I've only ever *drawn* hvac plans and have never actually touched the real work before. I'm going to guess that yes there is since I'm assuming it's required for the building code.... but this is my guess. Would this cause warm air to blow out of the vent?

Oh, I should have mentioned that earlier, huh? Air is moving out of the vent. It's actually moving about the same as it was before. It's just coming out warm now.

[tiyanak]

Is there fire dampers in the registers or in the duct work at all?

The best I can tell is that there are not dampers. The vents and screws were painted over so I looked with a flash light... and there aren't any holes in the ceiling for access. So I could be wrong, but I do not think there are any.

[B.B.]

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[tiyanak]

check the CFM on each and every air vent... assuming they are all the same size faceplate.. the difference is depending of course the size of the room itself and the air duct must be a little bigger i think for let's say a 2 times the size of the other rooms... it can get crazy.... but check each size vent and each CFM coming out.. there's a digital CFM that does this spot on... i remember 6X9 vents were divided into 6 imagry[visualizing] squares on each vent and add them up and divide by 6... it's been awhile but someone could correct me

Without doing actual calculations (I did the hair test >_< a little ghetto, I know) the vent in this room seems to be moving air about 25% faster than my bedroom, and slightly slower (can't tell how much) than the living room.

[tiyanak]

I'm not sure? I've only ever *drawn* hvac plans and have never actually touched the real work before. I'm going to guess that yes there is since I'm assuming it's required for the building code.... but this is my guess. Would this cause warm air to blow out of the vent?

Oh, I should have mentioned that earlier, huh? Air is moving out of the vent. It's actually moving about the same as it was before. It's just coming out warm now.

[BamaCool]

First of all...This is not a DIY site. Second...The only answers you got were from people that are not supposed to give advise in this forum. Third....Considering your situation I'll answer you like this: You just said that room was the hottest with the heat running and coldest with the ac running. Since you said "I smelled heat", i have to assume your running it in heat. If so, what's the problem? It's in heat, that room is hotter than the others, just as you described it always has been.

[B.B.]

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[BamaCool]

I have smelled heat blowing out just before the a/c kicks in... the air coming thru the vents is straight from the indoor unit [for sake of making sense say a heat pump system] which may be hot inside cuz of the hot hot roof attic just above it but the beauty of it is the dead hot air is kicked out to an area where it is not needed but will disperse very quickly and then cold air comes in....awsum

I feel so much dumber after reading this!!!!!

[B.B.]

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[beenthere]

dumbkid, this is the Ask Our Pro's forum, and only Pro members that have been vetted by the AOPC may post advise, commentary or ask questions of the OP here. Please apply to the AOPC today, thank you.

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[tiyanak]

I have smelled heat blowing out just before the a/c kicks in... the air coming thru the vents is straight from the indoor unit [for sake of making sense say a heat pump system] which may be hot inside cuz of the hot hot roof attic just above it but the beauty of it is the dead hot air is kicked out to an area where it is not needed but will disperse very quickly and then cold air comes in....awsum

people live above me too >_< I'm on the second floor of a 3 story apartment building. Probably should have said that one earlier too.

...man, I'm bad at this giving-details thing :-P