Master Bedroom Always Colder

[mettius]

Just to clarify. Do you actually mean the Master Bedroom is 5* colder in the winter and in the summer?
Or is it 5* colder in winter, and 5* warmer in summer?

Nope it seams to be always colder, regardless of season.
I really didn't start measuring temps in the room this past winter (the one we just had) though and will see how it goes when I start using the AC this year.

[sam_hikes]

Do you have an electronic air cleaner as the "fresh" smell is likely ozone.

I had a fresh/sweet smell which took me weeks to figure out was coming from my EAC. Disable your EAC and see if the smell goes away in about 12-24 hours.

I was able to isolate problem as I had to EAC and so I disabled the one for the bedrooms and by the next day the rest of the house smelled almost toxic. Suspect the ozone problem was intensified since I was running the vs blower in continuous fan mode almost 24x7 along with the EAC.

Turned out my EAC was dumping ozone and was de-installed by the contractor.

I don't know why I didn't think of this before...
Ever since we moved in we sometimes notice a "fresh" smell in this room.
I don't know how to really describe it, of any rhyme or reason as to why, but this room definitely seems to feature a different oder sometimes.

When I finished (polyurethane) some woodworking furnature in one of the spare bedrooms, I think I noticed the oder seemed to collect in the master bedroom as well. I don' know if it is related...

[mettius]

Do you have an electronic air cleaner as the "fresh" smell is likely ozone.

Yes, I have EAC's in the house (two systems,one each). I just discovered that one of them was defective, and after replacing the PCB now the upstairs has the same smell as I noted in the master bedroom. This must be the ozone smell.

I wonder is it just an effect or is it actually harmful?
I see from the Carrier EACA manuals that one can set a jumper to lower the voltage and reduce the amount of ozone production.

[sam_hikes]

See some of the threads below on IAQ which hopefully will provide some insight. There's a big ozone thread and cleaneffects EAC thread.

http://hvac-talk.com/vbb/forumdisplay.php?f=20

Turn off 1 or both EAC's and see if the smell goes away.

Trane claims their unit produces a max of 5ppb which I believe is way off and way too low for the toxic smell I was getting. ( check on your unit )

Hopefully your EAC is not dumping ozone as I had my contractor de-install both of my EAC's and instead replace them with 5 inch media.

Not sure about your town but we have pollution warnings due to high ozone so I really don't want any extra pollution in my home... Ok I tried... Ozone is pollution.

Yes, I have EAC's in the house (two systems,one each). I just discovered that one of them was defective, and after replacing the PCB now the upstairs has the same smell as I noted in the master bedroom. This must be the ozone smell.

I wonder is it just an effect or is it actually harmful?
I see from the Carrier EACA manuals that one can set a jumper to lower the voltage and reduce the amount of ozone production.

[mettius]

What kind of wine is that in pic #2?

Probably Red Zinfendel (sp?) or something. I'm not much of a wine drinker.

[mettius]

More thoughts since seeing your pics:[*]Was the master bedroom too cold or hot prior to you having additional returns added? Has the addition of a return in the master made it worse? With the largest return immediately outside the master bedroom door, plus the one in the room itself, it is possible too much return is occurring for the amount of supply going into the room. Kind of rare...most time residential returns for bedrooms are not enough.[/LIST]

I'm back, still trying to troubleshoot this. I've monitored the room throughout this summer (it's not over yet of course, Austin, TX), and have done some experimenting. I'm thinking your suggestion above (too much return air in master) is the problem, but I'd like better opinions than mine.

First I closed (all the way) the two air "outlets" in the master. This helped a lot with the room being too cold compared to the rest of the house. After a few weeks though I noticed a little cupping on the hardwood floor in the master bedroom right in front of the master bathroom door. After ruling out water leaks from the bathroom (I cut a few access holes into the wall behind the shower, - bone dry), it occurred to me that the return air for the bedroom was now being feed largely by sucking air under the master bath door. I opened the vents in the master again to full open and gave it a few weeks, the cupping on the floor went away. Closing them most of the way (in the master bedroom and the master bath and closet) I now get quite a bit of air movement into the master bedroom under the master bedroom door (it will "pull the door open several inches if I let it go without being latched.

So, I'm pretty sure the returns are just not not balanced well. What are options for remedy? I'm going to make an appointment with the HVAC company that installed it all, to see what they can do about it. How will I know if any proposal they give me was correctly calculated this time? How would you guys approach fixing this? What sort of measurments or steps should they be taking to properly analyze this. I really want to get it fixed once and for all.