Clueless and need help!

[21degrees]

come on jeremyyyyyyyyyyyyy....job security budddy job security

What do you do for a living, give out free advice so people can hurt themselves and cost them more. I have had more service calls for thermostats that people tried playing with and costing them more money than you have Ys in jeremys name. So before you get all worked up about job security, their might be other reason why they do not allow DIYS on this site.

The Raiders Suck!

[seatonheating]

This thread should be closed, he needs to call his original contractor.

Quit giving him help guys, it's obvious where this is going.

[ampulman]

I understand that's it's not always that easy. I was just hoping something might stick out to someone. The thermostat issue has me intrigued because I never hear the downstairs unit do anything different, it always seems like it is on the same speed. I paid extra for the two speed for a reason, so I am worried that the thermostat isn't controlling it properly.

Does anyone have any recommendations as per the windows? There are 10 horribly WEST facing windows which is bad and they bake in the afternoon. Aside from chaning them which I have no ability to do right now, is there anything else I can do that is inexpensive, worth the time and still looks good?

Thanks again!

You could look into putting up some type of awning or shutter arrangement for those windows. Less expensive than replacements.

AM

[WeatherNLU]

This thread should be closed, he needs to call his original contractor.

Quit giving him help guys, it's obvious where this is going.

Why quit helping me, what the heck did I do wrong? I don't even know what happened. Last I checked the thread there was some good advice. The original contractor has come back out, thanks for mentioning that I would have never thought of it. I was hoping to get some understanding of what I can and cannot expect the system to do. I have no chance of doing anything myself so don't worry. He said he doesn't believe the unit is going into two stage mode. He's going to try a new thermostat and see if that is the cause. Still, I have other issues and I thank those of you who are trying to help me solve them.

[WeatherNLU]

Are you sure the unit is 4.5 tons. To the best of my knowledge 2 stage units only come in even tonnages.

It's very possible it is 4 and the upstairs is 2.5.

EDIT: Yep, found my work order paper. 2.5 ton 13 SEER upstairs and 4 ton 16 SEER down. Variable speed condenser, Variable speed furnace 80K BTU and high efficency American Standard aluminum evaporator coil.

[Morrison]

Sound like you should call the contractor who installed the new units and make sure the are preforming like they should and also check out the other units to make sure they are also doing wright,if they can not help, it would be time to call someone can.

[hangfirew8]

80 in this case means 80% AFUE, or roughtly 80% of the fuel you burn will end up as heat in the house (the rest goes up the chimney.)

This was considered pretty efficient 20 years ago, now it is the minimum available.

http://www.americanstandardair.com/H...eedom80CR.aspx

If you don't have an owner's manual:

http://www.americanstandardair.com/H...rsManuals.aspx

Upstairs:

Upstairs the stuff basically sits on what would be the third floor of the house so I re-used all of the equipment up there which is about 12 years old. I've never been up there so I don't even know what brand it is. I bought a new 2 ton American Standard Allegiance 13 for it.

I don't know what "re-used all the equipment of there" means. Did you move your former downstairs equipment upstairs, just re-used the ductwork with new equipment, or ????

Problems:

The house is miserable. $7200 in equipment and it's horrible in here, not to mention a $400 energy bill. One of the problems is surely the windows in the house. I only needed to replace 3 of the 18 windows so the windows aren't the greatest. The house was down to the studs on the first floor, and I did the insulation so it's well insulated. Of course it doesn't help that it is 90-95 degrees during the summer.

Ideas:

1. Windows need to go?
2. Didn't buy big enough for upstairs? 900 square feet up, 1800 down
3. Thermostats? They look cheap and I know that my parents had a two speed and you could see what speed it was running on. The one upstairs is the cheapest digital type you can buy and the one downstairs is a Honeywell TH5220D. It doesn't say anything in the manual about two speeds so I have no idea if the thermostats the A/C guy installed are any good for these systems?
4. Bad vent setup? I have hot spots including the master bedroom where it's just really MISERABLE! I have a Weather Channel thermometer and it's impossible to get it cooler than 76 in the room. Just now I did 72 on both thermostats (up and down) and it got to 76 and no better. Both shut off as the thermostats say 72 but the master is now back to 78 with 61% humidity.

Any ideas?

Thanks a million for any help!!

You should have enough equipment to turn a tobacco shed into a meat locker.

Get a thermometer and measure the duct output at each and every duct, and figure the temperature difference with the air going into the returns. If some output is roughly 20 degrees or so less in all ducts, you have functional equipment and ducts but other problems. But, I doubt it.

If some ducts are cold and some tepid, you may have a duct problem.

If all the upstairs or downstairs ducts are tepid, that system is having a problem. Be careful though, sometimes ducts cross boundaries, returns in particular (downstairs systems sometimes draw return air from upstairs, new additions downstairs get air from upstairs, etc.).

Once you've isolated the problem a bit, get back to us or just call a pro.

-HF

[WeatherNLU]

80 in this case means 80% AFUE, or roughtly 80% of the fuel you burn will end up as heat in the house (the rest goes up the chimney.)

This was considered pretty efficient 20 years ago, now it is the minimum available.

http://www.americanstandardair.com/H...eedom80CR.aspx

If you don't have an owner's manual:

http://www.americanstandardair.com/H...rsManuals.aspx




I don't know what "re-used all the equipment of there" means. Did you move your former downstairs equipment upstairs, just re-used the ductwork with new equipment, or ????



You should have enough equipment to turn a tobacco shed into a meat locker.

Get a thermometer and measure the duct output at each and every duct, and figure the temperature difference with the air going into the returns. If some output is roughly 20 degrees or so less in all ducts, you have functional equipment and ducts but other problems. But, I doubt it.

If some ducts are cold and some tepid, you may have a duct problem.

If all the upstairs or downstairs ducts are tepid, that system is having a problem. Be careful though, sometimes ducts cross boundaries, returns in particular (downstairs systems sometimes draw return air from upstairs, new additions downstairs get air from upstairs, etc.).

Once you've isolated the problem a bit, get back to us or just call a pro.

-HF

So the furnace is 20 year old technology? That's not good, they have it listed as a 4 out of 5 efficent on their site! Anyway, no big deal we use the heater about 10 days out of the year.

As far as the equipment, I get the terminology a little confused but it's basically two seperate systems. The main unit, the 4 ton 2 speed, is for downstairs and has the new furnace with the new coils on top. This is located under my stairs. The upstairs stuff I think refers to the furnace and the coils up on that third level that operate the upstairs unit. They were not changed and are about 12 years old.

The duct work is all the original duct work. The water was only 5 feet in the house and for a very short period of time as the property is very close to the Mississippi River (higher ground). The ceilings being 10 feet also helped.

So I just get a thermometer like the one I have and get the temperature and humidity of the air coming out of each duct? Isn't there a thermostat that does that for you, I thought I saw something like that researching thermostats.

Thanks so much, I was hopeful that it wasn't the choice of equipment and more like other problems holding the performance back.

[sammy37]

In order to make the assumption that you are undersized, one must have plans showing size, type and location of the windows and doors and insuation R values. Size of exterior walls and the type of sideing and insulation on the exterrior of the home. A good rule of thumb is 1 tons per 400 SQ foot for a newly constructed well insulatated home with double pane windows and as low as 150 to 200 tons for older less insulated homes. The number, size and location of these windows plays a lage part in the determination of this figure.

Is that how you size everything? how long you been in business? Have you ever ran a load calc?