High quality HVAC at Texas Motor Speedway

[mark beiser]

A customer of ours asked me to go look at the AC in his condo at TMS. 8th floor, 1600 sq ft. BIG $$$$$$$ for this place. 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, big open area with a full kitchen, living area, dining area and about 16 movie theator type seats and a glass wall overlooking the race track.

Main complaint is that they can't cool the bedrooms enough at night without freezing out people camped in the living/observation area.

Secondary complaint is that it sounds like a tornado in the closet when the "big" unit comes on.

Open the closet and find these 2 water source heat pumps. One 5 ton and one 2 ton. Evedently they had a problem with cooling the living/observation area on race days, so the origonal contractor wedged another 2 ton unit in there with one 12" duct going to a 14x14 grill.


Both units pull return from the closet and there is a big return grill in the wall. Not quite big enough to be quiet when both units are running though.


The supply for the 5 ton unit is a 14" flex duct running from the outlet of the unit into a big box that all the ductwork branches off of. The air velocity down the center of that duct is around 1600 fpm. It literally sounds like a tornado, and the duct jumps around.



Not a lot we can do about the ductwork without cutting holes in the drywall cieling since there is no room to move around , but we verified that both bedrooms and bathrooms have thier own ductwork, so I designed and ordered some custom lined metal plenums to tame this mess and quiet it down. Gona use the 2 ton unit for the bedrooms and baths, and the 5 ton unit for the rest of it.

I'll take some pictures when we go back and fix it. Probably will still look like crap though. Just not enough room up there for 7 tons of ductwork.

[dschwab9]

What are they doing in there that they need 7 tons for 1600 sq ft?

[lonestarheir]

Racedays in Texas are usually very hot and humid to say the least. Add 30+ people in your personal suite and now you are talking heat load!!!!

Good luck - hope you charged plenty - I saw the listing price on those condo's and WOW

[mark beiser]

Originally posted by lonestarheir
Racedays in Texas are usually very hot and humid to say the least. Add 30+ people in your personal suite and now you are talking heat load!!!!

Exactly, and on top of that, they like to open the 2 openable windows so they can hear the cars too.

Good luck - hope you charged plenty - I saw the listing price on those condo's and WOW

Yeah, the big ones high up like this one are 7 figures!
We are charging him plenty.

[ct_hvac_tech]

I want to see pics of the rest of the condo...sounds nice!

[mark beiser]

Originally posted by ct_hvac_tech
I want to see pics of the rest of the condo...sounds nice!

They are ok, built on the cheep though. The whole building is a big turd pile, poor workmanship throughout from all involved trades.

Doesn't stop them from charging 6 and 7 figure prices for them though. But hey, you get nice comfy air conditioned seeting with a good view of the whole track for any and all racing events though.

[seaboard]

Had a few like that which we just changed the flex to medium pressure flex (like what's used entering VAV boxes) and that helped a lot with the jumping around. The inner liner is a lot more rigid. Another way to do it is to use two adjustable ells and turn them however necessary to make it up. If there's a gap a short piece of flex can make up the difference. A "V" insert at the top end of the plenum box is another idea. They'll spend 7 figures on those places but want it fixed cheap, cheap, cheap.

[simpleman]

Hey ..I like the flow setter on the water line,that had to cost at least 2000 dollars.