Harmony III - HELP!

[Sandy77]

Hello! My home is a 2 story 2500 ft2 with a 4.5 foot crawl space (1275 ft2). Here are my system specs

Lennox Healthy Climate Bypass Humidifier
Lennox G61MPV Series Furnace
Lennox Elite Series XC16 AC Unit
Lennox CH33 Series Evaporator Coils
Lennox Healthy Climate HRV3-200
Lennox Pureair Air Purification System
Harmony III Zone Control System
Honeywell FocusPRO TH6000 Series Programmable Thermostat

Okay...My Zones are "set-up" as follows. I have 3 Zones.

Zone 1 --- controls my entire 2nd floor (upstairs) which consists of 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1 laundry room. The 2 floors are connected via an open staircase that is at the centre of the home. At the top of this open staircase hall is where the Zone 1 Thermostat is located. There are no floor registers in the hall area. There is 1 return in the ceiling at the top of the staircase, and 2 other returns on this floor, one in the Master bedroom and one in a bedroom we use as home office.

Zone 2 AND Zone 3 --- Main floor zones, consists of 1 bedroom, bathroom, powder room, open concept living room/kitchen, and a mudroom...both controlled by 1 thermostat located in a hallway.

The crawl space has a few registers open to it which come from the Zone 2/3 branches.

My Harmony III Settings are:

PIAB
Zone #1 --- 80%
Zone #2 --- 70%
Zone #3 --- 70%

Heat Staging Temp - 90
Cool Staging Temp - 60
Cont Air Reduction - 75%
Heating Air Reduction - 20%

My problems began in the fall 2010, we were told by our neighbours that our AC Unit was coming on and turning off often. We were not yet moved into the home but as soon as we did we had the installers come in and look at the system. They said it was functioning fine and that was that. We were already in the fall so we were not using the AC anymore, so on to the winter season. During the winter our number one problem was humidity...LACK OF! I noticed our water line to the unit was never connected, and so in December the line was installed. Through the heating season our Bypass Humidifier was NOT getting us anywhere. Our home is all wood floors and wood cabinets, and the %RH was as low as 28%, and we experienced issues with our flooring. We ran portable humidifiers throughout the home, hoping to make it better but it did little to turn things around. Luckily with the arrival of spring, the %RH came back and we are getting a good 45-50% which has been good. However, we feel we may need to "upgrade" to a steam Humidifier to maintain this issue this winter. Any input on this would be very welcomed!

The AIRFLOW of the system in both cooling and heating situations has never been great...so that's in question -- is there a way to adjust settings to increase airflow?

The AC problem did return this spring when we ran the AC again. The unit would come on run 5 minutes and turn off. And continue to do this and the house just got hotter.
The Service technician found that:
The DAS was installed too close to the evaporator coil, so he moved it.
Then after more diagnosing found that the DS wire was not connected from the furnace to the Zone control
Then that the Zone 2 at the Harmony control was OFF, so he set it to 70%, as it was not opening before (doesn't it fail to open??)

As of this point my AC runs but I still find the airflow is crap. Not enough movement to spin a pin wheel. And last night my AC wasn't functioning properly as my thermostats were both reading about 77 degrees and calling for 71...I checked the Error code on my Harmony and it's telling me 1101 DAS sensed frozen coil. So again tripping the unit even after moving the DAS probe.

HELP?!!! Are my PIAB settings even right? Could the settings be affecting my air flow?

We do not run our HRV due to high temps and humidity outside, but we do run our furnace fan ON low due to the PureAir as instructed by a service tech.

ANY info ideas are SOOOOO appreciated.

It's great to have a SMART system, but if it doesn't ALARM to tell you something is wrong, then how SMART is it?

[heaterman]

Posted in the wrong area.

[tipsrfine]

Posted in the wrong area.

Could you explain a little on why this is posted in the wrong area?

[Sandy77]

How is this the wrong area? Where is the RIGHT one?

[Sandy77]

Nevermind my last comment...I see what you did, moved the message into this thread...

So? Any thoughts, advice on my questions?

[classical]

You have a very nice system.

I cannot comment on the humidifier as adding humidity is not a problem in Houston, I suspect you are in Canada.

The Harmony is a very nice zone panel it does appear your percentages are high but they may have designed it that way.

It appears your issue may be more about duct design and less a problem with the equipment. The glitches you have mentioned and have been addressed are unfortunate but somewhat understandable on new construction.

Has the service company performed any air balancing, determined actual airflow total and per zone. I would have them determine actual airflow, airflow velocity, total system static pressure and verify the settings of the furnace control board.

If the technician is unfamiliar with the Harmony III he can contact Lennox technical support while onsite, they are very helpful and can frequently lead the tech in a direction he has over looked or dismissed. I find that a fresh pair of eyes so to speak will see something right under my nose that I am too close to see.

[Sandy77]

Thanks!

Unfortunately the dealer who installed my entire system has not been back since the humidifier water line fix. I did contact them to come back to look at our AC issue, however they did not get back to us (likely due to issues with our General Contractor) and so we were forced to contact another local Lennox dealer.

The original installer did however contract out the "design" of our system to a Mechanical Group who provided a complete Heating/Cooling Analysis based on our building plans. I have all of the calcs and numbers, but it's "greek" to me.

If I knew what to look for in these calcs it would make PIAB's make more sense to me...I would assume that the PIAB's do affect the airflow out of the registers?? Could this low airflow be responsible for my evaporator coils "freezing" as per my Harmony fault trip is telling me? I didn't open the coil to see ice - I only found this fault after the fact...but this is something I will look for next time.

How would I get more airflow?

[Sandy77]

BTW...Is condensation on the outside of my ductwork at the plenum, just before it branches off to the zones, bad?

[classical]

BTW...Is condensation on the outside of my ductwork at the plenum, just before it branches off to the zones, bad?

Yes.

More than 50% weight to any zone is significant so if the ductwork is properly designed you have volumes of airflow. You need to have an airflow study performed to determine how much air (CFM) the system is delivering and how much is actually being delivered to each zone.

At this point the only person that can help you is a contractor that has the knowledge and the equipment to diagnosis your system. The will need an anemometer, a flow hood or flow plate and a manometer. If they do not have the tools they cannot determine the problem.

[Sandy77]

Oh great...so the service guys cannot perform airflow tests? Then why do they feel confident enough to change the PIAB jumper settings on my zones? Weird. I'm so close to calling Lennox myself.

STILL waiting for the last service dealer to call me...I called this morning asking for someone to contact me today about last night's fiasco with the 77F in the house and NO airflow. One thing the guy did was remove some refrigerant. He said my system had too much? Does that even make sense? Can't too little refrigerant cause my evaporator coils to freeze?

BTW Classical - THANKS for the advice!