New Home, Upstairs not cooling right.. - http://www.hvacmechanic.com/ Forums
Original message
| mann1975
 |  "New Home, Upstairs not cooling right.."
, posted Wed 20 Aug 22:27:  
New 2400ft2 home. Upstairs @1400ft2 (includes a bonus room) Air Handler is 2/3 to one side of attic. Duct work has no dampeners. 12 ceiling registers throughout. 2 returns upstairs, 1 in hallway, and one in bonus room. Plenty of draw, it actually sucks the doors closed while closing them by hand.
Issue: Upstairs thermostat set at 70. Actual temperature is about 10 degrees warmer than what thermostat is reading. Never gets below 75 at all, even at night. Unit runs rather often even when it is lower than 70 outside, like over night. Bonus room side seems to be cooler than opposite side, but no by much. It is under contractor warranty
June 2008 - Installer came out and let some freon out.....he claimed it was slighlty over charged. Said that should fix it......But it did not.
July 2008 - Installer came out and put some freon back in it. Said it was low.....Said that should fix it.....But it did not.
August 2008 - Installer came back and walked around upstairs and felt the registers by hand and said he had to call his boss to suggest dampeners to be installed in duct work...Got a call back from his boss, he said that the compressor is going bad they want to come out and replace the compressor and that should fix it......well, it didn't....no difference at all.
I get the feeling that the installer is dragging his feet hoping the warranty will run out so he wont have to fix any incorrect installation issues they may or may not be aware of.
Any idea on what could possibly be wrong, what I could hold him to check out.
rmann
[this message was edited by mann1975 on Wed 20 Aug 23:24] |
| Replies:
|
| Steve61
| "Re(1):New Home, Upstairs not cooling right.." , posted Wed 20 Aug 23:51
If the contractor is reputable its doubtful he's dragging his feet to let the warranty run out. Its possible he's just having trouble figuring it out himself. Any technician that comes out though should know that its better by his readings or tell you otherwise. Several possibilities are ; is the unit properly sized for sq. footage ( guessing the unit is 3 to 3.5 ton ),
Where is the thermostat located ( cool side by the bonus room or warm side)warm side location would keep unit running longer before satisfying thermostat thereby cooling more before shutting down,dampers are a possibility to balance air(check registers for airflow.also could be metering device restriction causing improper refrigerant flow greatly reducing cooling efficiency. Hope that helps some.
Steve61
|
| | Freon
| "Re(2):New Home, Upstairs not cooling right.." , posted Thu 21 Aug 15:43
Please post the make and model number of the outdoor condenser unit. Tell us the size (diameter/dimensions) of the two return ducts. Measure the air temperature of air leaving a supply register closest to the air handler and also the air temperature going into the return... post those too.
|
| | mann1975
|  "Re(3):New Home, Upstairs not cooling right.."
, posted Thu 21 Aug 18:49:
It is doubtful the installer is reputable.....He was hired out by a general contractor that typically builds spec houses. Our house started out as a spec house but ended up becoming a custom home, but we let him use his normal sub-contractors. I have never been one to judge by appearances, it is not who I am but, but when the technicians have to drive their personal vehicles, I haven't seen a tech come out that was over 21 years old yet. No professionalism in them at all. I have yet to meet "the boss" can't even find his number in the phone book...I have to go through the general contractor to get them out there. So I don't think they even have a reputation peroid. My gut tells me that they are some jackleg dirtcheap outfit that general contractors love to use becuase they are cheap. In fact the guys who shingled roof showed up in an unmarked van that had license plates from 3 states away and about 12 "migrant workers" piled out and went straight up the ladder. The drywall guy was driving a tractor-trailor for a living 2 weeks before he drywall my house. He did drywall 15 yrs ago, he recently lost his license and needed some local work to pay his fines off so he could get his liscense re-instated. Just some extra info that I tought some of you may get a kick out of. It all adds up to the general contractor getting by as cheap as possible and we the home owners will have to pay for it in the long run. Enough of crying the blues.
I agree that the numbers will show if something is wrong, I have heard that there are gadgets that can pinpoint the general area of what the problem might be, but the problem is that the only device I have even seen in three visits is the gauges used to check the freon level. I have yet to see anyone walk through the house with any other measuring devices to actually get "Numbers". They only came in the house to turn the unit on or off.
The thermstat is close to being central to the house but may be a tad closer to the cooler side of the house, but two other thermometers placed beside it shows readings atleast 6 degrees higher than what the thermstat actually reads.
The units are Gibson.....2.5 Ton for the downstairs (1,000ft2), and 2.5 Ton for the upstairs (1,400ft2)[8ft ceilings both floors]. One return in hall way (14x20) and one return in bonusroom (14x14).I will get the other technical data when I get home, as I am currently out of town on business.
One other thing to note: The stairs are in an atrium type area that is open all the way up to the 2nd floor ceiling with a 48" window that faces the morning sun. There are no registers in this atruim area. You can feel a major difference in temperature when you get halfway up the stairs, even at night, 10 hrs after no direct sunlight adding to the heat.
The downstairs thermostat is set on 76 and it is still way cooler that upstairs set at 71.
Thanks for the advise so far, and thanks in advance for any future advice. Any and all is greatly appreciated.
rmann
[this message was edited by mann1975 on Thu 21 Aug 19:08] |
| | mann1975
|  "Re(5):New Home, Upstairs not cooling right.."
, posted Sat 23 Aug 08:19:
Good advice, I will do just that.
Meanwhile, I got home yesterday and was checking things out and I noticed that on the heat pump that is working correctly, the line that is insulated is ice cold to the touch and wet (condensation), I understand this to be desirable. However, on the heat pump that is not working correctly, that same line is outside temperature and is completely dry......the installers have been out there three times checking freon levels so is it safe to assume the lines are properly charged? And if so what other factors could contribute to this?
Other data that I have:
Outside Temp: 84
Thermostat setting: 70
Temp @ vent closest to Air Handler: 76
Temp @ return: 76
I noticed at a random duct joint which has foil insulation around it that also is wrapped in metallic tape felt kind of cold. I made a small puncture in this area and can feel cool air blowing out of that puncture. This is not desirable is it. My understanding was that the insulation around the duct is to keep the heat from the attic away from the cooled air in the duct, and the insulation is not intended to keep the cooled air away from the warm attic. What gives?????
rmann
[this message was edited by mann1975 on Sun 24 Aug 14:30] |
| | Freon
| "Re(6):New Home, Upstairs not cooling right.." , posted Sun 24 Aug 14:40
Show the builder that duct joint. You should have both insulation and a vapor barrier that is taped air-tight preventing humid attic air from condensing on the colder duct.
Your supply/return temps indicate no cooling. show the builder that data and also the fact one condenser has a beer can cold return (suction) line where the other condenser does not. That should motivate him to call someone to do a thorough inspection.
|
| | mann1975
|  "Re(7):New Home, Upstairs not cooling right.."
, posted Fri 29 Aug 13:16:
UPDATE:
As of today, the HVAC Installer came out for the 5th time.....Checked Freon levels again, for the 5th time......said they were fine. He performed an acid test which checked out OK. He agreed that something was wrong because the lines are not sweating back like they are supposed to, but he has no idea why. Give it a couple of days and if it still isn't right then call back next week. Same story same ending time and time again. I call the owner of the company to express my dissatisfaction with what I was told and he told me that he technicians called him and told him that everything was fine and working properly. Hmmmmm!!!!
Anyway, it is actually worse, more humid upstairs now. One thing I noticed that was odd, is when the AC with the thermostat set at 69 degrees is running the thermostat reads actual temp at 71 degrees which is actually about 7 degrees off from real world. But when we turn the unit off, the thermostat immediately jumps to 78 degrees, turn it back on it jumps down to 71 again. Is this normal, is there something wrong with this.
rmann
[this message was edited by mann1975 on Sun 31 Aug 10:54] |
|
|
|  |
|
