Heating Help

Solid fuel

@ June 18, 2013 12:03 PM in Heat Pump Water Heater and Humidity

So the solid fuel stays downstairs, huh?

Wow

@ June 14, 2013 12:20 PM in Heat Pump Water Heater and Humidity

That's going to be an interesting smelling bedroom at times  

Leak search

@ June 13, 2013 3:00 PM in Is my Coil to Blame?

Any good tech should have an electronic detector. Our guys have no problem finding leaks without putting crud in your system like dye or worse, leak stop products.

We aren't York dealers but did have a customer with a leaking coil last summer. York replaced the coil and helped with the labor. So certainly someone, might be better with a York dealer, should look into that. York really stepped up on these leaking coils.

BTW

@ June 13, 2013 2:58 PM in Heat Pump Water Heater and Humidity

But, are you sucking air out of the bathroom or blowing cold air into it? If blowing in, where does the air come from? If mechanical room, is there any fuel appliances in it?

Humidity is heat

@ June 13, 2013 2:55 PM in Heat Pump Water Heater and Humidity

Latent heat. So the more humid the air into the heat pump, the more capacity. 

Something's not right upstairs

@ June 4, 2013 11:56 AM in New HomeOwner with Central A/C - Is this condition normal?

They won't be identical but they should be a lot closer.

Every system will be slightly different even same model in same house. Odds are upstairs your temps are warmer, especially if attic heat penetrates the return duct. Also return air temps upstairs will be warmer. So wouldn't be unusual for the superheat to be higher upstairs.

In a higher efficiency system, the suction line doesn't run "beer can cold" like the old days. 49° could mean an overcharge or could be right if hot out, cool in.

72° under the right circumstances can be right too. Only way to know is a GOOD tech that knows how to charge units check them out carefully. Upstairs could be low on refrigerant or have a throttled back TXV.

Sure it's 22?

@ May 15, 2013 12:41 PM in r22 condenser

Wonder if they put 410 in?

Or just so hideously overcharged that the compressor bypass opened, the screeching noise you heard?

Might be safest to recover all, new drier, vacuum good and recharge with known good 22.

We have one like that

@ May 6, 2013 9:38 AM in General Electric Air Conditioner

Been meaning to post pictures. Boiler and rads but also a gigantic air handler with hot water coil. All from the 50s. Air handler had a huge electronic air cleaner in it but abandoned. Cooling coil removed, probably had water cooled condensing unit in basement. Now has traditional A/C & coil. Control for cooling is line voltage stat in upstairs bedroom. Separate low voltage stats on main floor for heat. 1 turns on pump to hot water coil, other turns on pump for rads. We had a boiler expert in but as low as his gas bill is, he didn't feel justified in replacing the boiler now. Will post pix soon.

We don't see the neat old jobs you guys do.

175K?

@ April 30, 2013 2:05 PM in what size boiler woul you recommend?

Holy cow! That's enough for 4 houses of your size!

Inficon

@ April 30, 2013 2:00 PM in What the best leak detector for r410a

Almost everyone here had the D-tek select but most are having trouble finding 410 leaks. Do fine on 22. Couple bought the Bacharach Informant 2 and are not happy. Lately a couple have gone with the TIF ZX and have been happier. Seems like 410 is a hard gas to find the leaks on. 

Options

@ April 24, 2013 1:25 PM in heat pumps and old apartment buildings

From a builder/landlord standpoint, heat pump with strips backup far
less money and much less to go wrong. Rare to have to fix a heat kit,
but those tankless machines are full of very expensive parts to fix.  Or
is budget not an issue?  If this is high end, water source heat pumps
with a boiler and tower. They could be billed for the juice of their
heat pump usage and cost of supplemental heat & tower in the HOA
bill.

Another lower priced option is a good PTHP or 2. That way
you don't have to snake linesets all around 6 stories and have 100 heat
pumps up on the roof. The pictures below are a new condo building, 10
stories, linesets up to 150' or more. Took special piping with a
subcooler on the linesets and a 3/8" line back to the compressor from
each condo. All 3 lines insulated.

Or possibly a ducted packaged
unit so no linesets and a quieter option than PTHP.
http://www.firstco.com/Products/Multi-Family-Residential-Products/Single-Package-Vertical-Units/SPXR-HP-A-%28heat-pump-electric-heat%29.

short coils

@ April 19, 2013 1:38 PM in dry charged condensor changeout

Some ADP and Aspen coils are pretty short and AHRI rate with a new 410 13 SEER machine. Often TXV is required. But sure beats the compromised SEER and capacity of putting a dry 13 SEER on some old coil. 

Honeywell

@ April 16, 2013 4:33 PM in Wifi t-stats

Focus Pro WiFi and Vision Pro WiFi both affordable, reliable products with 5 year warranty. Beyond that you can get into the Prestige or Prestige IAQ but they will require the Gateway. These are trade only products though the big box stores sell consumer versions for the same money but 1 year warranty.

I rewired a Nest last week, HO had the cooling and the strips on at the same time. Strips were winning. Have dealt with Nest tech support in the past, frustrating!

Need a supplier? www.jacksonsystems.com and they will put your name, logo and phone # on the stats for free.

As Charles would say:

@ April 16, 2013 4:15 PM in trouble free furnaces

Surely you jest! Trouble free anything these days doesn't seem to be happening. Sorry I have a dim view of the industry as they have cheapened the product to satisfy cheap homeowners. Used to be able to slap in a brand R 80 or 90 gas furnace and not touch it except to clean it. Now, expect pressure switch issues, inducers locking up... We went years without changing an ECM, now with Genteq it isn't that unusual. One of our brands went to China for ECMs and they are worse. I don't know of any standout brand these days. Right now all furnaces are made in the USA but full of 3rd world country parts. A couple of mfrs. are moving furnace production to Mexico in the next year or more.

I'd say research the supply houses that will be selling to you and pick the best one(s). That way you have support when your product acts up. Look for parts in stock, a tech rep on staff, sharp countermen or women. That's what a dealer should look for in a brand. If you pick a brand that isn't as well known, sell yourself and the customer will buy what you suggest. Train your installers on the product as lots of issues are caused by poor installation as well as cheap components. At least you have control over that.

Payback

@ April 12, 2013 3:21 PM in new boiler questions

Are you looking for a good investment or just want to go green?

Mod cons aren't as efficient on baseboard as low temp radiation so the savings over a good 82-84% cast iron boiler isn't as great as it could be. In a small home which means small heat loss, that reduces gas usage and savings as well. So the big bucks for a mod con over a said cast iron may not pay back in any kind of reasonable time frame. They tend to require more maintenance and have some very expensive components in them vs. the cast iron so 1 repair down the road would likely cost you more than you've saved. I'm sure I'm well in the minority here but something to think about.

Actually, last boiler class I was in by a national trainer from one of the biggest brands, he said he'd do the same thing if it were his house and baseboard and he was there training us on his mod con!

I seem to recall

@ April 5, 2013 12:33 PM in rheem warm air furnace

hearing of manufacturing oil in the burners block the crossover. Try washing out the burners.

Another thought

@ April 3, 2013 1:11 PM in Window AC water slinger vs dry question

I've done it both ways. Drilled a hole and let it sling.
I've seen some pretty nasty looking condensers plugged up from the wet coil attracting dust going through it. They wouldn't get near as plugged with a dry condenser. I've seen them so matted that even chemical cleaning had trouble loosening. If dry, a simple rinse keeps it clean.

flow

@ March 27, 2013 1:54 PM in Sandy still haunts my home!

Are there check valves somewhere that keep the pump from pushing water backwards through the other pump when off? 

Modulating

@ March 25, 2013 2:01 PM in Ruud rgfg

The Rheem mod with 13 stages of heat that will stage up and down (at least 1 brand won't stage down) nearly perfectly can follow the heat loss of a house if properly sized. Yes, you get 3 stages, 2 briefly, with a single stage stat but since you time up to high and stay there, you lose most of the comfort advantages of that furnace.

Look at it this way: in your car on a cold day, do you constantly play with the controls or find a gentle setting and leave it alone once the car is warmed up? Well, most will find a nice low setting and leave it alone. If you have auto climate control, that is done for you. The mod with proper control is like that too. It may sit at 40% capacity all day long. Perfectly even heat, usually inaudible. Like hydronic heat!

But with single stage stat, you quickly pass 40%, 65% and sit on high til the stat satisfies. Then the house gets cooler and the cycle starts again. Over & over. Do you turn your heat in car completely off only to turn back on in a few minutes on a cold day? No. Why not? It's not comfortable. Same with the house. And frequent cycles aren't as efficient.

I never had people rave about a furnace until this one. All mine went out with the matching stat.

Sad

@ March 21, 2013 1:34 PM in Ruud rgfg

One of the best furnaces on the market with modulating up & down is crippled by a single stage stat? 

Sounds normal

@ February 21, 2013 3:06 PM in white smoke from chimney

Big byproduct of combustion is water vapor so common if cold out to see white steam coming out of the flue pipe of a gas product. More when first started, once things warm up it will decrease. If mild and dry, may not be visible. Cold and damp, really noticable and may never stop being visible. 

lockout

@ February 15, 2013 11:26 AM in heat pump t-stat

Most stats with outdoor sensors do use that info for locking out equipment. The Honeywells, Vision Pro, Prestige, will use the sensor to lockout the compressor in bitter weather or lockout the strips in mild weather. Some will use the sensor to adjust humidity level on a connected humidifier to as not to get too humid in cold weather.