Heating Help

residential AC/frozen evaporator

@ July 21, 2010 8:48 AM in residential AC/frozen evaporator

I just purchased a new home and last night the existing AC unit (gas furnace with Dx cooling) had about a 1/4" of frost on the entire length of the suction line, the evaporator coil appears blocked with ice, and the compressor is covered in ice/frost. The furnace fan was running load (fan spinning but no air movement) and the discharge grilles had no air flow. The previous home owners had a service contract from the gas company but acknowledged that the AC was not annually serviced.

Is this an easy fix?
Any ideas of the cause?

@ August 15, 2008 3:25 PM in 500K solar water preheat.

Check out http://www.oventrop.com/us/index.asp?Sprache=US

electric water heaters

@ July 3, 2008 12:08 PM in electric water heater

My client recently bought a new home. The home is entirely electric: heating and domestic hot water. He is looking to replace the electric water heater with whatever is the most energy efficient available. They way fuel prices are soaring first time costs are pale in comparison to operating costs. So with a long warranty, a more expensive water heater might make sense. I was considering a cement lined water heater by PVI (light duty commercial). Although AO Smith's Conservationist Electric Water Heaters or SuperStor look good too. Does anyone have a sound advice?

@ December 28, 2006 4:27 PM in thermal traps

No leaks are apparent. Although they just bought the house about 18 months ago.

@ December 28, 2006 4:26 PM in thermal traps

The original problem was no flow on the second floor. the system pressure was 10 psi. I opened up the manual feed and raised the pressure to 15 psi. I thought this was the first time I had seen a manual feed, however I just looked in my B&G catalog it looked like a B&G FB-38 with manual fast fill. Is there a difference? There is not a back flow preventer. I was considering adding that too when we changed out the RPV. Could the lack of a BFP cause the system presure to decrease from 15 to 10 psi? I originally thought it to be a slow leak somewhere in the system.

thermal trap

@ December 28, 2006 4:09 PM in thermal traps

While helping my brother-in-law with his heating system: i.e. installing automatic air vents, adding make up water via manual feed, purging the system, etc. I noticed the heat was migrating up the boiler's make up water piping. He and I plan to replace the manual feed with an automatic feed (pressure reducing valve). I would like to also repipe the make up water with a thermal trap to contain the migrating heat. Is there a minimum vertical dimension for an effective thermal trap? Any other important criteria?

teflon tape / compression fitting

@ October 19, 2006 5:06 PM in compression fittings

I am hooking up a dishwasher. I have 3/8" soft drawn tubing connecting to a compresion fitting (elbow up to the unit). The installation manual recommends not using teflon tape on the compression fitting. I always use a little rectorseal doubled with teflon tape. should I not be doing this with the compression nut and ferral?

oversizing Radson Radiators

@ March 24, 2006 9:43 AM in Oversizing radson radiator

I am working on a project that incorporates a Viessmann boiler and how water radiators individaully controlled with danfoss valves. The Radson sales rep is suggesting oversizing each radiator for better control and confort. Does this sound like a good idea or a sales scheme? Any other advice on a system like this would be appreciated.

Domestic Water (odorous well water)

@ August 23, 2005 10:06 AM in Domestic water question

A residential home on the outer cape (Cape Cod) has well water consisting of a Grundfos submersible pump, pre-charged storage tank (approx 30 - 40 gallons) with a pressure sensor to energize the well pump. The house has periods of non-use, usually Monday thru Friday in the summer and longer periods in winter. When a faucet is first opened the domestic water has a sewer-gas type odor. After the water runs for several minutes the odorous water in the storage tank has been replaced with “fresh” ground water. The home owner believes the tank is the problem and has inquired about replacing the tank. I don’t think this is the problem but rather something in the ground water is decomposing in the tank and a new tank will have the same problem. Questions: Have anyone heard of this before? Is there a solution other than filtering the domestic water? Can a circulating the domestic water or boiling the water prior to the storage tank eliminate this odor?