Heating and AC not working optimally. Begging for help!
kellyp
8 years ago
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Radiant heating and regular heating/AC?....
Comments (13)Placing the PEX for radiant heating is relatively easy. What's not so easy is determining if this is a waste of money for you. It was for us. 1.)We live in the South, where the cooling season is longer than the heating season. Very little chance of payback unless you operate the system for longer periods. The smart boilers needed to accurately control a system in a temperate climate are pretty spendy and complicated and not very DIYable. 2.)We have wide temperature swings, sometimes daily, which magnifies the slowness of the "thermal mass pendulum." We see this just with our heated bathroom floors (separate system). It's going to be 42° tonight, so turning on the heated floors will feel good. You have to think about that a couple of hours in advance, because it takes that long to warm up. By the time they're warm, they're too warm for most of the timeframe except for that brief period that was 42°. The next day when the swing is back up to 60° and the floors are still 80°, the bathroom is too hot and needs a window opened for comfort. 3.) We insulated the new addition so well that a plain 110 volt 1500 w spaceheater can keep it 60° in the winter, and a 2 ton AC in the summer. If we'd put the money we spent on PEX towards additional insulation (we just used 2x6 construction with "standard" type insulation instead of the new high tech products) then the simple addition of the forced air furnace would have been more than sufficient for truly comfortable heating in the winter. For many people who have a long heating season and awkward spaces that forced air isn't comfortable for, radiant heating can work "miracles". For people in warmer climates, or in climates with great daily temperature fluctuations, a radiant system is very often not the best choice for either comfort or the pocketbook. Do your research well, and don't get caught up in the hype thinking it's a "must have". It isn't. And, it's sometimes even a drawback to comfort. We've never fired up the radiant in the addition. We've never needed to, even in 0° weather. And the bathrooms do work wonderfully well (imagine 6 cats lying on their backs in bliss!) but are also inefficient monetarily and for true comfort when confronted with wide temperature swings in a day. They are great when the temps say in the 40's and below for extended periods of time, but that't not how our winters here operate. It's 40 for a couple of days, then back up to 55°, then down to the high 20's, then 70° (must be Christmas day!) and then you have a 50° drop into the teens and on down to 0°. Radiant isn't very efficient or comfortable with weather like that....See MoreAny Heating and AC Aces among us?
Comments (12)Sorry I can't help you with the technical side but I can add my 2 cents about two zones. We have 2 zones - not upstairs, downstairs like you're considering but side by side because we have 2 separate systems. The original house is on one thermostat with it's own HVAC units and the 1000 square foot addition has it's own HVAC system. One important consideration is that placement of the thermostats. You don't want to locate it in a room that is the coldest or hottest because then the temperature in that room will dictate the temperature for the entire zone. We had to move the thermostat because it was located in the room that had the most extreme changes in temperature in the summer and winter. When the thermostat kicked on in the winter to make that room comfortable all the other rooms were too hot and we had to play around with opening and closing the room registers. Another factor is how your house is situated on the lot. Does one side get the full heat of the afternoon sun? Are there trees to provide shade in the summer? Is one side exposed to winter winds? The builder put dual zones in my DH's business office which is only one story but one side was next to the paved parking lot and received the full effect of the summer sun. That side of his office was nearly unbearable in the summer even with awnings over the windows and Pella blinds inserted between the window panes. By making it dual zone they could compensate for the heat in that side of the office without freezing out the occupants in the other side. It might be helpful to get another estimate - and another opinion. As I mentioned I'm not knowledgeable of the technical side - exactly how does the automatic zoning work?...See MoreReplace Heat Pumper/AC, need help.
Comments (9)For pricing, I don't know for sure about Trane equipment (this is information know to dealers only typically). My guess is the setup above might bring the equipment cost up to around $3000, but a guess is just a guess. I do recommend R-410a and variable-speed blowers to people, though. The variable-speed blower will ramp up to remove humidity from the home, which really helps with comfort on those humid days. Also, you can run the fan 24/7 on a low, nearly inaudible speed to filter the air and even out the temperatures throughout the home. I'm not sure what you mean by "Do I absolutely need to replace the old unit." If you replace one, you really should replace both to prevent problems. If you can fix your current system, then that would be fine as well. The issue I see with electronic air cleaners is threefold: 1. some emit ozone, which is bad for the environment; 2. the maintenance aspect vs. a media air filter that would do just a fine job filtering the air; 3. the price of course. If you want an electronic air cleaner, I won't turn you away from it; however, if you want a filter that will do a great job filtering the air at a lesser cost and with less maintenance, then I recommend a media air cleaner, which essentially uses a big pleated filter that you replace 2, maybe 3 times a year. It does sound like you can use a bit extra capacity (2 tons); however, you must remember that systems usually aren't designed to cool on 95+ degree days (I would still expect it to maintain a 20 degree difference, though). Make sure your ductwork can handle a 2-ton system (I would be very surprised if it couldn't handle an extra 200 cfm)....See MoreHelp Weighing Options for AC/Heat Pump System
Comments (12)Duct leakage is a huge problem when ducts are outside of the living space. They turn the HVAC blower into a power vent blowing air out of the house and sucking it in in random places when leaks are on the supply side depressurizing the house. When leaks are on the return side, the house can be pressurized blowing air out in random places. Even new duct systems leak. Poorly balanced duct systems pressurize and depressurize individual rooms. Central returns tend to do that by their nature unless careful attention is paid to undercutting doors or other sufficient room-to-room venting. Old duct systems leak a lot. Maybe energy_rater_la will chime in and report typical results. I think that 20% is not unusual. Not enough attention is paid to the problem. Check other links too. Buildingscience.com is a good place. Search on key words like, duct, envelope, and pressure. You might consider consulting with a local energy rater. It can be a good investment. There may be local programs to help with the cost, government or utility programs. Check resent.us. They can help identify the low-hanging fruit for energy savings and help you make your house more comfortable at the same time. Here is a link that might be useful: Energy Star...See Moreenergy_rater_la
8 years agokellyp
8 years ago
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