Heat Pump repair Howard County?

[Mark75H]

No, any reflectivity will throw off the reading. Also be aware of the cone shaped field of view of infrared thermometers. The farther you are from the object you are trying to measure, the more background is in the field of view and the thermometer averages what it sees. It takes more than a minute for metal vents to reach the same temperature as the air. It can take as long as 10 minutes.

Systems with the newer type (scroll) compressors take longer to get to their nominal cooling operation; the refrigerant flow in the pipes isn't shocked into motion and full flow immediately as it was with near full positive displacement piston type compressors.

 

[Worsley]

Is it blowing any cold air out at all when running? Or is it room temp air coming out of the vents? If you've got an IR thermometer, check the vent temps. Should be something in the lower 50s. Also pull the cover on the central blower, is the evaporator coil iced over? Cold to the touch when running? Compressor running? How long have you owned the home and has this been an issue since you bought it?

Retrofitted with central air makes me thing a much older home. Is the attic insulated at all? A/C is only going to make so much difference if it isn't sized right, or as bad, the house is poorly sealed (drafty) or uninsulated.

1- the unit blows cold air when the sun isn’t at its hottest. For example, at night the unit works perfect and is only on for short periods of time to cool the house to 68.

2- I’ll get an IR thermometer.

3- eveporator coil is not frozen over, feels cool to the touch and is running.

4- we’ve owned the home since 2010 and it’s alleys been an issue with the original unit as well as the new unit (there was an issue with the unit back in 2018 where the repair costs were $800 less then upgrading to a new one, so we replaced the entire system.)

5- I only see insulation on the floor, roof is not insulated but I did install an attic fan.

Thanks.

 

[antco]

1- the unit blows cold air when the sun isn’t at its hottest. For example, at night the unit works perfect and is only on for short periods of time to cool the house to 68.

2- I’ll get an IR thermometer.

3- eveporator coil is not frozen over, feels cool to the touch and is running.

4- we’ve owned the home since 2010 and it’s alleys been an issue with the original unit as well as the new unit (there was an issue with the unit back in 2018 where the repair costs were $800 less then upgrading to a new one, so we replaced the entire system.)

5- I only see insulation on the floor, roof is not insulated but I did install an attic fan.

Thanks.

Air handler and duct are in the uninsulated portion of the attic?
What color roof?

Seems like we've had this conversation a few times over the last five years. Maybe a different member.

 

[lazarus]

Air handler and duct are in the uninsulated portion of the attic?
What color roof?

Seems like we've had this conversation a few times over the last five years. Maybe a different member.

Also if the duct work is in the attic, is it insulated duct, or uninsulated duct?

Also how much insulation on the floor of the attic and type. Is it fiberglass, cellulose, really old fiberglass? My last house as built in 1960 and had R10 of insulation that was original and someone blew in around 6" of cellulose at some point. I can't imagine with the original R10 central air would have done much. when it was really hot out (I added R19 fiberglass batt on top of everything).

 

[antco]

Also if the duct work is in the attic, is it insulated duct, or uninsulated duct?

Also how much insulation on the floor of the attic and type. Is it fiberglass, cellulose, really old fiberglass? My last house as built in 1960 and had R10 of insulation that was original and someone blew in around 6" of cellulose at some point. I can't imagine with the original R10 central air would have done much. when it was really hot out (I added R19 fiberglass batt on top of everything).

This house we're in now was built to absolute minimum 1989 codes and standards. 2x4 truss, 3 stories, one heat pump.

Original 1989 fiberglass batt insulation laid in the attic. Black/charcoal roof. 3 stories. One heat pump. Textbook definition of uncomfortable in the summer.

Fiberglass has been ripped out and replaced with 3-4" of closed cell foam and 11" of dense blown in cellulose. R13 at best replaced with R60+ with zero air flow through the insulation layer. I'm looking forward to seeing how the upstairs feels this summer.

 

[lazarus]

This house we're in now was built to absolute minimum 1989 codes and standards. 2x4 truss, 3 stories, one heat pump.

Original 1989 fiberglass batt insulation laid in the attic. Black/charcoal roof. 3 stories. One heat pump. Textbook definition of uncomfortable in the summer.

Fiberglass has been ripped out and replaced with 3-4" of closed cell foam and 11" of dense blown in cellulose. R13 at best replaced with R60+ with zero air flow through the insulation layer. I'm looking forward to seeing how the upstairs feels this summer.

Nice!

My current house, I sort of hate the former owner/builder (he was both). Worked as a sup for a heating/oil company. Nice guy. He did a quality job. But I think because he was getting oil at spot prices, he didn't do a great job insulating the attic (and never finished the basement, but that's fine, I love construction, so it was a blank slate). He put the dual zone blowers and duct in the attic. I swear to god I will NEVER do that if I build a house. Anyway, he at least used R36, but didn't do a great job installing it. Both bathrooms and kitchens had/have soffits and he didn't seal the soffits from the attic space. The master bath has been renovated and that was fix. Hall bath will be done this summer and fix that. That is open down to the basement, so you can feel the draft in the winter of cold air floating down, even though I'd tried to seal it up some. Unfortunately, the soffit over the shower also happens to be mostly under one of the central blowers. Which means it mostly inaccessible to seal it up from the attic. So it'll need to wait till I have the bathroom gutted this summer.

And when the kitchen gets renovated, I'll remove the soffit, put in full height cabinets which will fix that. Anyway, attic has about 50% of it covered with an extra R13. Spare insulation I removed from the basement ceiling. He had put in some insulation to insulate the unfinished basement from the upstairs. So that got moved to the attic when I finished the basement (and I put in R15 and 1" iso foamboard for the basement walls).

The vaulted ceiling in the master bedroom is going to be a dick in the pain to add insulation too. My wife can just barely crawl down the center of the pitch (the middle 3 feet is flat on the ceiling and in the attic). I am actually leaning towards not adding insulation in the attic. My thoughts were cover the ceiling with 1" foam board, furring strips, and then tongue and groove boards. I think it'll look nice with a wood ceiling in there, and that'll also give both a nice insulation boost and a nice thermal bridge from the trusses.

Unknown what I'll do about the living room ceiling. I may just blow in cellulose from the attic. That should be doable since you can access from the attic and reach part way down the trusses (open about 3 feet in the attic over the living room). Then blow for the rest of the attic.

First I need replace some of the flexible ducts, insulation board or wrap the plenums, and build a walkway down the length of the attic space so you don't need to wade through cellulose to get to anything if you ever had to. I hate blown cellulose, but the layout of the attic just sucks to get in there to roll out more fiberglass batt.

The flexible duct are only R6, poly wrap and the Plenum is R3.3 insulation board. The attic is very well ventilated and I replaced both forced air fans with 12V radiator fans an 35w solar panels on the mushroom caps. They both pull a solid 500-600CFM on a warm sunny day (they also have thermal switches so they don't run at under 85F). My thermometer says on a still 90F day, it'll hit about 122F up there (unplugging the fans and it runs about 5F warmer). Not comfortable at all, but my old attic would hit about 130F in similar conditions. A light breeze on a 90F day and it'll run low 110s. A solid breeze and it runs about 10-15F warmer then ambient on a sunny summer day.

I've replaced a couple of the ducts with R8 mylar wrapped for ones that aren't going to end up being buried under insulation in the end. I plan to replace any that won't be buried with the same. And I'll either build 1" Iso foamboard boxes around the plenum, or just get duct work insulation wrap. Unsure which I'll do.

It is all winter work though. I F-ing hate working in attics once the temps in there start getting above about 80F. Though the bathroom this summer will require some work in the attic itself to move some wiring and vent the bathroom fan out the end wall of the house properly, rather than dumping it into the attic space.