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H110Hawk posted:
The place where I had to do this the most was actually a company owned and built datacenter........for Merrill Lynch. Sigh. Their infra team was just freaking bad. This is the same place that had 6 relay racks in a line, side by side, with Cisco 6500 switches in them. As you probably know, the airflow on these switches are side to side. So the ones on the rightmost rack were great - their intake was in the clear. It's exhaust went directly into the intake of the next rack to the left, which went on an on until the leftmost rack was basically a blast furnace. I was there to move and re-cable this mess when I'm like "why don't we turn them all 90 degrees so we don't have to re-cable and move some perf tile around? And they all stared at me like I was a wizard. We finished the entire planned 5 day job by lunchtime. MRC48B posted:My favorite are purpose-built datacenters north of 40degrees that have absolutely no provision for economizing. This one qualifies for that too. To be fair, they did have plans to correct that. Don't know if it ever happened.
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Jul 4, 2020 19:53
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I love doug's discount datacenters.
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So more of a "did they get ripped off" than anything, since it's too late to do anything about it. Parents called me saying their thermostat wasn't working. Asked them what it was showing (it's an early Nest). Showed it was on "cool", but it was over 80 inside, and they could hear a loud buzzing from the air return with no air coming out. Outside unit running fine. Had stepdad go up in the attic, confirmed the air handler was buzzing loudly intermittently. I'm not local, so had them shop a few HVAC companies to get quotes for either a capacitor or fan motor replacement. Stepdad went with the lowest bidder for labor of course (but highest on parts - $150 for the cap, $50 service call). They wound up spending $500 to get the fan motor replaced; invoice doesn't say if they replaced the cap while in there (I would hope they did). Upside is they didn't get pushy about replacing anything, just said "fan motor ded". A fan motor on a 26 year old furnace isn't unheard of, but it was working fine, then not working (loud buzzing until the thermal kicked in, it'd cool off, then buzz some more). I'm surprised the original cap held out this long. How bad did they get fleeced? It's your basic mid 90s York gas furnace, with newer (but still R-22) coils on it. They could have replaced the whole unit, but they don't run the furnace often enough to see much of a ROI, and the CO detector stays pegged at 0 with the furnace running when they actually use it (1-2 months out of the year). $500 sounds kinda high for a basic fan motor replacement to me, but I've always been a DIY guy.
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Jul 10, 2020 15:14
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having someone do it is always going to be more expensive than DIY. a multi-speed blower motor is around a hundred bucks by itself, the capacitor is ten. but that's not what you are paying for when you ask someone else to do it. so no, your parents didn't get "fleeced" unless the job they did was demonstrably poor, or the parts are faulty. expensive? yes. skilled labor isn't cheap. cheap labor isn't skilled.
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Jul 10, 2020 21:12
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Spent a little bit more than that for a inducer motor on my furnace. It was on the guys truck (well, down at the warehouse.) Guy crawled up, said yup it's the inducer, made a few calls to the various counters around, said he would be back later that day to replace it, and he was. I assume he makes one trip / day to the parts counter for the stuff not on the truck. 100% markup is baseline for wholesale -> retail (aka cost to consumer), and $100/hr isn't nuts either. So a $100 motor wholesale is $200 to you, probably two hours time between one-way drive time, diagnosis, getting the part, and installing it, that's $400. Tax, tag, license, registration, profit, and overhead? $500 sounds right.
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Jul 10, 2020 21:18
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Thanks guys. I've always handled the repairs except for when they had the outside unit and inside coils replaced, so that kind of number shocked me a bit. Good to know it's in the ballpark. It was your basic 3 speed motor, manually selectable (have to swap wires at the furnace) - don't know if they got a single speed or 3 speed as a replacement, but it wouldn't really matter since it's kept on high for both heating and cooling. The $150 for the capacitor sounded way off (high), so did the $50 for the service call (low), but I'm assuming my stepdad flipped the numbers around. The furnace is in the attic suspended from the rafters (not too bad to get to since it's right by the stairs, but 100+ degree day, in an attic, throwing parts at a 26 year old furnace that's just strapped to the rafters and moving around a bit while you're swearing at it) so I'm sure there was a PITA tax included.
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Jul 11, 2020 14:17
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Paid $206 out the door for a same-day capacitor call. Literally "we are a half mile from your store front can anyone make it today?" on the phone and the dude swung by on his way to a job further out of town instead of on his way back. $40 for the cap (200% markup probably) and the rest was labor. I would rather have higher labor charge and lower parts markup as one of those incurs sales tax.
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Jul 11, 2020 17:24
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Turns out that a ceiling register was created by very crudely cutting into a duct and pulling sheet metal back. There is about a 3.5"-4" gap between the duct and the ceiling (sheetrock) with no register box or pipe leading to the actual register. Rather inefficient as hot/cold air just flows into the ceiling space when the HVAC system is running. Since there is not a lot space between the duct and the ceiling, is my best bet just to affix a short flex pipe and seal/patch with foil tape? Not the best photo but I think it illustrates what I'm referring to. 
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Jul 11, 2020 19:35
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Jesus. What is wrong with people? Whoever did that should not have tools. You could fix it right if you wanted, that looks like about 30min to an hour of sheet metal fabrication if you have tin snips, a cheap sheet metal brake (the HF 30in should work as long as the long sides are under about 28in), a drill, and either self tappers or a pop rivet gun.
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Jul 12, 2020 08:53
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It almost looks like a register was there and was yanked out while still attached to the duct.
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Jul 12, 2020 22:27
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The compressor on my old wall air conditioner gave up the ghost. I called an AC repair shop in town and they scheduled a time to look at it a week later, then when that time comes the guy takes one look, says "oh that's a wall a/c unit and we don't work on those" and leaves. Is it uncommon to have wall a/c units repaired? I am concerned I won't be able to find a matching unit that fits in the hole. This one must be 10+ years old and the measurements are nonstandard 25.5w x 17.5h x 24d. I already ordered a "standard size" one and it didn't fit. Apparently my existing one is not a "through the wall" ac unit but a "slide out chassis" ac unit and from my searching you need an exact size replacement but I've yet to find one that isn't on the other side of the country. Do I just say gently caress it and get a new standalone system?
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Jul 16, 2020 16:50
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Yes it's extremely common because those units typically aren't reasonably serviceable. They often don't even have refrigerant ports and are filled and crimped/soldered at the factory (cost cutting). Without seeing your setup, I'd suggest a mini split as a replacement.
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Jul 16, 2020 17:06
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Hello HVAC thread. I'm having AC trouble. The model number on the condenser unit is CAC442GKC4 and it was installed in 2006. It cools normally for a period of time, then the condenser fan stops working but the compressor keeps running. If it is restarted too soon the compressor will start but the fan will not. The sound it makes starts off at its normal hum and becomes more grindy over time. A thermometer placed on top of the fan's motor right after it shuts off reads over 200 F. As far as I can tell it shuts off because it overheats. Here's the best picture I currently have of the label on the motor.  There is an open hole with an oily residue around it on the bottom side. I expect the motor needs to be replaced regardless, but what I really want to know is if this specific model can be or should be oiled, and I can just put some in and have it work reliably enough to last however long it takes for us to get a new one. e: Neglected to mention that the capacitor has tested good already. eszett engma fucked around with this message at 04:17 on Jul 17, 2020 |
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Jul 17, 2020 03:59
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Typically not, but at this point it can't hurt. also if you can use a multimeter, check the capacitor.
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Jul 17, 2020 04:14
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Just bought a house and I have a couple vents on each floor which are just totally weak/non-existent flow and a couple on each floor going full blast. They're all kind of localized to one another going floor to floor, so I suspect they're branching near each other Confusing things: There's a couple damper handlers on the vents near the unit in the basement which don't seem to do anything One of the underpowered ones is in the basement which I would think has a clear path to the unit I'm going to guess there's some branch that has an obstruction or leak and it's near the unit in the basement. lovely thing is the previous owners drywalled over everything there, so I have limit access to do anything. Any ideas other than just start ripping poo poo out? Anything I can ask for from a professional if they came out to look?
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Jul 17, 2020 17:10
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Hopefully this isn't too elementary a question but I want to ask something about my new AC unit. It's a portable (not by choice, I know they suck but I have gargantuan horizontal sliders in my apartment that no window unit will fit) and it sounds like the compressor is switching on and off at a rapid pace (alternating ~7 minute and ~3 minute intervals, going by my stopwatch). I only recently found out what short cycling is and am concerned that it might be unduly wearing itself. Is there a generally accepted length of time that it should be running/resting? I can provide a lot more info but I don't know what's relevant.
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Jul 18, 2020 03:28
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My outside ac unit only comes on if you push the button in on the contactor. I am getting quotes to just replace the whole furnace and AC since it is 40 years old. Would it be dangerous to wedge something to hold the contactor down for a few hours before going to bed to cool the house down?
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Jul 20, 2020 13:09
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Would I be hurting anything if I attempt a DIY "clean" my ducts? My plan was to: - Turn the air handler fan on - Remove wall vent covers - Insert 4" brush used for cleaning dryer vent - Wiggle it around while I suck with shop vac - Replace air filter when done My goal is to basically stir up any trapped dust and hopefully suck it all into the vac.
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Jul 20, 2020 21:47
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lwoodio posted:My outside ac unit only comes on if you push the button in on the contactor. I am getting quotes to just replace the whole furnace and AC since it is 40 years old. Would it be dangerous to wedge something to hold the contactor down for a few hours before going to bed to cool the house down? It depends, but yeah wedging contactors closed is a bad idea. Jonny Quest posted:
this is basically what the pros do only with fancier expensive equipment. DrPossum posted:Just bought a house and I have a couple vents on each floor which are just totally weak/non-existent flow and a couple on each floor going full blast. They're all kind of localized to one another going floor to floor, so I suspect they're branching near you need to find the rest of the balance dampers. you're probably missing one, and losing all your flow through it being wide open.
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Jul 20, 2020 22:00
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MRC48B posted:you need to find the rest of the balance dampers. you're probably missing one, and losing all your flow through it being wide open.  Yeah. Putting holes in the drywall it is. Thanks for the response.
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Jul 21, 2020 01:46
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Warbird posted:As a moron and homeowner, what steps can I take to ensure system performance and longevity beyond keeping on top of replacing filters? System is likely 12+ years old and works fine most of the time. Stay on top of your run and compressor capactiors--mine were about the same age as yours but had fallen out of spec, which makes it harder on the motor and compressor to start up (and dims your lights as the motor is stalled longer). After 12 years being outside, yours are probably out of spec.
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Jul 21, 2020 13:02
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Can I get some help on picking an ac/gas furnace quote to go with? We have a split level home with a temperature problem between floors, and are leaning towards the two stage AC units. Current system is about 45 years old. All furnaces are 80% due to installation difficulties with running new high efficiency exhaust. Company 1 - local mega installer that advertises heavily on local TV but highly rated Company 2 and 3 - small but highly rated Company 1 Trane XV80 + XL18i = $8,910 Trane XV80 + XR16 = $8,030 Trane XV80 + XR14 = $7,670 Company 2 Trane XV80 + XL18i = $10,515 Trane S8X1 + XR13 = $6,432 Company 3 Lennox SL280V + ML14XC1 = $9,188 Lennox SL280V + XC16 = $10,992 lwoodio fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Jul 21, 2020 |
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Jul 21, 2020 16:03
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DrPossum posted:
Wait, the people who put it all in didn't leave access panels to get at the dampers? 
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Jul 21, 2020 18:23
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I have narrowed down my quotes to the two XV80 + XL18I options. Noticed that company one was reusing the 46 year old lineset. Company two wants to replace it. When asked about the lineset, company one stated "We are actually reusing your line set and putting a 10 year warranty on it, as new line sets are more thin in comparison." Company two quote was $1600 higher. Should I demand the lineset be replaced if I go with company one? Or Is this a red flag that they want to reuse a lineset this old and I should avoid them?
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Jul 22, 2020 15:52
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I have been told that you need to replace the lineset if it used to run R22, which I'm assuming is what you have considering it's 45 years old. If you have a short run from your evaporator to your condensing unit, maybe you can get away with not replacing it. The comment about new lineset being thinner is BS to me. New lineset is obviously perfectly capable of running your system just fine. If it was me, I'd replace the lineset, considering the age, and possible complications switching refrigerant. The other thing is that sometimes you just need different pipe size from what was in there. That all depends on tonnage of the unit, and distance.
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Jul 22, 2020 22:22
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You don't technically need to replace the lineset, assuming it's the correct diameter, which usually its pretty close. Manufacturers give you a chart on what lineset diameters to use for a given unit size and distance between the indoor and outdoor units. you do need to clean it out well. which can be done, also they're not wrong about older line set walls being thicker. 99% of the time it shouldn't matter because you should be insulating and securing said lines so nothing rubs a hole in the tubing. If the line set is the correct size, in good condition, and was well installed, I wouldn't hesitate to reuse it. We can't tell you if your lines are good or bad via forum post.
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Jul 22, 2020 22:40
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I live in S.E. Texas. After hurricane harvey, we needed a full a/c replacement. Inside and outside unit. Things have been mostly ok. But last week we woke up to standing water inside our bedroom. The other side of the wall was the a/c closet. Opened her up to find standing water under the unit. Suffice to say the condensation line was heavily clogged. The pvc pipe had a thumb turn to disconnect it from the unit, but for some reason, they glued it on. I ended up having to break it off. Sure enough the pipe was clogged with some orangish goo. I read to vaccuum it out, so that's what I did. However I need to replace that pipe now. Is it safe to replace it with the same diameter clear flexible hose? The positioning makes it so I'd need at least 3 elbows and that seems like it would cause further clogs. Finally, I also noticed that it drains directly into the sewer line. I also notice that if I shine a light and look down..it appears to have no P trap. Maybe it does inside the slab, but it appears to have moving water I can see if I turn on a sink further up the line. Admittedly it's very far back and incredibly hard to get to to see, unless you're a child sized person. Even if there IS one down there, could it be safe for me to install one at the top entrance to the sewer pipe?
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Jul 26, 2020 21:04
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usually you put the trap right where the drain exits the coil. you can make a condensate trap out of clear pvc tubing by looping it (without kinking it) on the way down to the drain. and set yourself a calendar notification to pull out the tubing once a year and blow it out with water. EDIT: sorry, didn't answer the question. Yes, it's at zero pressure. you can use whatever doesn't leak water. clear pvc is nice because you can immediately see how dirty it is MRC48B fucked around with this message at 21:18 on Jul 26, 2020 |
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Jul 26, 2020 21:15
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I ended up getting a new AC unit last week (home warranty paid out 2k, yay). My house is about 4k square feet. 1,5k underground basement, 1.5k first floor, 1k 2nd floor. I live in Grand Rapids, MI. I did the square footage math and I really wanted a 5 ton unit, but the company I went with really warned me against it. Saying things like de-humidification would suffer and that a 4 ton would be enough. So I have a 4 ton unit and 30 days to change my mind. It would only cost me $500 to get to a 5 ton unit. Is there any reason to *not* get the 5 ton? Like, would I do actual harm to my HVAC system with it? My furnace blower is rated for 3.5 to 5 tons and this company apparently doesn't install 4.5 ton units.
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Jul 27, 2020 05:05
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Square footage math is usually bad. Do an actual load calculation. Oversizing is problematic for a number of reasons, not just humidity.
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Jul 27, 2020 05:16
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MRC48B posted:usually you put the trap right where the drain exits the coil. what he said. Also, I am not really sure if it's required by code, but I prefer to airgap the condensate drain where it meets the black water system. If you have any floor drains or utility/slop sinks in areas that are seldom used or washed, draining it into one of them is a great idea because it reduces the chances of the trap going dry and filling your house with sewer gas.
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Jul 27, 2020 05:18
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Gimpalimpa posted:I ended up getting a new AC unit last week (home warranty paid out 2k, yay). My house is about 4k square feet. 1,5k underground basement, 1.5k first floor, 1k 2nd floor. I live in Grand Rapids, MI. I did the square footage math and I really wanted a 5 ton unit, but the company I went with really warned me against it. Saying things like de-humidification would suffer and that a 4 ton would be enough. So I have a 4 ton unit and 30 days to change my mind. It would only cost me $500 to get to a 5 ton unit. Is there any reason to *not* get the 5 ton? Like, would I do actual harm to my HVAC system with it? My furnace blower is rated for 3.5 to 5 tons and this company apparently doesn't install 4.5 ton units. Yes. The reason is what they told you. As well a short cycling. Your square footage hardly matters, it's a mere approximation. Somebody should have done a manual-j to figure out what you actually need. But that's like, real work or something. Real work you can't usually get away with billing a homeowner for.
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Jul 27, 2020 05:21
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If it seems fairly certain that the current system is correctly sized, are those calculations still necessary? We have 2x 2.5 ton heat pumps, the upstairs one works hard in the summer, the downstairs one in the winter. On our hottest days (100-105f) , the upstairs unit keeps up but may be running nearly all of the time. I don't think a smaller unit could handle it, and a bigger one doesn't seem necessary. The upstairs unit is pretty old (Trane XR12 with R22) so I've been half expecting it to require replacement for the last few years. I'd be ok dropping another 2.5 Ton system in unless there's a good reason to have a contractor run load calculations.
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Jul 28, 2020 16:37
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Are products like this actually legit? Some of the wording on the site makes me think it's snake oil, but then I find tons of reviews saying it's great... ASHRAE seems to have a document stating that the PCO technology is at least doing *something*. Trying to address an issue where we have one or two rooms with weird smells that we can't find the source of.
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Aug 4, 2020 18:48
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Ozone does kill bacteria and such at the expense of triggering asthma. Masking odors is rarely the correct answer, something is generating that odor. In theory UV is the thing that kills bacteria without secondary effects but you have to change the bulbs regularly (annually?) I wouldn't suggest adding ozone to your home.
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Aug 4, 2020 18:55
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H110Hawk posted:In theory UV is the thing that kills bacteria without secondary effects but you have to change the bulbs regularly (annually?) Obviously that'd still be fine for installation inside a duct but people should definitely not get the idea that they could install UV lamps around their house to keep things cleaner.
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Aug 4, 2020 20:17
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wolrah posted:Didn't one of the Blade movies nearly blind a bunch of cast and crew by using some Soviet-era UV antibacterial lamps they had found at a thrift shop or something like that? Oh yeah don't look at it or put it anywhere you would be exposed to the frequency of light from the sun that literally kills you and everything you hold dear. It should be in a purpose built UL listed appliance correctly installed and disabled when serving anything around it. Enough watts of UV to actually kill anything in transit in a forced air system is definitely able to kill you.
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Aug 4, 2020 20:26
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My understanding is they're using UV to react with Titanium Dioxide in some way (aka PCO) - even the bigger brands offer something like this: https://www.lennox.com/help/faqs/pureair-air-purification The specs for the 'nano induct' indicate it produces less then 0.05 ppm of ozone, so I'm not entirely sure it's just an ozone generator. I did find some scientific papers on it, but they're all coauthored by the guy behind air oasis, so I'm somewhat suspicious of them. I really wish I could address the smells some other way, but we've run out of things to try... carpet was removed, walls and ceiling were all repainted, there's not actually a HVAC duct anywhere near where the odor is.
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Aug 4, 2020 21:32
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Lennox and Trane both sell them for a grand and spend a lot of time telling you how safe they are but I didn't see any readily accessible specifications around it. Smelled like snake oil to me. Tried activated carbon? A 5" high merv filter?
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Aug 4, 2020 21:37
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H110Hawk posted:Lennox and Trane both sell them for a grand and spend a lot of time telling you how safe they are but I didn't see any readily accessible specifications around it. Smelled like snake oil to me. Yea, some more research led me to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdjy1ESmX3E... I definitely trust the homechem people more then random company sponsored studies. Activated carbon whole house filter might be a good idea. I'll have to see if I can get one that fits. It's very tricky to upgrade the filter sizing I have. There's really only one place it can go, which is in the attic connected to the ~2ft wide flex duct that acts as the return. That might be a good thing to do once it cools off a little here... I'm not going to subject someone to the super hot attic temperatures over something as trivial as a weird smell in a couple rooms.
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Aug 5, 2020 01:06
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devicenull posted:Yea, some more research led me to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdjy1ESmX3E... I definitely trust the homechem people more then random company sponsored studies. https://nordicpure.com/ probably has yours, though they are expensive and don't sell cookie dough anymore.
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Aug 5, 2020 01:21
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