Its 85 in here!


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Old 07-16-08, 11:18 AM
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Its 85 in here!

Hi! New to the forum and need some advice. We bought our house about a year and 1/2 ago. Long story short, after many visits from the office where we purchased insurance for 1 year
we have no idea what's wrong with our a/c. The previous owners turned the garage into a room and it looks like they redid ducts themselves to supply the air for that room. We've been told that our units are too small, that the duct work is the problem, etc. It seems like it cools the air but doesnt circulate it so the house stays around 85.Our house is 1942 sq. foot. The inside unit is 3 ton with model BE036-14.4 serial B 08567E90. The outside unit is model TTB042C100A1. Serial N2821KFBF
Any advice? Thanks in advance!
 
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Old 07-16-08, 03:15 PM
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Originally Posted by thebigb
Hi! New to the forum and need some advice. We bought our house about a year and 1/2 ago. Long story short, after many visits from the office where we purchased insurance for 1 year, we have no idea what's wrong with our a/c.

The previous owners turned the garage into a room and it looks like they redid ducts themselves to supply the air for that room.

We've been told that our units are too small, that the duct work is the problem, etc. It seems like it cools the air, but doesn't circulate it so the house stays around 85.

Our house is 1942 sq. foot. The inside unit is 3 ton with model BE036-14.4 serial B 08567E90. The outside unit is model TTB042C100A1. Serial N2821KFBF
Any advice? [WRONG MATCH] Thanks in advance!

Well, according to the numbers it appears that they put a 3.5-ton outside condenser on a 3-ton evaporator coil & air handler. That would be a mismatch of the worst kind.

The indoor EVAPORATOR coil & air handler must be made to match the 3.5-ton outdoor condenser!


AIR CIRCULATION is everything, & it appears that your system does not have near enough.

Get someone that understands what you need, & that will test your duct system & airflow CFM, & then make it RIGHT! It won't cool that way.
------------------
ALL the DECISIONS are YOURS & THE CONTRACTOR that YOU SELECT, NOT MINE! I am merely pointing you in a direction.

HVAC RETIRED - udarrell
 

Last edited by HVAC RETIRED; 07-16-08 at 03:17 PM. Reason: Typos
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Old 07-16-08, 05:37 PM
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What kind of temps are you getting at both the cold air return and at a regsiter that is close to the air handler (where the cold cold is inside)?

What is the size of the main house, and what is the size of the garage they made into an addition, so that one can do the math on the increase in size?

And does the air now seem to blow out kind of paltry out all the registers now?

Do you happen to know if just more heat/cooling ducts were added without also increasing the amount of cold air return?

If one were to try to increase blower volume/speed, to get by cheap, the volume of air might increase some, but the cooling temp would rise, also, so I'm not sure if this trade off would be of any benefit or not. Wwe also do not know anything at all of your curent blower system, stages, etc.

Others here might weigh in on this business about increasing blower speed to get more volume.
 
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Old 07-16-08, 06:01 PM
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Your outdoor unit is a 1998 Trane 3 1/2 ton. Not much else comes up (in English) as it is too old.

Sounds like a long time ago they added the room (garage) changed the outdoor and duct work for the extra SQFT but never got around to up grading the indoor. Just sold the problem to you.
 
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Old 07-16-08, 10:27 PM
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That's what we were afraid of. One of the guys did take the temp...he pointed it at the vent and it registered around 65. My husband said when he opened the attic door last night a gust of cold air came out. The air definitely blows out paltry. I'll get the room measurements tomorrow and post here but it's pretty big probably 550-600 sq (rough guess). We are going to check out the attack tonight...see if their are any visible problems the we've overlooked. Thanks again!
 
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Old 07-17-08, 05:25 AM
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Remember to also say how big your house was before the conversion.

And is there JUST the ducts up in the attic, without a unit up there? -IF- so, I'd have to presume the ducts are insulated - so then you should look for a disconnect up there, possibly at some manifold(where many ducts are plugged into, and octopus out from it), or at a register(s) up there. Obviously any disconnect will cut down on yiour total living space blower air volume.

How hot was it outside when you felt this cool coming out of your attic? And was it sunny out, or not? Attics in the summer, without an exhaust fan system can easily be 110 degrees or even way more up there, when it is sunny out.

And when he pointed his gun at the ceiling register and got about 65, what was the temp entering the cold air return system, I wonder, as that influences how much cold comes out the register.

And how close was he to the register with his gun, because if he was not close enough he could have also been gathering in heat surrounding the register, as these infrared temp guns gather in temps in a cone shape. The temp gathering 'cone' increases in size with distance and averages out the temps within that entire cone. (I have one of these and love it.)
 
 

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