Bingo.Indeed.
Happened to my unit a couple years ago. Couldn’t find any dual run caps at the time so I just used two separate caps taped together.
Gotta pay for fancy graphics vans and radio and TV commercials…They push those techs to sell. It’s a sliding scale on their pay rate. I get it. But man.
I work in a big name shop. I know our prices are... well... they match the name.We had a monthly group call this morning and someone was late to the meeting. He had had a hvac svc co out for a suspect freon leak and ended up buying a new system. Yowza! Get you f-ing wallet out baby, this is going to sting.
This is the truth, I've owned two modern houses this far. The first was built in 2006. During the 2012 heatwave we had the setpoints at 76 during the day and 73 at night. The tiny unit the builder installed (1.5 Ton) in the 2006 house ran continuously from 10 AM -> Midnight or later all while loosing ground until the sun went down. I discovered the ductwork design plans after this and found that they weren't even followed leading to an undersized unit and lack of CFM for the spaces. CM replaced the AC side of the unit a slightly larger capacity and I added two more supply runs to the large great room and master bedroom. No more lost ground during 90+ days.Well, no it is not OK. It should cycle so the electric meter gets a rest. And no it is not normal for the temps to go up at high noon full sun exposure.
When you put your family in a neighborhood built by low bid sub-contractors you get exactly what you pay for. The silly crap we have found when upgrading the original units is just nuts.
Those installers get "X" amount per house to install units that are marginally sized at best and all too often at least a half ton short on delivery. They get the bare minimum. It's all about the money.
Every one of those homes (unless done by a very reputable builder and even then ???) has increased in comfort levels after we get done. Its very common to hear the house would loose ground on a 90* plus day and the unit never shuts off.
Thats just a waste of energy and costs so much more to condition the home.
The old adage that too big is not good holds true. Yes, you can over size the system. But it's not rocket science.
Also upgrading to a modern T-stat is a huge plus.
That's a big electric bill. Know what the actual KWh usage is? Whenever you do replace it, you will very likely drop your usage quite a bit.Not disputing any of this. Like I said in another post my 30+ years old Carrier unit may not be the most efficient but it's still been getting the job done just like when we first bought it. It's been a solid unit and I don't see any reason to upgrade while it is still doing so. Now it may be due to that it could be sized right to perform like it has. That's a real possibility for it's longevity and performance. My electric bill during peak summer months has been running less than $300 a month on a 3600 sq. ft house. That's not bad in my estimation.
This extends far beyond HVAC and is the place we've landed since we have companies withholding service documentation/parts and telling us we can't work on our own equipment. What happened to the days of service manuals and helpful people who would actually teach those willing to learn how to maintain their own stuff. Even cars are moving in the direction of "Do not open, no user serviceable parts inside.". We're going to have 100k electric vehicles that need to be thrown out because they need 50k of work that only a dealer can perform.They marked the parts up. $50 would have bought them at the supply house.
$475.
Buddy’s spouse flipped the hell out. She should have waited.
In truth there are ever increasing numbers of mouth breathing jock straps that would but should not attempt to service these units. This is as much an issue of warranty as anythingThis is the truth, I've owned two modern houses this far. The first was built in 2006. During the 2012 heatwave we had the setpoints at 76 during the day and 73 at night. The tiny unit the builder installed (1.5 Ton) in the 2006 house ran continuously from 10 AM -> Midnight or later all while loosing ground until the sun went down. I discovered the ductwork design plans after this and found that they weren't even followed leading to an undersized unit and lack of CFM for the spaces. CM replaced the AC side of the unit a slightly larger capacity and I added two more supply runs to the large great room and master bedroom. No more lost ground during 90+ days.
Fast forward 12 years with two newborns and much better income we moved to a larger and much nicer house built in 2012 ~3400 SqFt + finished basement. Given the size and cost of this house we were surprised when we discovered that again on 90+ degree days the system wouldn't be able to hold our setpoint of 76 during the day. Additionally this house has a full bank of northwest facing windows providing great lighting but also adding a lot of solar load after ~1 - 2 PM. I spent some time swearing at the builder once again and I already knew what the solution was. After speaking with a few of the INGO HVAC experts I contracted a new two stage furnace paired with a 5 ton inverter drive condenser to replace the 3 ton single stage system. I then spent the next month or so making strategic holes in the basement ceiling adding two more supply runs, upsizing three others, and adding an inline fan to the run that was the longest and makes a U turn after coming off the trunk. Don't know who thought that would ever work. Lots of work and expense that I shouldn't have needed to spend on a 7 year old system but the results were worth it. The system typically gets to run in low stage until early afternoon or later when the solar load picks up before switching to high stage to keep things comfy and bring the temp down for night time. Electricity use is roughly similar or slightly less than having the single stage unit run all day. Our electricity use during the summer is ~1700 - 2200 KWh including three fish tanks and a larger IT infrastructure than most people. May was only 1380. IPL/AES also put us on a slightly lower rate after the install because we're technically using the system as heat pump. Though I have it switch over to NG after the temp drops below 35 ish degrees. I see no need to burn electricity after that when NG is available.
That's a big electric bill. Know what the actual KWh usage is? Whenever you do replace it, you will very likely drop your usage quite a bit.
This extends far beyond HVAC and is the place we've landed since we have companies withholding service documentation/parts and telling us we can't work on our own equipment. What happened to the days of service manuals and helpful people who would actually teach those willing to learn how to maintain their own stuff. Even cars are moving in the direction of "Do not open, no user serviceable parts inside.". We're going to have 100k electric vehicles that need to be thrown out because they need 50k of work that only a dealer can perform.
Oh for sure. There are plenty of people who shouldn't be doing a brake job or an oil change either but we don't withhold the information from them and penalize everyone else in the name of "safety and security".In truth there are ever increasing numbers of mouth breathing jock straps that would but should not attempt to service these units. This is as much an issue of warranty as anything
Lower your set point. I'm in a 3000sq ft big builder home with an undersized 20yr old system. I keep it at 68, dropped it to 67 before this heat wave hit. The air runs all day, only got up to 69-70 yesterday but back to 67 by the time I'm up.This is the truth, I've owned two modern houses this far. The first was built in 2006. During the 2012 heatwave we had the setpoints at 76 during the day and 73 at night. The tiny unit the builder installed (1.5 Ton) in the 2006 house ran continuously from 10 AM -> Midnight or later all while loosing ground until the sun went down. I discovered the ductwork design plans after this and found that they weren't even followed leading to an undersized unit and lack of CFM for the spaces. CM replaced the AC side of the unit a slightly larger capacity and I added two more supply runs to the large great room and master bedroom. No more lost ground during 90+ days.
Fast forward 12 years with two newborns and much better income we moved to a larger and much nicer house built in 2012 ~3400 SqFt + finished basement. Given the size and cost of this house we were surprised when we discovered that again on 90+ degree days the system wouldn't be able to hold our setpoint of 76 during the day. Additionally this house has a full bank of northwest facing windows providing great lighting but also adding a lot of solar load after ~1 - 2 PM. I spent some time swearing at the builder once again and I already knew what the solution was. After speaking with a few of the INGO HVAC experts I contracted a new two stage furnace paired with a 5 ton inverter drive condenser to replace the 3 ton single stage system. I then spent the next month or so making strategic holes in the basement ceiling adding two more supply runs, upsizing three others, and adding an inline fan to the run that was the longest and makes a U turn after coming off the trunk. Don't know who thought that would ever work. Lots of work and expense that I shouldn't have needed to spend on a 7 year old system but the results were worth it. The system typically gets to run in low stage until early afternoon or later when the solar load picks up before switching to high stage to keep things comfy and bring the temp down for night time. Electricity use is roughly similar or slightly less than having the single stage unit run all day. Our electricity use during the summer is ~1700 - 2200 KWh including three fish tanks and a larger IT infrastructure than most people. May was only 1380. IPL/AES also put us on a slightly lower rate after the install because we're technically using the system as heat pump. Though I have it switch over to NG after the temp drops below 35 ish degrees. I see no need to burn electricity after that when NG is available.
That's a big electric bill. Know what the actual KWh usage is? Whenever you do replace it, you will very likely drop your usage quite a bit.
This extends far beyond HVAC and is the place we've landed since we have companies withholding service documentation/parts and telling us we can't work on our own equipment. What happened to the days of service manuals and helpful people who would actually teach those willing to learn how to maintain their own stuff. Even cars are moving in the direction of "Do not open, no user serviceable parts inside.". We're going to have 100k electric vehicles that need to be thrown out because they need 50k of work that only a dealer can perform.
Tried that in both houses, ~72 in the morning and would still be 78 late into the evening as it tried to cool off all the furniture, walls, etc... Yours sounds like it's sized pretty well if it only looses a couple degrees during these extremes. It should give good humidity comfort for the more mild days.Lower your set point. I'm in a 3000sq ft big builder home with an undersized 20yr old system. I keep it at 68, dropped it to 67 before this heat wave hit. The air runs all day, only got up to 69-70 yesterday but back to 67 by the time I'm up.
Just checked my ecobee app and somehow it's only at 68 right now, to my surprise.
That little half ton boost when you upgrade does amazing things on a system this close to good.Tried that in both houses, ~72 in the morning and would still be 78 late into the evening as it tried to cool off all the furniture, walls, etc... Yours sounds like it's sized pretty well if it only looses a couple degrees during these extremes. It should give good humidity comfort for the more mild days.
Incorrectly set blower speeds can make the system act poorly.I think I finally cracked the secret on our issue; it always "seemed" like the blower moves more air in the winter than it does in the summer. Turns out it does. When heating they're typically designed to move more air so I had to figure out how to make it blow more air in the summer. Enter youtube. I was out in the garage at midnight with the blower opened up and figured out which two wires to swap to increase the cooling fan speed and almost immediately the house pulled down to setpoint and the unit actually cycled off. You don't want to permanently slow down the blower in heat mode as it can cause expensive problems but this solved our cooling problem long enough to get our new system installed and tuned in. Be interesting to see how it handles the temps today.
A little background, we added 35% more square footage to our house about 6 years ago without touching the hvac. It was already struggling during "record" heat so we only made it worse. We knew that we would have to up our system but were trying to wait it out as long as we could. No idea what the cfm is at this point but the temp dropped to setpoint last night and is maintaining so far today. This should get us thru until the new system is online.Incorrectly set blower speeds can make the system act poorly.
For cooling, somewhere around 350 to 400 cfm per ton is typical.
Sorry I missed this post that was addressed to me. I screwed up on my electric bill monthly cost during peak summer months. I went back and ran the 2021 four-month peak summer averages (June thru Sept.)That's a big electric bill. Know what the actual KWh usage is? Whenever you do replace it, you will very likely drop your usage quite a bit.
And how much was a jug of R22?$452.50 for r410 today.
We stopped buying 22 last year. I've heard its beyond up there.And how much was a jug of R22?
Funny thing was when I started in the trade R22 could be bought by the skid at $75-80/ jug. R410 was like that 3 years ago and look at it now. Thanks Joe. FJB