#16
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My thermostat (Honeywell) has a circulation setting. The furnace fan comes on every 20 minutes and runs for 10 minutes independent of whether the heat or AC in on. It helps to even out the temp variants in the house/condo. It's not perfect but helps.
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#17
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Same with the Ecobee. I can have the fan run full time, or for alternating minimum periods of time (i.e. 20 min/hour). It does help.
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#18
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Hmm... interesting. I think I can do that with Nest as well. I'll have to double check.
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#19
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The IR scanner is a good idea.
The HVAC trade is by far the worst in US residential construction. How much of the system is in an attic and above the thermal boundary of the house? It's so common to see air handlers and ducts in the attic above the insulated ceiling below - that's putting your heating system outdoors. If I were diagnosing this, I would: - Look at the placement and condition of the heating equipment, especially if it's in the attic. Note defects to be remediated. - Measure the air flow to each room and the temperature of the delivered air to calculate the heating capacity delivered to each room. - Do a quick heat loss calc for each room and compare to the above. If your daughter's room has a shortfall and there aren't obvious system defects, then use the balancing dampers and lower the air flow to your room. Don't assume that a house built recently doesn't have these issues. A good friend's son bought a new, very nice looking, large house a few years ago just south of Boston. That winter was the one (2015?) we got pounded with snow. The house had mega ice dams caused by uncontrolled heat loss from the heated portion of the house, and from the heating system components located in the kneewalls and attic. The resultant mold damage necessitated them abandoning the house and having it gutted and rebuilt. Yesterday I was assessing causes of high fuel use in a beautiful ocean-front home. In the crawl space I could see two disconnected ducts. Of the four air handlers, two were above the thermal boundary in the attic. Nothing unusual here :-( The lack of understanding of basic building science, and the quality of the HVAC trade, is such that I could easily expand my work to be a fulltime forensic investigator. |
#20
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I recently did a tile backsplash in the kitchen, and when I took off the window trim it turned out there was zero insulation around the window. Not even fiberglass. This house was built at the advent of 6" studs, so they were worried about insulation, but they did a horrible job of it. They also failed to insulate the wall behind the soffit in the kitchen. I should rent an IR camera too.
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#21
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If the duct to the room is accessible, a booster fan in the duct might help. There are a lot of electric heaters made that plug into a wall outlet and really can add a lot of heat to a room. Most would be perfectly safe placed on top of a dresser.
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#22
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Agree with the criticism of the HVAC folks, and a close second would the crappy insulation installers, followed by the guys installing windows and doors who haven't got a clue...
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#23
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If the room is cold in winter, there isn't enough heat getting to the room to overcome the heat loss from the room, I know, duhh. The camera is an excellent idea, it might tell you more than you want to know. Temporary "fix" might be to toggle the fan onto continuous run. You really need to fix any obvious issues with the building itself first and couple that with inspecting your ductwork for any issues. Get up into your attic and look around for insulation pulled back or missing. Check your basement or crawlspace to make sure the box sill got insulated. If that doesn't resolve it, then pay to have a heat loss calculation done and the airflow into each room measured, not guessed at.
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#24
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New house, forced hot water. We went through that with old house, had heat pumps to add, wife sat under one in winter. Tiny house now and cozy warm
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#25
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I'm not an HVAC expert, but nobody has mentioned the role or importance of the return vents that allow circulation through the system. Forced air in but no escape makes for a very inefficient system with cold rooms. People often park furniture against or near the returns thinking that's no big deal since they're not "heating" vents. Make sure that the return vents 1) exist in the cold rooms and 2) are not blocked by furniture or dust bunnies. If they're old and gross with dust restricting airflow, vent covers are often more easily replaced than cleaned
Last edited by zennmotion; 10-09-2019 at 08:11 PM. |
#26
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Thanks everyone for your input. From a glass-half-full perspective, at least the heating/insulation at my new place is better than what I had previously (new construction in 2008; my mom's house built 100 years earlier is better heated/insulated). Looking forward to trying a few of the recommendations... will report back.
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#27
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#28
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When you're only using the heat from the central system, go ahead and close any vents to even out the temps.
The problems that come with closing vents are only going to happen when you're using the A/C. Cooling takes much more airflow, and thus closing vents can cause problems. |
#29
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Quote:
This specific kind of heater was an easy solution to my problem. Granted, I have baseboard heating but we do have central AC as well, and there are some rooms that just don't get very cool due to the duct routing--some rooms are farther from the action and I don't see any solution to that (unless there's an obvious blockage, etc.). |
#30
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Quote:
When I built my retirement home and acted as the GC in 2011, I made sure that all rooms had return vents. I also have R26 insulated walls and R60 ceiling insulation. This house has twice the square footage, and a heated & cooled 1800 square foot shop, but costs less to heat and cool than the 2003 spec home. Last edited by Dave; 10-10-2019 at 06:18 PM. |
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