My furnace died in April, it's 32 years old and the HVAC techs quoted at least 2k to repair (Blower motor was leaking oil and heat exchange is fairly rusty).

My father's an electrician who keeps insisting that he can fix it (claims that furnaces are just metal boxes with parts in it, and there's no reason to replace a 32 year old furnace vs fixing it..). I'm doubtful he can fix it and I expect I'll have to replace it.

I absolutely don't have the money for a new furnace right now. My main water line just needed replaced 2 months ago, which cost me 3500, along with a cleanout being added for my sewage and my sewage line unclogged for 800.

The plumbers who did my water line work also do hvac and offered to replace my furnace for 3500, which I think sounds like a good price (1200 sq ft home). I don't know when I'll have the money for this work though :/ We live in ohio so it's getting cold, and I have another child coming in November.

I expect we'll need to bare the winter and find an alternative method of heat for now, but I'm pretty nervous about using a space heater as my electrical is fairly old, and we have cats that like to knock things over.

What would you recommend for keeping my home warm during these upcoming months?

I had my AC unit replaced in July, and sadly being in Phoenix, I’m still using it daily in October. I recently noticed that sometimes when the unit runs I hear a clicking sound from 1 of the air vents. The click happens every 4-5 seconds, and so far I can only hear it in one vent. Any idea what this might be?

A whole-house humidifier or air purifier might help. Would you like more information on improving your home’s air quality?

My Furnace blower motor when out after 25+ years. As it was an older motor, I was unable to find the same for replacement. As a result I ordered a motor/fan with same specs/very similar (HP, RPM, Amps), and when it arrived it is to small to fit. There is a 1/4 HP motor that would significantly fit better. So my questions is upgrading size going to create any problems?

Hi All,

I'm in a 2 Bed, 2 Bath Apartment, 1,100 sq. ft. with 10 registers/vents.

Listed in order of closest to furthest from the air handler.

• 4.25" x 8.25" - 4" Duct - Entrance/Dining Room
• 4.25" x 8.25" - 4" Duct - Master Bath
• 4.25" x 8.25" - 4" Duct - Master Closet
• 6" x 10" - 6" Duct - Master Bedroom
• 8" x 12" - 8" Duct - Living Room
  • Closest to Thermostat
• 6" x 10" - 6" Duct - Kitchen
• 4.25" x 8.25" - 4" Duct - Laundry Room
• 4.25" x 8.25" - 4" Duct - Guest Bath
• 4.25" x 8.25" - 4" Duct - Guest Closet
• 8" x 12" - 8" Duct - Guest Bedroom

Ductwork is run across attic, all but 1 (Entrance) of the small registers are ceiling mounted. The medium and large registers are on the wall 4" from the ceiling.

Guest Bedroom (furthest away from the air handler) can get to be 4-6F cooler than thermostat, While Master will be 2-4F warmer. Landlord says there is no damper (ductwork is in attic I don't have access to). I tried adjusting the registers with minor adjustments every 48 hours and got it pretty much even across the apartment (except the laundry, but nearly all registers are 90% closed except the master. It can take 1-2 hours to drop a degree or two.

Overnight the breaker tripped and it got up to 5 degrees higher than set point. I opened all the registers and it dropped 4 degrees on the thermostat within 1.5 hours. So, I know I am overworking the AC.

Any advice?

I have a Daikin natural gas furnace and added a heat pump to the system a few years back.

My house has 2” round vents and they’re goddamn loud, when the furnace turns on it wakes my son up so I have them closed in his room and taped off. I remember being a kid and having the large rectangular vents and there was only ever a gentle whoosh that came through those. My vents fucking hiss.

Which brings me to the heat pump, it fucking sucks for heat. Once it gets cold it constantly blows, that loud hiss all day every day. I keep the thermostat in “emergency” mode so that it’s using that natural gas for heat and never the heat pump. For whatever reason it’s happy to pump out good heat at low fan speed.

And that brings me to this piece of shit thermostat, the heat programming in it chooses to do whatever it wants to. I have the temperature set to go down overnight and go back up at 7AM. But for whatever reason it’ll pick a random time say 4:45AM and go full blast to get the house up to temp prematurely.

I don’t even know what advice I’m seeking, has anyone else had these problems? What do you do? What can you do?

First time homeowner, need to change my air filter. This is what the old owners had and it seems way too big? The sides are hard ish plastic instead of the cardboard I usually see so it's not flexible and the edges are running into metal at all angles, zero wiggle room. I tried pliers and all that happened was a dent in the plastic and a cut on my hand.

Im a little confused by two things. I keep seeing this 9ppm over 8 hour period. What about over 8 hours? 24 hrs, a week, month, etc.

Also I notice most detectors don't even go off until around 25ppm. So you could be breathing in 24ppm for months on end?

I am getting a constant reading of 3 or 4ppm. 8th floor apartment, all electric appliances (I think all units are the same), opening window overnight does nothing. Testing with Amazon branded smart air device.

So is this really worth bring up to the landlord? Should I buy another device to double check?

Hi Reddit Community -

I am at a crossroads for my household heating system, and I am looking for some advice or experiences.

TLDR: should I replace my existing oil heating system or remove and replace with a hyper heat condenser?

Details:

Home is 2 stories, about 1600 SF, located in the mid-Atlantic USA.  Three people live in the house.

Currently, primary heating comes from a 6-year-old Mitsubishi heat pump (not hyper heat) through ducts on the first floor, and mini split units on the second floor.  Secondary heating comes from hot water radiators on the first floor, and electric baseboards on the second floor.  Hot water for the house year-round currently is produced directly by a 50-year-old oil boiler (no separate water heater), and the boiler also provides heat for the radiators when I use them.

Our oil tank is showing signs of corrosion and needs to be replaced, and the oil boiler is beginning to fail – it cannot provide consistent hot water in cooler months. 

I’ve had our oil service company our HVAC company review our systems, as well as a third company, to provide quotes.  Based on what we have learned, we have two options:

Option 1 (Oil) – Remove the existing oil boiler and oil tank, and replace with a new tank, new boiler, and new indirect oil-fired water heater.

Option 2 (Electric) – Remove the existing oil boiler and oil tank and upgrade our current heat pump to a hyper heat condenser and install a new electric water heater.

From the quotes I’ve received, the upfront costs of each option are comparable (w/in $1000), but both are at the upper limit of my budget.  It seems that our energy costs will be lower with the all-electric option, but the new condenser may not last as long as a new boiler. 

Currently, I use the electric baseboards as supplemental heat about 3-4 months per year, and the radiators as supplemental heat about 1-2 months per year.  I have had oil heat all my life and am very comfortable with its reliability and capabilities.  I don’t have any experience with a hyper-heat system.  However, it is hard to compare the heat provided from the radiators when they are running - it just feels cozier inside than with heat delivered from the heat pump. 

My question – what are some considerations I should keep in mind when comparing these options and deciding?

Ducane furnace went out on me. No flame and the igniter is not coming on. I tried to light it manually with a lighter but no luck -voltage going into the igniter is 0 -Igniter resistance without power going in is 104 ohms -Power going into the gas valve is reading 15volts -Resistance in the gas valve with power removed 0

Thoughts on what this could be?

Cycles last about 5 minutes. Maybe once per hour

My 3.5 ton system is out and I need a replacement. I live in Houston area and have many days in the summer well over 100 and even 110 degrees sometimes. On those days my A/C struggles in the afternoons as I have many windows on my west facing wall.

Does it make sense to upgrade to a 4 ton system that’s two stage from my current 3.5 ton single stage so that the lower setting will run longer for humidity purposes and comfort ability compare able to the output what I’m running now while also having that extra boost of 4 ton higher speed on the extreme summer days?

Another variable to this is I don’t plan on swapping out my furnace at this time because it’s still working properly, however would going to a two stage warrant a new furnace because what I have now is only one speed?

Is this logical conclusion or do I run the risk of over sizing my system? I had a contractor tell me my duct work was suitable for a 4 ton system, my square footage is 1,818.

TIA

Hello everyone,

I’m working on controlling an HVAC system with return air and an exhaust fan using a PLC. I’m looking for a good reference or guide on how to implement the control process. Specifically, I need to know how to control the dampers(fresh, return) logically, how to handle temperature and pressure control loop, and how to implement different control methods like economizers. Any resources or examples on the best practices for setting up these processes and sequences would be really helpful.

Thanks in advance!

What is that temperature reading above the pink line. Is that the main box in my roof attic space?

We have three fans in our townhouse community garage. Today they started going off on predictably even though the meter is reading zero carbon monoxide. There are several switches on the electrical box indicating fans not sure which one I would turn off. There is also a black reset button just above the Belimo however it doesn’t seem to depress when I try pushing down on it. I am a novice at this, but wondering if anybody has any suggestions about how to stop the fan from going off

Is there a swaging tool that uses a ratchet on top instead of the twist screw thing, i keep riipping the threads off those. Cant afford a hydraulic one

Been trying to get Mitsubishi HVAC working again since a power surge shorted one/more boards; replaced power & control board in indoor & outdoor units (electric hyper heat pump), replaced the MHK2 transmitter, and trying to get it initialized in the Kumo Cloud app, it fails after spinning on "check for firmware update" for five minutes. Then it says "there was an error communicating with the adapter. Please check your Wi-Fi credentials and try again"; except I know they're correct because my Wi-Fi app shows the unit connected & transferring data.

looking to get a split system in my bedroom (size is 5.2x3m) . looking at getting a 2.5kw system. either a gree or daikin. the price difference is $200. is gree or daikin better or are they virtually the same.

Thos is a weird one for me.

Air handler has hz311 attached. Two cords leave the hz311, one to Lochinvar condensing boiler and the other to AC. Ac turns on when called and off when not called. Lochinvar does dhw and heat water for the aquacoil in the air handler

But if the cord is plugged into the lochinvar from the hz311, it keeps sending hot water to the hydrocoil in the air handler...even if there's a call for the ac.

The only time the call for heat stops is when i unplug the signal cord coming into the lochinvar to ask for heat.

Hot water seems fine...hz311 lights don't show a heat call...so why does ot keep trying to heat?? Hz311 may show a heat call and it will begave the same way.

pictures of setup

Hello all, my apartment has a garrison model 2477812 AC unit and it had some visible mold when I moved in- they cleaned the unit but I can still see some spots left. I’ve tried to remove the faceplate but can’t figure it out, when I remove the filter face, I see 2 Phillips head screws but removing them and prying around the faceplate seems to yield no results. I don’t want to damage anything, and not sure if im prying hard enough or missing something else. I can’t seem to find any resources online about this unit or anything similar, so any advice is appreciated.

I have a furnace with an Aprilaire 2200 air purifier. I order the replacement filter media online because none of the hardware stores near me carry the size. The last one I ordered and just installed did not feel like cotton like all of the past filters. This one felt soft at first but left little cuts on my fingers as I was lining up the combs. The only thing I can compare it to is fiberglass insulation. Has anyone ever heard of a pleated filter made with fiberglass? Is it fiberglass?

My home is a 2 story with a split HVAC system. I have my downstairs thermostat set at 70 and my upstairs at 72. My downstairs thermostat reads 70 and the downstairs feels about that. But when I go upstairs it is freezing. The upstairs thermostat reads 64 but is set at 72. If we turn the temp up downstairs the upstairs will warm up a bit, bit it won't do it by using the upstairs thermostat. Any ideas as to what the issue is? Could it be a damper that is programmed incorrectly and pumping cold air upstairs instead of downstairs? It's unusual. I live in San Antonio, TX so the summers are very hot, which is even more perplexing since the upstairs should generally be warmer as heat rises. My home is a newer build, (2019). Thanks in Advance!

Hi everyone,

I’ve got a 2-year-old HVAC unit, and besides changing the filter every 6 months, I haven’t done much maintenance. I want to clean the condensate drain line using vinegar. I’ve attached a picture and circled a part of the unit in yellow—is this where I should be pouring the vinegar? If not, could someone point me to the correct spot? Any advice for doing this properly would be appreciated.

Thanks!