I bought this place and moved in on Dec 11 2020, it's an 80 yr old house. Above is a photo I took on my first and almost last time crawling under the house to see what I could see. Which wasn't much.
The people who "Flipped" this house, added and Air Conditioner compressor outside, and connected it to the existing Natural Gas furnace, using the same ducts in the floor space, but to get conditioned air back to my bedroom and the new bathroom they added back here, they had to create a new duct line, that went UP from the crawl space and OVER the Laundry area to reach my room.
That was terribly inadequate, plus the duct changed size so that when I finally pulled off the register, I measured the duct opening, 4 inches
That is a small duct, so last winter I froze back here, having to use space heaters.
Twice last Feb, I went up front (to the older, original part of the house) and turned up the heat, but surprise!! no fan would come on. The blower came on, but not the gas furnace and big fan.
I called my neighbor who came over and cleared a tube to some pressure sensor.
That furnace was about 13 yrs old, the plenum and ducts leaked terribly.
So I decided to bite the bullet, spend a GOD awful amount of money, and replace the whole system.
That is where the old furnace and airhandler sat. I got the guys to spread that vapor barrier, which had been stuffed AROUND the old furnace, flat on the ground before installing the new unit.
That was done in one day, on Monday, Sept 20th.
I took down one section of the board fence so they wouldn't have to walk all the way around my house every time they needed something
It took all day
They replaced the new, 2 ton outside unit with a newer 2½ ton unit (I kept to older new one, it sits in my garage right now)
One of the best things was, that they installed more returns, meaning the air could be circulated much easier
↑That is a return, not a new vent, in the corner of my living room
↑That is in the center bedroom↑
I was very happy, despite the cost ($7,900.00 USD) until they told me that a part in the NEW system had failed and someone would have to come back the next day to replace it.
So I spent that night with no AC, only fans.
Next day, another tech, by himself arrived with nothing but that replacement part.
That wasn't really the problem, so a supervisor was called to bring NEW COILS, and all this time, I had not been into the attic to actually SEE what all was up there and what was going on with the tiny ducts.
So I did go up Tuesday and get some photos
↑This shows the Y split, above the laundry area, the one directly ahead is that tiny 4 inch duct to my bedroom
↑THIS is the tiny duct that went to my bathroom
In all this time, when I got up to those vents in my bedroom or bathroom, I could hardly feel any airflow
So they came back yesterday, and ran new and larger ducts up and over to my bedroom and bath
↑New duct in the center bedroom closet, going up and over
↑New duct to the bathroom(That remains a 4 inch)
↑That is the new Y, in the EIGHT inch duct, replacing the SIX that had been there.
That is actually the Supervisor, replacing the vent with a larger one
So now, I have a working HVAC system, that I can control from the Thermostat on the wall in the central hallway
Or, from an app on my phone
Unless it wants to act up
Last night, was the first night with the new ducts, and since it has turned unseasonably cold, the heat was on, I stayed comfortable for a change.
But my MICROWAVE stopped working last night.
"One Terrible Week"
"Hopefully it is done now"
by
Jerry E Smith
©09/24/2021
All photos are mine, the cartoon is sourced
"Hopefully it is done now"
by
Jerry E Smith
©09/24/2021
All photos are mine, the cartoon is sourced