I had a 30 plus year old 4 ton AC/Heater Unit and I had a HVAC Contractor come out and suggest I go to a new 5 ton unit. The 3,000 sq/ft house has been upgraded recently to Stucco on the outside over the existing wood. It has also all brand new double pane windows with new insulation in the very small attic. The house is all wood inside - No Dry Wall. It has a beautiful Gable Roof with High WOOD Ceilings - only a 4 inch insulation barrier between the Asphalt Roofing Shingles and Plywood to the Interior Wood Ceiling. A lot of heat comes from this roof. The house gets a lot of morning sun through it's large View Windows on the southern side and in the afternoon the sun heats up the upstairs mainly through the roof. The bedrooms on the north facing side of the house have very small windows.
The problem is that the upstairs is almost always close to 10 degrees hotter than the downstairs. Being in Southern California heating is Not the issue at all. It is 6 - 8 months out of the year trying to stay comfortable upstairs.
The HVAC tech installed a new Tempest (Model # CE60A34210L004) Unit and the AC is still NOT Cooling the Upstairs. It feels like the fan is on low speed. Last night it was 74 degrees outside at 5pm. The bedrooms upstairs were almost 86 from a pretty warm day. The downstairs was a nice 78 degrees. I closed all the doors and windows and ran the system for an hour and the upstairs was down to 82 and the downstairs (Twice the size as upstairs) was down to 76. After another hour the upstairs had cooled down a bit more to 81 and the downstairs to 74. Even hours later with the temperature outside dropping nicely the upstairs remained at 79 and it was just a lot better to shut off the AC and just open the windows and run fans in the room, just like I have done for the past 10 years!
I read through a lot of other peoples posts and I can honestly tell you that nobody did any TESTING or Heat Loss Calculations in my house. This HVAC technician has been in business for 30 years and he was highly recommended to me by my General Contractor. He did add 3-4 more runs. One to the new kitchen, one to my small office upstairs and one extra run to the bedroom and it’s teed off to the hallway outside the bedroom upstairs.
The problem is the new 5 ton unit doesn’t seem to cool the house down any better than the old 4 ton unit did. It also feels like the fan is on low speed. The Return air ducting is all the same as before and most of the accessible ducking has been changed out and upgraded.
I’m just thinking possibly the return air is not the proper CFM for the 5 Ton Unit. It is an 18 inch Duct and off of the custom outlet plenum he had built I can count (4) 8 inch runs on one side – (1) 12 inch run and (1) 10 inch run from the top and (2) 8 inch off the other side of the plenum feeding the ducts in the house.
Any ideas or suggestion would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the lack of knowledge in this area. Ask me anything about automobiles and I can probably have a good answer for you… Ha Ha
The problem is that the upstairs is almost always close to 10 degrees hotter than the downstairs. Being in Southern California heating is Not the issue at all. It is 6 - 8 months out of the year trying to stay comfortable upstairs.
The HVAC tech installed a new Tempest (Model # CE60A34210L004) Unit and the AC is still NOT Cooling the Upstairs. It feels like the fan is on low speed. Last night it was 74 degrees outside at 5pm. The bedrooms upstairs were almost 86 from a pretty warm day. The downstairs was a nice 78 degrees. I closed all the doors and windows and ran the system for an hour and the upstairs was down to 82 and the downstairs (Twice the size as upstairs) was down to 76. After another hour the upstairs had cooled down a bit more to 81 and the downstairs to 74. Even hours later with the temperature outside dropping nicely the upstairs remained at 79 and it was just a lot better to shut off the AC and just open the windows and run fans in the room, just like I have done for the past 10 years!
I read through a lot of other peoples posts and I can honestly tell you that nobody did any TESTING or Heat Loss Calculations in my house. This HVAC technician has been in business for 30 years and he was highly recommended to me by my General Contractor. He did add 3-4 more runs. One to the new kitchen, one to my small office upstairs and one extra run to the bedroom and it’s teed off to the hallway outside the bedroom upstairs.
The problem is the new 5 ton unit doesn’t seem to cool the house down any better than the old 4 ton unit did. It also feels like the fan is on low speed. The Return air ducting is all the same as before and most of the accessible ducking has been changed out and upgraded.
I’m just thinking possibly the return air is not the proper CFM for the 5 Ton Unit. It is an 18 inch Duct and off of the custom outlet plenum he had built I can count (4) 8 inch runs on one side – (1) 12 inch run and (1) 10 inch run from the top and (2) 8 inch off the other side of the plenum feeding the ducts in the house.
Any ideas or suggestion would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the lack of knowledge in this area. Ask me anything about automobiles and I can probably have a good answer for you… Ha Ha
