fredroy
JUB Addict
I replaced my central air about 10 years ago. I did everything but the freon lines. Because I don't know exactly how and to validate the warranty on the system I had to get an a/c company to do it.
I fixed a few things in the duct work. Like, instead of the flexible ducts snaking around the attic and doing a 90 degree turn into the flush with the ceiling joists air box..... I built new. And the 10" ducts lay flat and have about 20 inches more of air box above. My understanding of why to do that is that the output from the air handler comes out of a 20x8 hole. Blow that into a box, it all pressurizes and the air flows out evenly. Air flow is much improved anyway.
Turn that upside down and use water. If the holes in your bucket are near the bottom of the bucket, how you aim the garden hose affects the flow from the holes. Raise the holes in your bucket a few inches and where the garden hose is aimed does not matter.
There's a word for this that I can't think of.
Then I found the screw-up where the duct to the master bedroom that branches to feed the master bath.... well, the two vents in the living room had never blown enough air to matter.
"They" had a Y before the bedroom vent to supply the LR vents. Did they use a Y with 10" through and 8" branching off? Of course not. 10 inch through and a 6 inch branch and it was all backwards to boot. So after I had the new system installed for a couple of months I noticed the LR vents were sucking in cobwebs.
Yeah. Air ducts working like a carburator. Grin.
To be fair, when the house was built in '81 you didn't run over to Home Depot (which did not exist) 17 miles away. You went to the local lumberyard and bought what they had. Or you went 45 miles one way to Austin. Need a part on Sunday? Tough.
It's a Jim Walter house, they built to at most 90% and other than a few weird plumbing joints and the air ducts, my biggest gripe is they were too effing cheap to buy a miter box to cut the baseboards. "Free style". Looks like crap in a few places, no one notices but me, but it's not enough to rip out and replace the baseboards. Solid house.
I fixed a few things in the duct work. Like, instead of the flexible ducts snaking around the attic and doing a 90 degree turn into the flush with the ceiling joists air box..... I built new. And the 10" ducts lay flat and have about 20 inches more of air box above. My understanding of why to do that is that the output from the air handler comes out of a 20x8 hole. Blow that into a box, it all pressurizes and the air flows out evenly. Air flow is much improved anyway.
Turn that upside down and use water. If the holes in your bucket are near the bottom of the bucket, how you aim the garden hose affects the flow from the holes. Raise the holes in your bucket a few inches and where the garden hose is aimed does not matter.
There's a word for this that I can't think of.
Then I found the screw-up where the duct to the master bedroom that branches to feed the master bath.... well, the two vents in the living room had never blown enough air to matter.
"They" had a Y before the bedroom vent to supply the LR vents. Did they use a Y with 10" through and 8" branching off? Of course not. 10 inch through and a 6 inch branch and it was all backwards to boot. So after I had the new system installed for a couple of months I noticed the LR vents were sucking in cobwebs.
Yeah. Air ducts working like a carburator. Grin.
To be fair, when the house was built in '81 you didn't run over to Home Depot (which did not exist) 17 miles away. You went to the local lumberyard and bought what they had. Or you went 45 miles one way to Austin. Need a part on Sunday? Tough.
It's a Jim Walter house, they built to at most 90% and other than a few weird plumbing joints and the air ducts, my biggest gripe is they were too effing cheap to buy a miter box to cut the baseboards. "Free style". Looks like crap in a few places, no one notices but me, but it's not enough to rip out and replace the baseboards. Solid house.