Just Another One of Those Days!

jinman · Jun 29, 2009

Bird said:
Jim, I guess it's possible that there's a leak in the ductwork, but I don't see how that could have happened since no one has been up there except me or that service man and I was there watching what he did. This house has the round flexible type ducts in the attic, and very deep (a foot or more) insulation up there. I go up once a month and put just a little bleach in the condensation drain, and yes, it's hotter'n hades up there.

I was thinking of the flex-ducts not being insulated enough when it gets really hot. The air at 59 degrees might only be 75 degrees by the time it reaches the register in your rooms. If that is not the case, then the ducting is probably just fine. Don't your ducts run above the attic insulation? Or are they covered in addition to having internal insulation? That's the kind of thing you would see on a really hot day like the ones we have been having. Thermal gain/cooling loss due to insufficient insulation in the ducting is a remote possibility. It also should be easily measurable with a thermometer check near the evaporator and another at the farthest point of the duct or where the air enters the room. Just a thought. . . .

Bird · Jun 29, 2009

Jim, I'm sure they had additional insulation blown in sometime after the initial insulation when the house was built. So a good part of the ductwork is covered with insulation while part is not. Of course, I like it to be colder than some in the house. Today with the clouds all day, the outside temperature is only 78, with the HVAC thermostat set on 77, it has cycled on and off at least 3 or 4 times today to keep it showing 77, but the actual temperature, right at the thermostat, is 72. Very pleasant today. So I went up in the attick and put a little bleach in the condensation drain. I don't see anything wrong anywhere, but I didn't open it up or try to work on it anymore today.

kenstrac · Jun 29, 2009

By any chance do you have an attic fan to remove excess heat in the attic and it's not working?

Bird · Jun 29, 2009

kenstrac said:
By any chance do you have an attic fan to remove excess heat in the attic and it's not working?

Nope, no fan in the attic; just the vents in the soffit. I had a couple of the wind turbine vents installed on the house we had before I retired, but don't have them here.

Birdhunter1 · Jun 29, 2009

Bird said:
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ut the ones from the thermostat showed 1.5 volts. They are Duracells with a date on them of Mar 2013, so I don't think those batteries were the problem, but I left the new ones in anyway. And the A/C is cycling normally this morning.

So everything is working fine today after changing the batteries? Let me know soon so I can get the bill prepared to send to ya so it will still be invoiced this month!

Bird · Jun 29, 2009

Birdhunter1 said:
So everything is working fine today after changing the batteries? Let me know soon so I can get the bill prepared to send to ya so it will still be invoiced this month!

Well, let's wait a day or two and see what happens. I think the fact that the high temperature outside today has officially been 80 (78 by my thermometer on the patio) instead of 98-100 has more to do with it than the new batteries.

Sigarms · Jun 29, 2009

Bird said:
I called a service company I used once before and was told the earliest they could have anyone out here would be Tuesday (4 days), so I called another company and they had a young man out pretty soon. Freon level was good, amps being pulled was good, filter was clean, we turned it off, turned it back on, on Auto, it works, can't find anything wrong with it, but it just won't get as cold as I think it should, or as cold as it has been getting, so temperature went up to 81 in the house. It's a 10 year old Rheem heat pump. It's been running continuously now for the past 4 hours and has lowered the temperature in the house one degree.

Out of curiosity, what was the price difference between the companies doing the service call? (the one you used before who couldn't come out right away, and the one who came out ASAP the second time around).

Thanks!

Bird · Jun 29, 2009

Sigarms said:
Out of curiosity, what was the price difference between the companies doing the service call? (the one you used before who couldn't come out right away, and the one who came out ASAP the second time around).

Thanks!

The one I used before (April 1, 2008) charged me $75.00. When I called this other one this time, the lady told me it would be $89.95 but the young man who came out said something about giving me a discount and charged me $69.95. Of course, I hate to spend the money, but I considered both to be quite reasonable.

scott_vt · Jun 29, 2009

Good Evenin Bird,
Ive been following along as the thread goes..... and after reading about some of the heat that Texas has had in the past couple of weeks, I hope you get it solved and fixed soon !