(Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning) For questions about installing, repairing, and troubleshooting HVAC systems.
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4answers
167 views
What could be wrong with my air conditioner?
My outside fan (compressor?) will not turn on. I have a week or two before the weather gets warm so thought I would try fixing it before I hire someone.
Symptoms - I turn on the air. The blower ...
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2answers
85 views
Is it safe to install a heating duct register in the ceiling directly above a home entertainment center?
We're in the process of getting bids for central heating and one of the conundrums is where to position the registers. Due to the layout of our living room (and style preferences of my significant ...
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2answers
390 views
How do I disable a thermostat to prevent it from turning on the AC?
I need to disable my thermostat from turning on the AC. Yes, covertly. I think one of my housemates is missing his native Antarctica. So, the thermostat still must be active & setable, but I want ...
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3answers
279 views
Is there a special low temperature thermostat?
I have a gas ceiling mounted furnace for my garage.
I want to set my garage at 35-40° F (1-4° C).
Is there a special thermostat to control furnace at that low temp? (I've seen one works as low as ...
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3answers
252 views
Are 5" thick filters for furnace/Central AC still available?
My furnace/AC was installed about three years ago. It uses 16" X 25" X 5" filters. The problem is when I try to find a replacement at my local home center: at Lowe's, Home Depot, (you name it), I ...
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1answer
272 views
Furnace Airflow
I have central air. When the furnace comes on, we can feel air coming out of the registers for a few minutes, then the airflow stops. If we turn it off for a few hours, we can turn it on again and get ...
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1answer
132 views
Fan between rooms?
I presently work at home, which means that I spend a lot of time in my office (ya think?). Unfortunately, this room is not a good one for air conditioning (or heating) in the house. I can often get 8 ...
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1answer
40 views
Plug HRV (Constructo 2.0 ES) into power bar?
Would there be any issues if I plugged this HRV into a power bar? I have this unit (says 200 watts of power) which is in the closet of the master bedroom and plugged directly into a wall socket.
I ...
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3answers
135 views
How can I add ventilation to my basement office?
I have a finished basement with an office, guest bedroom and bathroom. All about 700 sq ft.
I work 12+ hours in the office and really need to get some fresh air circulating by extracting stale air. ...
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1answer
79 views
Why won't my propane boiler's pilot stay lit after replacing the thermocouple?
The pilot on my propane boiler won't stay lit for more than 30 minutes even after replacing the thermocouple and outside gas valves. The inside gas valve was replaced two years ago. Service people ...
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1answer
69 views
Is it possible to detect and repair a refrigerant leak in my HVAC system?
While replacing the blower motor in my HVAC's air handler, the technician mentioned that the refrigerant in the system was also low and that most likely there was a leak.
Is the leak something that a ...
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1answer
537 views
What could be causing an A/C blower motor to turn off randomly?
The Blower motor on my AC unit turns off at random times while the outside unit continues to run which is causing the coil to freeze up. The blower won't come on for 30-45 minutes after the AC has ...
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1answer
3k views
Why won't my A/C turn on after I replaced the thermostat batteries?
Our thermostat died yesterday, but after replacing the dead batteries with fresh batteries, and confirming the LCD screen was operable, our AC no longer turns on.
I have attempted a factory reset on ...
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1answer
544 views
How “freely” should a central A/C condenser fan spin
Last year my home's central air condenser fan motor stopped working. When I noticed the house wasn't cooling down I went outside to investigate and found there was a humming sound coming from the ...
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1answer
458 views
What are my options for venting my oil boiler?
I have a small New Yorker AP-U (480?) boiler that is currently vented to a large flu in my house's chimney. I want to install a wood stove in my house and I'd like to use the chimney to vent it, which ...
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1answer
342 views
Installing a duct fan
For a room in the basement we connected a ceiling register to an existing duct. It is not very strong, but I found this product that might make it a little more powerful:
Does anybody know how ...
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2answers
5k views
Why won't my heater turn off when it reaches my desired temperature?
My wife and I purchased our first home this past year and we did a bunch of repairs up-front via a rehab loan, and one of the things we replaced was a very old thermostat with a new digital one.
I ...
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1answer
77 views
Weather stripping a door in an outside bldg
I have an office in the garage that is a standard room with insulation and an AC unit (8500 BTU AC in a 9' 3" tall room, 5" 4' wide). The room gets rather hot and I found the issue to be with the door ...
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1answer
13 views
How to find areas where heat/coolness are lost?
I live in a 2-story rental townhome (basically an apartment with 2 stories). Our central air/heat system isn't really the best at keeping the upstairs and downstairs the same temperature whether in ...
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0answers
60 views
How do I size a wall sleeve for a through-the-wall air conditioner?
We are shopping for a through-the-wall air conditioner. We do not currently have a hole in the wall with a sleeve in it. We are trying to figure out what sleeve to buy.
The air conditioner we like ...
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0answers
151 views
What's causing my draft inducer to stay on?
I have a new, 3-year old, high-efficiency, gas furnace in my home. I recently realized that my draft inducer, which normally kicks on before the burners and before the main blower, is not stopping.
...
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2answers
102 views
Is a PTHP a HVAC option for a super insulated structure?
Is a Packaged Terminal Heat Pump a good HVAC system for a structure that is super insulated or passively insulated assuming the unit is sized and fitted to meet the needs of the structure.
There is ...
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1answer
492 views
Are there any ductless mini split systems that offer standard HVAC controlls?
Have been looking for in the US a ductless mini split heat pump system something like the Mitsubishi Electric Mr. Slim that uses a non proprietary wiring scheme for its wall mounted thermostats. ...
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0answers
32 views
How can I add a common “C” wire to my thermostat? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Options for adding “C” wire to thermostat
I recently bought the Honeywell THM5320R Wireless thermostat. After going to hook it up I found what many others have, it ...
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0answers
332 views
How can I properly drain heatpump condensate?
I have a heat pump in the attic That drains to the ground outside two floors below. I naively added a hose fitting so I could redirect the water where I wanted it, slightly up hill.
This created a ...
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0answers
280 views
What are good Relative Humidity and Temperature settings on an MHRV and are the settings related?
I need to configure the threshold Relative Humidity and Temperature settings on an whole house MHRV system.
The way the system works is that if the RH threshold is exceeded the system increases the ...
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1answer
5k views
Should I add a return air vent in a refinished basement?
We are refinishing our basement, and are nearing competition. The walls are drywalled, and the ceiling is dropped. There will be about 500 sq ft of finished space, including a full bathroom, and ...
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2answers
58 views
Should I insulate air conditioner coolant pipes?
I recently replaced some rotted insulation on the coolant pipe that runs out of my AC unit and into the evaporator in my house. When cleaning inside the actual AC unit itself I noticed that the ...
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1answer
500 views
How to connect Nest in Europe
I found a question regarding the Nest thermostat here. But that is only a question "Will it work?". Thanks to that I know it WILL, the problem is...HOW. I know the wire naming conventions are ...
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2answers
1k views
Is it normal for the A/C to be dripping from top pvc that's coming from attic?
I thought I remember being told that water should drip (condensation) from the bottom pvc that comes out of the house but it should never drip from the top pvc. I thought he told me that if it ...
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1answer
49 views
Exhaust venting into air return?
In the condo (2 story semi-detached townhouse built in 2004) I rent, the main bathroom has an interesting vent system.
When turned on, 2 fans are activated. One is a booster of some type and ...
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1answer
97 views
How can I get my thermostat C wire connected? [duplicate]
I have an older furnace, on the switch block I have Y,C.W,R and an unlabeled screw that connects to the shut off it looks like. I need to hook up a thermostat that needs the C wire. I have a spare ...
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1answer
117 views
HVAC unit won't come on
This morning I noticed that my main floor wasn't cooling. I found the condensation pump full ( little giant model VCMA-15ULS ). I disconnected the hose from the unit to the pump, drained it, dumped ...
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1answer
87 views
What to look for in a new furnace
I've recently been told that my furnace, which is about 20 years old, is on it's last stretch and that I should consider replacing it now rather than waiting for it to fail - potentially at a very ...
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1answer
40 views
How can I add a relay to the manual control for my HVAC unit?
I have a self standing HVAC unit that has a control panel with manual buttons. There is no thermostat. Eventually my goal is to create a relay that can be controlled via IR/RF so I can install a Nest ...
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1answer
152 views
How can I use a separate transformer to provide a C wire to my thermostat?
I Purchased the Honeywell WiFi Prog Thermostat to replace my Round Digital Honeywell Thermostat.
I have separate Heating and Cooling (Heating is a Weil McLain Boiler for Hot water baseboard and Hot ...
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2answers
145 views
Why does the air flow heavily from my downstairs vents, but very weak from my upstairs vents?
I live in a two-story townhouse where the first floor is ground-level on a slab. On the first floor, all air vents are either on the ceiling or at the very tops of the walls. Upstairs, the vents are ...
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1answer
97 views
How do I turn off the power to my programable thermostat?
I am installing a new programable thermostat. In trying to cut power to the old one I have tried a couple of things but not sure I have done enough to cut all power. One, I shut off the furnace ...
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1answer
146 views
How can I replace a 4-wire manual thermostat with a programmable thermostat?
I"m replacing a 4-wire manual baseboard thermostat with a programmable SBFT2W thermostat. After connecting the wires, there are two lead wires from the old stat that are still unconnected. They are ...
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2answers
231 views
What could be wrong with my A/C unit?
I just installed a new compressor fan on my outdoor A/C unit. Before the fan went bad, it was working fine and had just had its annual service check (the service guy said the freon was fine, ...
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1answer
52 views
How effective is a heat pump for AC and a heat pump/furnace for heating in New England?
We currently have a central AC unit and oil furnace. The AC is broken and the furnace is old, so we are thinking of replacing both sometime in the next year.
We are considering replacing the AC with ...
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1answer
40 views
Why isn't my thermostat working?
I have an old Lennox (gas heat only) thermostat. There are 3 wires coming from the wall. Black, yellow and a light blue color (could be a faded green or an old dirty white).
The thermostat wouldn't ...
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0answers
89 views
Why isn't water running through our radiators?
We had a plumber in today to bleed our rads. He also changed the batteries on the thermostat and fiddled around with the boiler. Since he left the temperature has dropped dramatically and he's refused ...
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2answers
111 views
What could be causing this leaky evaporator problem?
My apologizes if I do not know the correct terminology for some of the parts. I will try my best though.
We have a Trane A/C system that is causing us a headache. It is causing water damage in our ...
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0answers
55 views
What does the low limit do, and where should it be set on an oil fired hot water furnace?
What does the low limit do, and where should it be set? My furnace has
a honeywell triple aquastat relay and has a difference dial. Water temp is about 190 deg F. Also, water psi gauge is only ...
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0answers
130 views
How can I stop cold air from coming through my basement air return?
there is cold air coming in from my basement air return when the heat is not running , my HVAC unit located outside any suggestions on how to stop the airflow?
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0answers
82 views
I have no furnace, only electric blowing heaters. How do I get ventilation?
I have a 100 years old building with a store on the main floor. Since the building was built over 100 years old there is no ducting whatsoever. There is also no furnace. In the summer we just hook ...
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0answers
217 views
new furnace installed - few questions
So, Sunday the fan on our 18 year old furnace died; instead of paying the $600 to get it repaired, i opted to buy a new one.
Lennox SPV98UV (i think) 98% efficient / variable speed fan. they ...
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1answer
190 views
Why do I have a large PVC pipe venting warm air outside intermittently?
There is a large PVC pipe (3 actually) which vent air intermittently. I started noticing I could see steam rising over my deck in the morning and then I found that these pipes vent air at least a ...
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1answer
344 views
why won't my furnace turn off once it reaches the desired temperature
I have a moncrief furnace and replaced the thermostat but the furnace will not cut off once it reaches the desired temperature. What could be wrong?
