this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2024
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HVAC: Don’t shut your air vents to give you better heating or cooling in certain rooms/floors. You’re adding pressure to your system and reducing its life. If it’s AC then you’re turning it into a freezer. That’s why doing so freezes the coil, not enough air flow to move the cold air out and keep it from freezing. For heat it literally can overheat the control board frying it since the blower also helps cool the electronics. If you have hot and/or cold rooms (this is normal per floors) ask about adding dampers. Most of the time it’s not possible without major drywall rework and it isn’t cheap. Your builder sucks (basically). A lot of companies won’t quote the work because it can’t be guaranteed. You’re essentially stuck with the crappy design the builder got approved. One potential is minisplits. Again, not cheap per room and not pretty but they will fix your issue.
I looked up dampers, and I'm confused about how they are functionally different than closing/opening the vent? I'm sure I'm not understanding though. Is it just about the location?
They don't operate differently. Also he is assuming your ducts are designed and balanced properly to begin with. Most in residential homes aren't.
While shutting off a lot of vents can cause problems. Shutting off an unused room isn't going to hurt anything. Or partially closing a vent because a room gets too warm/cold. Because like I said they do fuck to balance systems in residential homes.
Proper dampers redirect airflow, not eliminate it. Again, see, your house builder sucks.
Rethinking so many life choices.
Thanks. I was thinking of shutting the vents of one room in the house that is empty and unused, but I figured just keeping the door closed would probably be better, right?
I agree that shutting 1 vent isn’t going to kill your system. However, that one room isn’t insulated on interior walls. Best to leave it alone for overall comfort. You aren’t saving $ closing the vent. The system is going to run until the thermostat is satisfied no matter what.
Also, best thing for the entire building is to run the fan constantly (I forgot to mention this in the original). Balances the building much better than just the entire system kicking on and off every 15 min or so.
Shut it off, it won't hurt anything. It's only an issue if you're shutting off a lot of vents. Now how much good it'll do energy saving wise, depends on where the room is in the house and how old your house is. Newer houses with better insulation will see much less improvement.
Won't it potentially cause humidity issues? The room does not get direct sunlight (faces south). It's a new house with pretty good insulation (as far as I've experienced so far).
Without being there, I couldn't say for sure., but I doubt it Personally, I would just use common sense. Shut it off and and just check the room a couple times over the next week or two.
HVAC: mini splits
black mold forms and causes breathing problems. Clean aircons (air conditioner) every 6 months - 1 year.
If water is dripping from the outside unit, your aircon is lacking gas. Making it into a giant fan.
A mini-split is chosen to meet the needs for one room. Some folks, and can't be convinced otherwise, think an aircon can cover the entire universe. And to prove it, they leave all the doors open.
This is proof we live in the matrix. It's completely unsolvable issue without self closing doors
Water dripping means the cold side coil is cold enough to condense water out of the air. In what way does that suggest it is not working?
Some, especially newer units are designed to evaporate most of the condensate (water). That being said many will still drip water depending on the humidity (high) outside and also inside. And it be perfectly normal.
Are you in the industry, 'cause that doesn't ring true to me. Why would you spend the energy to evaporate water when it's so cheap and easy to dump the water on the petunia patch?
Refrigerators collect waste water in a tray on the assumption that the indoor climate will be dry enough for the water to ambient evaporate
Air con is incredibly popular in the tropics where it's dropping 100% RH to 30% and making a lot of water
Yes 15 years, because it saves energy by making the system more efficient.
Window units design the fan to throw the water onto the condenser this evaporates the water AND cools the freon in the condenser coil. Commercial stand up refrigerators often run the condenser line through the condensate pan for the same reason.
They don't "spend" energy doing it, they save it.
Split units and traditional A/C will just drain or pump the water somewhere.
Thanks, that is pretty neat
Also, don't use evaporated water for your flowers; there are no minerals in pure water and for them it's like eating wallpaper paste
So tap water is also bad? That has no minerals to speak of, at least where I live
Tap water is fine, it definitely has plenty of minerals and elements in it for your plants.
Evaporated water is pure H2O like distilled water. Same with water from your tumble dryer if you have a condenser type. Not good for plants
My mother's garden was watered with rain water. We don't have acid rain so there's nearly nothing in that and that garden is quite productive. Plants get all the nutrients they need from well fertilized dirt
Holy shit do you know fuck all about watering plants
End of convo mate
Normally the cold is carried by the gas to your room. The less gas you have, the less efficient this transfer is, and the colder your outside unit will be.
When the cold side is for inside air, I think you'll find that the water it condenses from the inside air is piped outside