Adding a Generator

A few times a year I get asked to gas pipe in a generator, in this case it was to a Kolher 30kw.

Kohler Generator

Kohler Generator

Because a 30kw generator takes more gas than what a normal household gas line can carry the customer had the gas company install a high pressure gas meter. We then installed a pressure regulator at the generator location. This way we had plenty of fuel for the larger generator.

New regulator and gauge

New regulator and gauge

Above you see the new gas line with a new regulator installed. You will also notice we added a pressure gauge and bleeder after the regulator. My customer wanted to be able to monitor the pressure and bleed of any air or gas if need be.

Heating And Cooling Skagit County

Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.

Lennox Pulse to American Standard 95% Variable 2 Stage

Many years ago I install tons of Lennox Pulse furnaces, and I absolutely hated them. Not only were extremely heavy, they were extremely loud. The very first thing out of the customers mouth was “wow this furnace is noisy”.

Lennox Pulse Furnace

Lennox Pulse Furnace

The nice thing about Lennox pulse furnaces is replacing them. The American Standard 95% Variable 2-Stage is a little shorter making it easier to retro fit in … and the American Standard is VERY quiet compared to the Lennox.

New 95% 2 Stage Variable American Standard

New 95% 2 Stage Variable American Standard

As you can tell the American Standard 95% 2 stage variable fit right into place with a few minor duct changes. Because our customer was complaining about a musty smell in their home as well as concerns over filtration we installed a F300 Honeywell Electronic Air Cleaner as well as a Sun-Pure UV light system. I also added a low wall return duct to help pull cold air off the floor.

Heating And Cooling Skagit County

Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.

Wirsbo Manifolds

If you have a hydronic heating system, and you have an older Wirsbo manifold system I would think about looking at the condition of that system. In particular I would be looking at the gaskets, these have rubber or ceramic type gaskets, these gaskets need to inspected and or replaced every 10 years(in my opinion).

Wirsbo Manifold

Wirsbo Manifold

Here you see a 5 zone Wirsbo manifold(s), 1 manifold for supply and 1 for return. 3 gaskets are needed in each manifold.

Opened Wirsbo Manifold

Opened Wirsbo Manifold

Above you can see where we opened up the manifold for inspection, making sure to have drained the water from the system below the manifolds before starting.

Damaged Gaskets

Damaged Gaskets

In this manifold we found several damaged gaskets, we elected to replace all 6 gaskets in 3 different locations through out the home.

Heating And Cooling Skagit County

Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.

Lennox 80% To American Standard 80%

Time was up for this 20 year old Lennox, actually looking at the burners Id say time was up several years ago. I can honestly say my customer got the life out of the old Lennox.

Older Lennox Furnace

Older Lennox Furnace

You have to wonder what the installer and or designer was thinking when they installed this Lennox furnace facing towards a basement concrete wall. Obviously to me it was easier for the installer, but what about servicing or simply changing the filter.

New 80% American Standard Furnace

New 80% American Standard Furnace

I turned the new American Standard 80% furnace so it faced out in to the room and then installed a new Honeywell 4″ pleated filter system. Now my customer can replace the filter easier and the service technician has plenty of room to do maintenance.

Heating And Cooling Skagit County

Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.

New American Standard 80% Heating System

This paticular customer just bought a existing home, unfortuantly the only source of heat was some electric space heaters. They quickly removed all the space heaters and had me come in and install a new heating system.

New American Standard Furnace Location

New American Standard Furnace Location

After picking a location in the garage we punched a hole into the crawl space so we can run the required supply ducting. You can see space was limited but fortunately just the right amount needed.

New Supply Base Can

New Supply Base Can

After measuring and fabricating all the required ducting we installed the first piece. The base can not only supports the furnace it lifts it to the required 18″ above the garage floor as well as acts as a supply plenum. Here you can see us sealing the base can internally. The supply duct comes off the base can and enters the crawl space through the hole we cut.

New American Standard Furnace On Base Can

New American Standard Furnace On Base Can

Once the base can was in position we installed the new American Standard 80% gas furnace on it, the furnace is sealed to the base can with silicon. We then started on the supply ducting in the crawl space as well as the return air into the attic.

Return Ducting Going In to Attic.

Return Ducting Going In to Attic.

The return ducting runs from the top of the unit into the attic to a return grille. As you can see we used round ducting for easier installation and used metal because we are penetrating the firewall between the garage and the home. As you can see we seal as we go. We also installed the venting up through the existing roof, making sure to keep all our clearances as required and ran the gas line to from the meter to the new furnace.

Insulated Ducting

Insulated Ducting

After the sealing drys we insulated the ducting with R8 3″ insulation.

Gas Line Under Test.

Gas Line Under Test.

The new gas line is put under a 30lb test for 24 hours, then a new gas meter installed.

New American Standard 80% Gas Furnace Installed

New American Standard 80% Gas Furnace Installed

Here is a finale picture of the American Standard 80% gas furnace with a new Honeywell 4″ pleated air filter system.

Heating And Cooling Skagit County

Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.

Trane to American Standard 95% Modulating Variable

The existing Trane 80% 2 stage furnace was going on 18 years and getting to the point where it made no sense to through money into it any longer, my customer had done their research and really wanted a modulating furnace. They wanted more comfort as well as energy savings.

Existing Trane 80% 2 Stage

Existing Trane 80% 2 Stage

The new American Standard furnace is physically larger but will operated at a much lower BTU than the older 2 stage Trane. This combined with a high efficient blower motor operating in a ventilation mode will make the home a lot more comfortable and more efficient.

New American Standard 95% Modulating Variable Speed furnace.

New American Standard 95% Modulating Variable Speed furnace.

As you can see I had to make an base can transition for under the furnace than I installed a Honeywell 4″ pleated air filter above the unit. New PVC venting went up through the existing roof opening. A drain line was added to drain of condensate and then to finish it up we replaced their thermostat with an American Standard communicating programmable thermostat.

Heating And Cooling Skagit County

Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.

Oak Harbor Arbys Replacements

Arbys in Oak Harbor had 2 out of their 3 packaged air conditioners go down, both units suffered similar failures that where very costly to repair. Arbys elected to replace both units with 2 brand new Lennox Gas Packs.

Existing Trane Gas Packs

Existing Trane Gas Packs

The Trane gas packs served the front counter and the dining area. Unfortunately these units went down right before winter.

New Curb Adaptors

New Curb Adaptors

Because the new units will not fit on the existing curbs some special curb adapters(above) had to be fabricated. There are actual companies that specialize in making these adaptors for different types of HVAC equipment.

Old equipment being removed.

Old equipment being removed.

With a little help from Mount Vernon Towing we had the old Trane units removed from the roof and the new Lennox units put on.

Existing Curbs

Existing Curbs

Here you can see the existing curbs that the new curb adaptors fit on to. The only draw back from using curb adaptors is it actually raises the units up about 22″. The other method is to remove the existing curb and installing a new one.

New Lennox gas packs

New Lennox gas packs

The new units sat right on to the new curb adaptors. We reconnected up to the existing gas pipe and installed the new economizers and smoke detectors. Arbys again has heat and air conditioning.

Heating And Cooling Skagit County

Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.

Commercial Steam Boiler Issues

There is not a lot of HVAC companies that still work on steam boilers, and there is certainly not a lot that still work on commercial steam boilers.

Commercial Steam Boiler

Commercial Steam Boiler

Here we have a older boiler with even older controls, the boiler is dead cold and has a burnt out control board. The problem is getting replacement parts that simply snap into place for these older boilers.

Old Steam Boiler Controls

Old Steam Boiler Controls

The control board in the picture above that was bad is located on top of the panel box, the new board is installed inside of the panel box on the bottom right. After dialing in the control board and firing up the boiler we realized the condensate pump was not working, the pump was bound up. This is not the first time we had a bound up pump on this system.

Condensate collector box

Condensate collector box

We felt because there was no strainer (filter) on the condensate coming back that we would be seeing more issues with the pump and the condensate collector box. We ended up replacing the entire collector box with the pump.

New collector box

New collector box

Here you see the new condensate collector box and pump. We also replaced the corroded check valve and added a strainer to the system.

New Strainer

New Strainer

By adding a strainer we will keep debris from coming back to the condensate collector and by adding a valve we can easily clean the strainer.

Heating And Cooling Skagit County

Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.