One of my big concerns when changing out furnaces is duct and grille sizes, mainly the return air. I find most return ducting to be about 1 size to small and the grilles about 1/3 less in size than they should be. Now considering the new variable speed blowers that are in the new furnaces we could potentially have air flow noise issues. If your installing a 2 stage variable your not going to see high blower speeds until high fire. Its at high fire I get concerned.
Existing RHEEM 80%
In this situation the ducting was a little small but within the limits of the system, it was the return grille and can in their hallway that concerned me. So After replacing their RHEEM 80% to an American Standard 95% Variable 2 Stage and adding a Honeywell 4″ pleated filter system I replaced their stamped faced 14 x 18 #1050 grille to an recessed 20 x 20 #905.
American Standard 95% Variable 2 Stage
Now the new furnace I installed can breath allot easier and their existing return air flow noise drastically decreased.
Heating And Cooling Skagit County
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When I first was called out by the bank on this Repo home I was asked to install a new gas furnace. When I got there I found no furnace, just everything that goes with it. Turned out the previous owner(contractor) took the furnace as well as all the appliances, deck and fence. Yes even the fence. The bank wanted a cheap price on a furnace. I really hate the word cheap.
Furnace gone.
I’m very thankful that the bank decided not to install a furnace, turned out the new owner of the home contacted me later. An American Standard 95% variable 2 stage was installed because he wanted a very quite and efficient furnace, the cheap 80% would not have done that. Unfortunately after the new furnace was in I could not get a clean picture, way to much duct in the way.
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.
When I saw the circuit board that came out of this Trane furnace I was shocked. Shocked because it was the 2nd board Ive seen in this condition in a matter of a week. I started to think about similarities…but couldn’t think of one.
Burnt Circuit Board
Location of the circuit board
All I know is these customer’s are very fortunate in both cases not to have had a house fire.
Here I replaced a Trane 2 stage 90% gas furnace for an American Standard Variable 2 Stage 95%. In this case the repair costs where pushing into the cost of replacing. Im very happy this customer made that decision because of issues we found with his zone system that where contributing to poor performance.
Older Trane Unit 90%
The Installation look fairly clean except for the bypass damper hitting the drain line on the right side of the furnace. The bypass damper relieves air when a zone shuts down.
Bypass Damper
After removal of the furnace we actually found the damper was broken and therefore allowing excessive amounts of air back around into the return, causing poor air flow performance as well as possible overheating issues in the furnace.
American Standard 95% Variable 2 Stage
With the new furnace in place it was time to see how it reacted with the existing zone package. The downstairs was the larger of the 2 zones and operated just perfect, but the upstairs smaller zone was causing the furnace to go out on high temp. After a few test I determined that the bypass was still letting to much hot air back into the return. So I actually eliminated the bypass and made sure 2nd stage would never come on for the upper zone. This actually makes sense with a variable speed blower.
After a few more tests the unit and systems was running perfect and was out performing the original Trane.
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.
There are certain types of projects that really appeal to me, these projects generally have the biggest impact or affect for the customer and are usually the most challenging. This project was for the Church Of Christ in Mount Vernon, their oil furnace was from 1951 and it was a monster. Time for a upgrade!
Existing Oil Furnace
The furnace was located in the basement in a room about 9′ by 9′ and it consumed most of that room. I had to stand back out of the room just to take a good picture(above). One of the biggest challenges with small community Church’s is the furnace sizing. A lot of small Church’s only get occupied say 1 to 2 times per week and the rest of the time the furnace generally stays off. So you have to consider raising the temperature say from 50 degrees to 70 degrees just for a few hours, and within a short period of time. And of coarse keeping the noise level down. Perfect for the American Standard 95% 2 Stage Variable.
New American Standard 95% 2 stage Variable
One of the complaints from the church was the down stairs is always cold, and even though they had damper controls to help with this issue it never seemed to work correctly, therefore they abandoned that part of the system and went to space heaters. The American Standard 95% Variable 2 Stage furnace with a Honeywell 4″ pleated filter system (above) was installed to deal with just the down stairs, fortunately the existing duct work was zoned to do just that. As you can see the foot print is much smaller than the oil furnace.
Attic Ducting.
Now for upstairs I decided to move the furnace location to the attic, as you can see in the picture above there was plenty of room. This of coarse required some duct modifications.
New American Standard 95% 2 stage Variable
The new American Standard 95% Variable 2 stage furnace and Honeywell 4″ Filter installed like a dream. I had to convert some of the ducting to return while keeping the rest supply air. I also installed a Heat Pump, seeing how they wanted air conditioning I convinced them a Heat Pump is the way to go for added cost savings. As you can see I installed an emergency drain pan under the unit just in case we have a leak. The LP tank you see is for temporary back up heat until we get gas to the building.
New American Standard Heat Pump
Here is the new American Standard Heat Pump, funny how they always seem to match the building color. The refer pipe had to be installed on the exterior of the building and travel up to the attic, so we used a gutter pipe to conceal this piping. Works very well.
New Honeywell Thermostats
And to control the 2 furnaces we installed 1 Honeywell VisionIAQ and a 1 Honeywell VisionPRO 8000. Both the thermostats where located in the mechanical room and both where installed with remote sensors in the occupied spaces. By using remote sensors no unauthorized fingers can adjust the temperature.
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? I install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.
This heat Pump was kinda a head scratcher for me, not because the Carrier Heat Pump we replaced was only 10 years old, but the company that put this in is usually very customer orientated and for some reason let this one fall to the way side. The customer had been having issues with the system since day 1, and for some reason this company could not fix the problem. Maybe the technicians that had been coming out every year after year trying to remedy the problem did not understand air flow …or maybe the head office did not want the burden of dealing with the real problem. Never the less they lost a customer!
Existing Carrier Air Handler
I must apologize for the picture above, I forgot my camera so I must resort to a picture my technician took when we he was called out. Everything he found on the system suggested they where trying workarounds, meaning not dealing with the real issue. The real issue being lack of airflow, the system could not deliver the air needed for the heat pump.
New American Standard Heat Pump
The solution above, an American Standard variable speed air handler. Even though the existing air handler was rated for the job, it could not push the air needed through the existing ducting. BUT this air handler is designed to do just that.
New American Standard Heat Pump
The American Standard heat Pump above is a perfect match for the indoor handler and existing home. The existing refer lines where flushed clean to switch over to the R410a refrigerant.
Alpine Heating And Cooling Vans
Later in the day the sun hit my vans just perfect for a picture. After all it was a perfect day, I gained a happy customer, the customer got a quality matched system with no air flow issues and I got home on time 🙂
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? I install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.
A bomb in the making, a 35 year old hydronic boiler with failed safeties converted this low pressure water boiler to a high pressure steam boiler. Fortunately no one got hurt when this boiler decided to shake the house and let everyone know it was time for it to be replaced!
Older American Standard Boiler
Boilers to me are the most fascinating piece of equipment in the Heating world, but not just the boiler itself… the entire hydronic system in the home. Every hydronic system is unique in design and a challenge to diagnose at times. But in this case its was very obvious what needed to be done…replacement.
New Weil McLAIN Boiler
The new Weil McLAIN CGa boiler fit right into position, the access was no longer from the side facing the HWT but towards the front. This gives the service technician better access. The new Pressure/Temperature gauge now is visible. I added dielectric unions to fight electrolysis’s …and also added shutoff valves.
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? I install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.
This 80% Rheem was ready for the recycle bin, the customer needed the furnace to be reliable because of their trips away from the home during the winters and this older Rheem was not cutting it. I am surprised it made it this long to tell you the truth.
Older Rheem 80%
The Rheem above was having board issues causing erratic behavior. No sense in throwing good money into a bad piece of equipment.
New American Standard 95% 2 Stage Variable Speed.
Not only is the newer American Standard 95% 2 stage variable speed furnace a quieter piece of equipment, it is a lot more efficient over the Rheem 80%. Now my customer can feel secure in knowing they have a reliable furnace and save some money.
New custom 4″ filter rack
Seeing how there was no access for a Honeywell 4″ pleated filter system because of the venting directly in front of the return ducting, I custom made a 4″ filter frame that is accessible from the side of the unit.
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? I install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.
I really tried to help this customer out, … I even offered without even taking the tarp off to trade for what ever is under that tarp for a new heating system … but some customers want to hold onto their old relics just the same.
Customers Road Runner 67?
This older Heil 90% furnace has seen its last days, the customer made a decision to replace the furnace this year to take advantage of the tax credits and rebates before its to late. Good Choice, the CNG rebated ended 12-31-09
Older Heil 90% furnace
Even though the Heil 90% furnace pictured above looks like a clean install, there are a few things that I should point out. 1) not only is the furnace push up against the wall, it was literally screwed to the wall… making for a great noise transfer system. 2) as pictured below, there was no rail on the right hand side for support or means for sealing.
Existing base can.
Existing base can with new rail
As you can see in the picture above I installed a new rail on the right hand side of the base can. This will give us added support and a place to add sealant.
New American Standard 95% 2 Stage Variable Speed
Here we have the new American Standard 95% 2 Stage Variable Speed furnace. I made sure we had no connection to the wall, eliminating direct noise transfer and replaced 2 transitions on top of the furnace … making for a very clean install. We also connected the existing condensate line to an existing drain line. The existing line just dripped under the home… not good.
Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? I install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.