Another 30 year old furnace that should have been replaced 10 years ago, it took a home inspector and a new home owner to get this monster replaced.
Old 80% Ruud furnace
As you can see the Ruud furnace was tucked away in a closet, the combustion air was pulled through louver doors from with in the home. This is very typical in older homes.
The new American Standard 95% 2 stage variable speed furnace
The American Standard 95% 2 stage variable speed furnace slipped right into place. Because the home owner wanted a better filter system (Honeywell 4″ filter bank) I had to make a slight transition to adapt to the existing supply ducting.
Sun-Pure UV light
A new Sun-Pure photo catalytic ultraviolet disinfection light was added because one of the family members was suffering from allergies. Sun-Pure in my opinion and my customers is a very good product that really does what they say it does.
By running the optional 2nd PVC pipe out (combustion air) we eliminated the need for the louver door, so the customer if need be can replace the louver door with a solid door.
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.
This Rheem 90% furnace is 30 plus years old and very tired, my customer knows its a money pit and wants an upgrade.
30 year old Rheem furnace
Even though you can not see the difference in the size the older furnace was 3″ wider and 6″ shorter, in my opinion to utilize the existing electronic air cleaner better they should have tried to matched up to it. Instead they overhung the air cleaner. Fortunately the American Standard 95% variable 2 stage matched up perfectly. I still had to make a few transitions to adapt to the existing supply air.
95% American Standard 2 stage variable speed
We have been out on several occasions for various reasons for this customer, one of which was their Navien Cr-210a installed by another company had issues. One of those issues was the venting.
Navien 98% tankless heater
As you can see above there was way to much thought going into installing the venting for the Navien. Too many elbows can cause excessive restriction in the venting, resulting in lockouts as well as overheating.
Corrected Navien venting
After a few changes in the venting I was able to eliminate 4 90 degree elbows. Now the Navien can breath a little easier.
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.
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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.
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
After the sealing drys we insulated the ducting with R8 3″ insulation.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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
The Trane gas packs served the front counter and the dining area. Unfortunately these units went down right before winter.
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.
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
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
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.