3 HVAC Ductwork ISSUES Homeowners NEED To Know!
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- Опубликовано: 28 май 2024
- It's not a mystery that ductwork can be installed improperly. In fact, it's commonly known that ductwork in most homes isn't sized correctly. However, aside from the obvious issues such as holes and leaks in the ductwork, what are some things homeowners can watch out for without being an expert and knowing all things HVAC? I've compiled 3 common problems you can watch out for as a homeowner when there seems to be air flow complications in your home.
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--------Chapters-----------
0:00 Intro: 3 HVAC Ductwork Issues Homeowners Need To Know!
1:46 Does the trunk ductwork step down?
2:51 All rooms are different sizing and should have different-sized ducts
3:40 Spider duct system problems
4:18 Duct off the end of the trunk
5:41 Return Ducts should be larger than Supply Ducts overall
6:36 Ductwork should meet these guidelines overall
7:10 Griffin Air and New HVAC Guide
#duct #ductissue #ductproblem 
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👍 as a former Licensed Sheetmetal worker , estimator, business owner, and heating design, this man explains it well without going into excessive detail.
Perfect explanation of HVAC. I’m a plumber of 30 plus years so I’ve seen some duct work. If new homeowners and about 95% of home inspectors would watch this video a lot of new homes would be left sitting! Several years ago my Dad hired in the side a couple of my sisters X buddy’s to install a new furnace and a/c unit which he purchased and of coarse he upped the tonnage which he thought would be better. Well after the install the unit which was a Lennox began having problems. Well of course he had a HVAC contractor come out and they said they couldn’t find any problems. I went and just put my eyes on it and began doing some test just using a thermometer and common sense. After doing some thinking and calling my buddy which is a HVAC company owner and explaining the situation and giving my thought on the problem he told me your exactly right. The unit was starving for return air with the unit being upsized. So I called my dad and told him I’d be over the following weekend and we can address the problem. Thank god I got there when I did because he had already drew out lines on the walls where he wanted the return vents and had started cutting Sheetrock with a razor knife. I stopped him in his tracks from cutting any further and told him we’re not going up into any walls we’re gonna go through the floor! Short story long we finally got the returns in and the unit has worked fine ever since! The contractor world needs more Professional People like you in it!!!
I have installed ductwork for 32 years here in Northern California. This guy did a nice job of explaining things correctly. To answer some problems- if you are getting too much air in 1 room and not enough in another room you could add balancing dampers in the ductwork to divert the air into other rooms. Also a big thing he talked about is too small return air to the unit, this causes many problems. 1 is the unit may freeze in a/c mode in summer because the unit is starved of air over the coils. He brought up static pressure. This is an issue with how the system deliveres air evenly. Proper sizing of ductwork helps delivery of air through out the home. Stepping down in size the further you go down the line is key to proper airflow. Hope this helps some of you. This guy is spot on here. Good job
Thanks pal
Paul , I have this issue on my new home , CFMs were tested in each room and it’s higher on one area and lower in another but still above the CFM plan
However, one room is hotter in summer and colder in winter
I asked for the engineering plans to be relooked at and ensure loads and cfm requirements are calculated correctly… we’ll see what they say
Also, the HVAC Tech said there are no dampeners at all , he said I’ll have to work with the registers
@Victor Cruz installing damper collars is easily done by a pro. Using the registers only makes it noisier in the room. The extra heatload in some room's could be from what's in the room generating heat. Can lights, tv, computers... Lack of window coverings on the sunny side of the house... All easily fixable.
@@VictorCruz-wn8tz Good luck with that. Unfortunately systems are rarely installed prior to closing up walls. It would be nice to be able to run those flow numbers prior provided that ALL condicalculations. (Insulation, window effcy, sun, etc) are set forth in the load calc.
A few of years ago I got a new AC. It was supposed to be a 4 ton unit for 2200 sf. Another company came out for a free yearly checkup and I was informed I had a 5 ton unit and my ducts were not adequate. He also suggested a second return air. I had 4 estimates from 4 companies who all pretty much said the same thing. I had the first company do the job. 9k for all new ducts and additional return air. What a difference. It’s very quiet now and the whole house stays cool. Before, the living room for example would not cool down during the day with company over. That ductwork costs more then the AC install. But, I should only have to do it once!
Having enough return is an extremely important part of a properly running air conditioner. Also not using restrictive 1 inch pleated filters they cut airflow substantially.
As a retired engineer (BSEE) I have to say that the duct work IS the weakest link, and although the airflow dynamics can become quit complex Mr. Griffin provided an excellent, easily to understand explanation. Einstein quote: “If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.” This is who I would want to do all my duct work service.
Always check behind your plenum box and make sure they sealed the area off from the attic if you have a closet mounted blower! Paid $8k and found the installer never sealed the back 4” off so I was pulling dust , dirt, and gross outside air into the closet into the intake and through and out the duct work! I fixed it myself because I’m so sick of being scammed by AC guys.
same here. my guy showed up smelling like weed and the plenum wasn't even square to the point of having a 1/2 inch gap on one side which he "mastic'd up". I had my drywall contractor come behind him and seal between the plenum and the attic. He also created a flow unbalance and one of my bedrooms gets hardly any flow.
Thanks for arming us with information. We are also grateful for all of the helpful comments of your viewers.
You can put dampers on the “spider” systems and balance out the air flow in each room.
Thank you. You earned my support. I’m pretty sure you solved my house heating issue. I probably have a 30 foot trunk with a 90 degree angle all the same diameter. The two rooms in the end are freezing.
Thank you for this video! Wow, my home has all of those issues…trunk not stepped down, rooms warmer than others, same size (6”) duct going to every room regardless of size, supply coming off the end of a trunk.
I’ll be calling for someone to review it this month!!
The biggest issue for indoor air quality and occupant health is actually duct leakage. Even brand new duct systems leak quite a bit. Our brand new, pretty well done duct system actually had 120 cfm of total leakage. We had aeroseal seal it all up for us. Everyone is breathing contaminated air, pressurizing, or depressurizing their home with poorly sealed duct work. No good. Contractors building building's envelopes and mechanical systems are directly affecting the health of the occupants. In my new house, I needed to add ventilation because VOC's were too high making me not sleep well and our house prior to sealing the ducts was pulling in attic air and pressurizing the house. There's a lot of data now showing indoor air causes lots of chronic health problems. It's time for A/C guys to start paying attention instead of just throwing in a single speed A/C with a fiberglass filter, no ventilation, no dedicated dehumidification for mild months, and etc. Into homes and not thinking anything of it.
When we come to your home and tell the homeowner what needs to be done on a new home install or changing out the equipment in a older home,it all comes down to what they can afford.
As far as duct work it’s code to seal all the joints but sadly not the designing of the system.its a lot of hacks out there.we can sell you high seer inverter systems with high in air purifiers,ultra violent lights,humidifiers,ERV systems but the majority of people can’t afford this level of job.
Then the homeowner needs to pay for it. Builder only pays for bare minimum. You want it? You pay for it.
In California the system has a duct test. The test goes right to Sacramento, this is done by an independent company. So, little to no leakage.
Yeah like on mobile homes. The plumbers, electricianz, and AC guys drill holes in the sub floor and dont seal. So literally a bunch of seals not sealed let alone ducts are never installed correctly.. you need the right tapes, spray glues for the tape.etc. just did our home and we had a basketball sized hole in the trunkline where a duct used to be.. they had it capped but it was just tape and over time just fell to the floor... Lol
Great explanations man. I'm definitely subscribing.
Well you just disappointed about 75% of home owners. Unfortunately builders and many home owners use cheap mechanical contractors for residential the majority of time. Therefore you get low skill labor at a a good price. Get multiple estimates from reputable companies and ask to see their work. If they can’t show you photos they don’t take pride in what they do. Doesn’t matter if you spent 20k on your new system if it isn’t installed correctly. Do your research on companies. Ask to see their work. If it doesn’t look good, it’s probably not. People that do good work take pride in their craft. It should look clean, not like a rats nest, or bomb went off. It should be sealed. Trash shouldn’t be left in the attic or basement etc. quality mechanical contractors are definitely out there but it’s up to the home owner to do their research on the companies they hire.
Plenums with duct work off the sides work good as long as you keep your take offs towards the cap and use volume dampers at wys for each supply to vent. And alway as Mr Griffin said step down size at transitions Great video 👍🏽
Best explanation I have ever heard. Thank you so much!
Amazing tips…makes so much sense, thanks
I rented a 5000sq ft building for my restaurant, was having trouble with the air flow. I was shocked when i went in the attic and see what the previous rented had done. 2 4 ton units main duct work was about 8 foot long, each unit had 12 vents. but they used 12 flex to all the vents and tapered down to 6'' about 3 foot before the vent. this caused NO AIR FLOW. not to mention the power bill was 1200 a month. i fixed all the ducts. and air flow is good and power bill is down to 550.
Good video and info. Thanks
Great video. Well explained.
Bro you have explained exactly what I was looking for YOU'RE VIDEO WAS AMAZING, THANK YOU, best explanation 👏 🙌 👌 everrrr!!!
Wow. Thanks pal
@@NewHVACGuide you're welcome have no idea how much that helps now I can put the peices together
Well presented sebject, thank you.
Thanks!
Great video this is so very informative. Thank you.
You’re welcome!
Available Static pressure reduces with each reducer. In fact you get static regain if you don’t install a reducer as the velocity pressure reduces and the total pressure is fairly constant, there fore static pressure increases. Some low velocity systems I’ve designed end up being self balancing as the supply diffuser becomes the dominant resistance in the supply system which means you don’t need a balancing damper and risk of noise regeneration.
Very well explained and cleared up a lot of unanswered questions for us Beginners, thank you
You are welcome!
@@NewHVACGuide I’m going through the same issue, I have a new unit that is appropriate to my House size, my room is not getting enough air, the one vent blows out cold, I think I need another vent, the room is about 16x16.
Great information
Our 3 y.o. house has been half hot half cold on day one.
In 50 years, 5 houses never had this issue.
The lennox dealer twlls me no problem.
Told our builder if it does not get corrected I'll be calling the customer experience number.
Right now i have a window unit in back bed room.
And it's a spray foam insulared house!.Arrgh...
usually you can adjust the air flow by closing or opening vents in the room. i have 31 apartments and homes. that always done it for me.
Nice and informative video, thanks.
Glad it was helpful!
Best video ever thank you very much for all valuable information and tips
Wow! Thank you for that comment.
As a duct man and owner of a small factory for duct works i do all your three points
Thank you so much! I was getting ready to open up that end where you just told me not to to add another piece of duct myself. Lol unfortunately what we used to have was the metal ductwork and after we had a flood in my area when the guy redid the furnace we ended up with that cheaper looking flexible stuff. I don't know if it's as good as the metal or they're about the same.
Great suggestions.
Imma go in my basement and check this out. Mad issues unattended for a couple winter seasons now. Landlords grrrr.
This is such a critical video. I think I'm going tour some new open houses in my area and see if the ductwork is up to par like the points you made in this video, and then find out who the HVAC installer is for those properties!
Let me know how that goes pal. Good or bad
@@NewHVACGuide Will do! Just the fact the you're protecting people's investments is awesome because nothing more I hate is spending hard earned money only to be disappointed afterwards.
@@NewHVACGuide You should do a video on return duct strategy & placement. I went round & round with the scabs that installed my mothers system back in 76 about return ducts. They should have louvered vents with 1 high and 1 low on each floor so that in winter they suck cold air into the furnace and in summer they suck hot air into the A/C system so the system can adjust the house air pocket to make the T-Stat work less often to maintain a constant temp and make the system cheaper to use. They put the only return duct in the downstairs floor and in summer the upstairs temp was 45* hotter than downstairs. 25 yrs later I got the house and cut the wall open and added a return upstairs and evened out the temps myself.
You bring up a good point. Makes me wonder if sometimes things are not done properly because they are trying to keep the cost down as much as possible or if some folks are just simply lazy?
@@NewHVACGuide the answer is both unfortunately
The answer is both
Great information that I can use when filtering out the bad contractors from the good. I only have one concern regarding this video and your better judgement; For someone who deals with leaks and mold issues in your daily profession, why do you still have carpet in your bathroom? Cheers!
3:57 basically my problem. I probably need a trunk that's atleast 10 ft longer so I can run shorter lines. Now I just gotta figure out the other side of the house so I can count up the cost somebody has caused me by building this house. Well hopefully those VA checks get a little bigger.
Great tips. Ty
An inline booster be added to a cold air return I don't have a basement and utility room is only so big so it would be hard to add a bigger return so I was thinking maybe I could put on inline fans and have them continuously blow and it might help feed the furnace more air thank you for all of your videos and your time creating them have a wonderful day
Thank you. This helps a lot. I see my house has this straw issue in the attic.
Very common pal.
That spider system is super common around here, although at least they don't use flex duct like you pictured, but it's super common to see a plenum with a ton of 6 and 8" round duct lines coming off.
I've talked to a LOT of guys who install duct for commercial HVAC systems on a daily basis that have no idea, or drastically oversimplify how residential systems are ducted. I know a service guy who swears that all you need to do to figure out cfm is just use the square footage.
They use baffles to balance the flow. Not ideal but functional.
@@dontblameme6328 Yeah, maybe a company is doing that. I know it's part of a regular install on a commercial building. A TAB guy will come out and adjust the dampers and take air readings and let you know if there's a problem with getting what he needs out of a line.
But these commercial guys in my area that are doing residential on the side are most certainly not balancing the system.
I like your dog and toilet! 😄
ruclips.net/video/XJfejoA0u5g/видео.htmlsi=7NtCs2ztbg5oMnvA
I used to do a lot of videos with him 🙂
Thank you for your video good stuff and thank you for being so helpful. I have a question though that was not covered. My question is I have a 5-ton Lennox package system that is installed on my roof in Southern California in the Inland Empire which is extremely hot in the summer and gets really cold in the winter. The unit has exposed ductwork that goes from the air conditioning heating unit to inside the house and I was wondering if I should coat the exposed metal ductwork on the roof or am I just overthinking this and if you think I should put a reflective coating on the ductwork what coating do you suggest. Thank you and hope to hear from you soon
Very helpful.. Thanks for that. QUESTION: I have a flexible duct running through my attic that was installed by a professional HVAC company years ago. One room in the house has very restricted air flow. I noticed the flex duct that's feeding that room makes a ridiculously hard U-turn into that room's register. It's a very short length near the end of a trunk line that begins it's U-turn right out of the side of the trunk line. and into the register. I'm thinking of cutting that ductwork, then splicing enough of a length of the same duct material to create a more gradual bend into that register. I know the less length, the better the airflow but this is situated so that I will need to add 10' - 15' or more feet to do this. Any problem in general doing it this way?
I’ve got an addition I’m running duct to and I’ve gotta run 4 more vents. About 30ft away for all of them. Might scrap that idea and do a mini split for it
I have a 5 legged spider to deal with. Definitely looks like a DIY project by previous owner. Big, fat 9 inch ducts with asbestos tape. No HVAC company will touch it so I gotta do it myself. I'm hoping to find some sort of cap for the extra holes and commit to a main trunk line off of the remaining take off. Then will use flex duct to reclaim some ceiling space.
Quack everytime he says duck😅
2:10 Those step downs aren't for the rooms at the end of the trunk line, they are for the branches BEFORE the step down. If the trunk doesn't reduce in size all the air will pass freely to the last vent.
No. Path of least resistance
Nice job
Thank you!
I had my basement finished in 2003. I had it stated in the contract no duct tape. When I saw the hvac person using duct tape I told him to stop.
He argued with me saying it doesn’t matter if the ducts leak, the heat is still going into the house. I told the general contractor to find a different hvac person.
Too bad I didn’t know about mastic at the time. I should have specified that. But at least all the new joints have foil tape.
Wish you also did Alexandria, VA.
Can you make a video that compares a few common flex duct brands. Maybe include what can be found at big box stores vs HAVC supply houses.
There are a couple rooms in my house that I'd like to keep as cool rooms because they are not used. I seem to finding that if I close those supply vents off, it seems to mess with the proper air movement in the house and my house dont seems to heat properly. Here in Canada it gets flipping cold and my sunken living room gets cold as heck.
Would you have air ventilating trough your ducts with the fan on your residential unit off.
I have central air. In the attic, is there a filter up there in? I only been replacing the ones inside the house.
I have a finished basement and we put in a new air and heat pulling cut out and made. Can't see why heat isn't coming out like before.
I have a Mobil home ac vents are in the floor. ? Is should the return air be up high over the coil or should it be in front of the coil I ask this because when I got the trailer it has two returns 16/20/1 direct above the coil. It’s a 4 ton
Great video! I'm renovating a 100 year old Detroit 3 layer brick home. One contractor told me he needs to make a hole through the bricks in order for the duct work to go through the third floor. Another contractor recommended installing two furnaces so he doesn't ruin the structure of the home. I would love your advice on this.
Did it cost u alot to renovate a 100 year old house, I saw 1 that I like but I'm afraid to risk it.
@@abiolaashby7117 I'm still working on it. I would definitely budget for it. It really depends on who you hire, and what type of work the home needs.
High efficiency one got plastic exhaust way easier that the old ones
hello got a concept i wonder might help. testing it right now. secondary heat exchanger went out. i dont have money to fix or replace it - echanger or furnace. blower motor and ac still work. set the fan to run constantly. placed a space heater in ta section of the return air duct to warm it . what are the cons of this working?
Question: we have a central air unit that runs ac and heat through our floor vents (manufactured home) and the ceiling vents are non functional. Is it possible to use both? Cool air from the ceiling and hot from the floor?
Do ones it matter where you install the return air filter - whether at the back of the return air duct close to the furnace or at the front of it about 18 inches from the furnace?
that's one of my biggest issues with duct work in south florida and small installers. You tell them, listen this one room right here is always hotter so please, push more air to that room. NOPE, they always end up with smaller duct or horribly laid out because of standards that all of them have; this room is this size so it gets this register size and duct 🤦🏻♂🤦🏻♂
A radial system with home runs can be balanced with balancing dampers. It would help if you weren't assuming ducts without dampers can be balanced by picking a specific-sized duct.
When installing an exhaust vent for a stove, it it required for the vent to be double walled to keep surrounding building materials from getting hot?
Wonder if R value in duct work fits into the equation? R-3 flex doesn't cut it with my home in Texas.
10 years ago I had round hard ductwork installed and it’s cooled the house better than ever. Recently I called a company to check for a leak in my unit and they ended up sending out a couple guys to give me a estimate on a new system. We had heavy rain the previous day and they told me they couldn’t price a new unit without new ductwork as it got wet and had water inside.
The ductwork was installed with hangers and may appear it’s laying on the moisture barrier but it may just be the insulation that got wet. I don’t see how they can tell if water is inside. It’s a large heavy duct . They left without giving me a quote because I declined new ductwork. What do you think?
I have a very centrally located electric furnace. Can I come out of the plenum on all sides like a Medusa? I don’t have a particular direction I need a trunk.
I have high static pressure on a new 3.5 ton heat pump. I know for sure the flex duct is the issue. I have two 12" coming out of the supply in opposite directions. I know I need an 18" for a 3.5 ton heat pump. I did a diagram layout of the duct in the attic. What would happen if I just replace the two 12" to 18"?
Ignoring the downstairs, because everything is between the walls. The problem was even worse with an undersized return. The original and only return was a 24x18. The total static pressure on the unit was .9 W.C. I was able to drop the TESP to .66 by making the return 30x24. Since there is so much static pressure and the unit TESP is a .2 and I need an 18" for a 3.5 ton for 1400 CFM. How big does the supply plenum should be and what shape? Should the supply plenum split to 3 18" going out to each of the 3 distribution boxes? Do the other three distribution boxes also need to be larger?
Looking at the triangle shaped supply plenum I have very little room up for a rectangle plenum. I think a 3 feet ductboard supply plenum should work. There is a foot from the Air handler to the ceiling and I think 2 feet from the attic floor to the roof. Now I am looking at two types of designs. Design #1 keeps the 18" ducts straight by having a single 18" coming out of the supply and then a distribution box splitting it to three 18". The sides would be coming out straight to the to side boxes and one going to the third box with a slight curve. Design #2 splits to three right at the supply plenum and goes to each box individually, but all three will have a slight curve. I will not be using any metal plenums..... it will be all flex duct and ductboard boxes, because of budget. I am not trying to make a perfect system, but trying to remove the restriction from the 12" undersized ducts installed and replacing the flex duct that was patched with mastic with new ones.
Another question about the installation..... I have the flex duct running up and strapped to the roof for support. Since the supply plenum is low to the floor due to the roof..... Can the flex duct be run on the attic floor? Can you tell me which layout makes more sense and less restrictive? Thank you.
Layouts:
Current
i.ibb.co/Ld9kmPM/Flex-Duct-Layout-and-Size.jpg
Option #1
i.ibb.co/GHyS00g/2022-07-05-0002.jpg
Option #2
i.ibb.co/PNN8mSB/2022-07-05-0001.jpg
Air Handler Specs
ibb.co/17VvF4B
Video of attic
ruclips.net/video/iInIN89q8GU/видео.html
Mr. Griffin, as a Subscriber, I got much well information from you.
I want to ask you, could ductwork go bad due to a Roof Leak not known until your kitchen wall went pink? I live in a Condominium. Should I be covered for my Roof? I make monthly payments for this, and more. However, the Management didn't do much. I had to find my own Restoration Crew. Can I stop payment on Maintenance due to negligence on the part of Management? Thank You! As always, Wonderful Tutorials.
Is there way to determine if your existing HVAC system is big enough to add room vents to? I have a basement that was finished but no vents. Wanted to tap 2-3 vents into the existing ductwork but concerned may affect system ability to heat the house. Worried if I have an HVAC company look they’ll see it as an opportunity to force sell me a bigger unit I don’t need.
The old basement unit in a house we got was a mess. The supply plenum attached to two 12" flexible ducts that, after running side by side for 10ft, suppied a 15ft rectangular trunk, from which other flexible ducts arose. Return plenum had a grill placed in it to suck in damp, moldy air that only a dirt floored basement can provide. Nice. Corroded, filled with water, most everything came down and was thrown out. So the 1000 sq ft home is nearly all one large room with the exception of the bathroom and tiny 8x9 bedroom. I'm thinking keep it simple. Hot air vents closest to furnace, returns from other side of house. Bathroom and bedroom get 75cfm each. Thanks for the informative video!
In locations with cold winters I look for supply vents positioned at each window, and returns across the room from that vent.
I have seen new homes with the vents and returns along the same wall and nowhere close to the windows.
Thats how florida is ( is not that its wrong)
You walk thru any bedroom door typically the return is above the door and to the middle of the window (oppsite from the window) youll have the supply
Everything changes once you step into georgia and the carolinas since those states get snow and then they have crawl spaces too florida homes dont(unless its from 1890 or 1900s)
My ac broke last summer. Now I need to replace both AC and my ancient furnance. Only to find out the duct work is too small for the house I have and no matter how good my systems are, it will struggle to cool the 2nd floor.
My back rooms do not get warm enough. My hvac is up in the attic. What kind of company does duct work inspection and repair?
Not sure if you are still checking messages or not but I have a kitchen in which the builder dropped 18" from the ceiling a wrap around enclosure. They did this so they would install those crappy flourescent bulbs and then cover it with a drop in plastic cover. I hope this makes sense. There is a small vent set into that dropped down enclosure. I want to tear all of that out back to the 8' ceiling, remount that vent 18" up and then close up the ceiling and repair. Should that duct move freely to bring it up and reset it or will i need to add duct work to it? What would i need to watch for? either eliminate that vent or is the duct work easy enough to move around to reposition?
How far from the soffit can you get away with the placement of the hvac outlet? Getting condensation in my attic on a 2021 furnace instal. I’m 8 hours north of the US/CAN Border.
I think they run way to much flex duct here in Arizona, in KC where I’m from it’s all metal duct, should be like commercial with no more than 6 ft of flex duct
Yeah here in Topeka city inspectors came to a new apartment building and they ran all flex duct and made them take it all out lol
So our ductwork has 2 bedrooms that are at the end of the trunkline. One comes out of the top of the trunkline, and one comes out of the side. They are both less than a foot away from the end. Both Bedrooms are very hot in the winter! Is there any remedies to help fix this. Our basement is finished.
If one of room has too much air flow and noise, should I add a damper which close half of airflow?
Great content here!
Im selling hvac and this is good stuff
Me too and he's spot on.
We are searching for a solution to our in slab duct repair issue. There appears to be areas which are deteriorating and the spray encapsulation, like Duct Armor, seems like a good solution. Anyone have experience or feedback on this method? Replacing what's in the slab does not appear to be an option, neither is installing split units or overhead duct work.
My house is built on a slab. There's a crawl space/attic. However, the ductwork is in the ceiling and walls. How do I find out what ductwork I have? I don't know if it's suitable for a 2 or 3-ton system.
I bought a house in 2022 with heating/air that hadn't been upgraded since 1996. The ducts had mold in them. So we got a small company to replace all ductwork and system. The unit was in the crawlspace and had sheetmetal (with fiberglass insulation on inside) ductwork trunk line throughout the crawlspace with flexducts running off the metal trunk ductwork. I was kinda surprised when I saw after job was done that they didn't use any sheetmetal ductwork at all to replace the trunk line... only used flex duct for the entire duct system.
Is that normal these days? Anything wrong with having all flex ducts?
I’m in the process if redesigning my attic hvac system, i Have a 14” supply line off a 3.5 ton unit, two bedrooms on north end if home sit right underneath furnace in attic so they’re super short duct runs and as a result cool down and heat up super fast in comparison to other two rooms, other two rooms sit on opposite side if home, supplied from a 16x16x36 supply dist box, fed from a 30 foot 14” supply flexible duct, so you can imagine way less pressure on those two rooms, my plan is to shorten the main 14” supply duct so that distribution box sits right in the middle of the house, then feed all 4 rooms with equally distant same diameter duct line, I’m thinking that should equalize air output into all rooms, what do you guys think? Thanks
Should the large pipe leaving the AC Handler that is covered in the BLACK INSULATION be sweating? It that normal?
You started to talk about the end of the duct run that is capped and said you shouldn't connect any branches close to it. I understand your analogy on the holes in the straw but I'm not really sure how it relates to the branches being too close to the end.
If you put branch lines at the end of a trunkline, they will not have enough static and more airflow will go through them reducing the airflow through the others
@@NewHVACGuide okay I see. Is there a rule of thumb about how far away from the end cap you should put your closest branch?
@@NewHVACGuide But they do it anyway because no one want to box in heat runs and not have nice clean lines in the house
Those of you who are HVAC techs who design the ducts and size the HVAC unit will argue about this HVAC system design improvement. Because below I am outlining an electrical improvement that will save hundreds of millions each year across the USA.
As follows: Add to the thermostat control panel the ability to control the level by selecting 1/2, or 1/4 heating or cooling energy.
What this does is reduce the flame for the heater, and reduce the compressor for the AC, and also reduces the fan for both. Now it is perfectly safe to close those unused vents and save a few hundred a month or possibly thousands of dollars a month depending on the square footage of the space being heated/cooled.
How can I tell what my supply side is?
Hoo Boy. The house I am in has a closet (raised above floor level) 85% system with the return air below. When the house was enlarged, they doubled the # of return grills (height is not changeable). No filters. The unit has a green mesh filter but you can't use a pleated in the housing (way too much restriction). And No step down anywhere. Balance? ya gotta be kidding!
Can move from walls to ceiling? Trying to move duct in kitchen
My Ductwork in my 2nd floor blows massive velocity cold air in the open area & hardly any velocity in the three bedrooms.
There are air vents are over my downstairs & it freezes us downstairs.
Whereas the bedrooms are 6 to 10 degrees hotter.
Can the bigger ducts go to the bedrooms instead?
I have a 25 year old home. My master bedroom doesn’t get enough heat. It’s super cold. I cleaned the vents already. Idk what I can do about it. Pls suggest
Most contractors I talked to won’t give me any technical details in size of the unit needed, what size ducts are needed for my home.
On the "spider/octopus" systems you mentioned that theres no way to balance the air thats incorrect here in TX we use that type of ductwork mostly and you can install dampers in each collar to balance air flow to each duct run
The problem with the spider systems is there is no trunk line.you have a box with flex going everywhere.some are short runs then others to long.you can somewhat balance with the dampers but not very well.air doesn’t flow as good in flex as sheet metal ducts.when I still worked in the field we ran sheet metal trunks and the flex runs to the registers where never over six feet.you see the spider systems because its cheaper to build and install.
@@xslabcabxhearsex cheaper and gives you more options if you need to add/subtract ducts or even change their sizing. Trunk lines may work better in some applications but when a unit is in an attic I’d say flex works out better overall. A upflow or downflow in a closet going to a trunk line I’m all for.
Hi Josh, I’m not sure if I have an issue with my system or improper insulation. I have 2 rooms above the attached garage, which are farthest away from the hvac unit, the rooms do not cool in summer nor do they heat in winter. I put my hand on the supply vent in the ceiling, I can feel the air but it’s not enough for the rooms. Also the returns are high on the wall. One of the rooms has 2 returns and the other is shared between through adjoining wall. Any advice on how to correct? Or is this a builder error with poor insulation? The temperature is more than likely coming from the garage. Any help please? Professional opinion?
I imagine the distance is a clue. Without any other information My Guess would be the duct is either a flex duct not ran properly or sized properly or both. If you have duct that doesn't step down over the distance its travelling or if the flexible duct is ran to curvy or pinched then the low air velocity combined with air resistance inside the duct is making the register just trickle air rather than what its rated for. as a homeowner you can remove the register and measure the size of the supply pipe going to the boot. based on the size it will tell you how much CFM that register was intended to supply by finding a chart online. If the vents are in the ceiling then your supply to those rooms must be in an attic which if its accessible you can pop up there and take a look. if it is poorly ran flex you can try and straighten it or rip it all out and install hard Pipe usually buyable at any menards lowes ect.. just be sure to insulate it. these days in depth guides are available on youtube but the hard part is finding the problem.
How about dempers ? Do you need to install to have regulate ?
Most residential home... properly sized and installed ductwork should not need to be balanced by dampers typically.
My question with the return line is it's definitely bigger but only has 1 large central return vent feeding it at the center floor level vent and I know this can't be very good for circulation special seeing how the basement has ceiling vents and the main floor has floor vents this is my sister's house and she doesn't have the money to pay a professional so I'm thinking about adding a return vent running to the basement floor and another one running to the ceiling on the main floor making so the basement vent is open in the winter and the ceiling vent is opened in the summer hopefully pulling heat down and the cool air up
my intake in the kitchen used to suck out down to the basement and someone tampered and now my intake is blowing air into the kitchen instead of the cellar. Is the harmful Please help.
I have the HVAC system in the attic in a new 2 story house. I have a duct that is not routed to any room, it’s just blowing cold air into the attic. Is that normal or the contractors just left it incomplete?
Incomplete!
Wasting energy
My apartment has a fresh air vent. It's just a 10x10 return register with a duct that leads outside. It has a filter what direction should the airflow arrow point? Into the apartment or towards the ceiling? They had it facing the ceiling shouldn't it be filtering the air coming into the apartment?
Arrow towards the unit. If your taking in fresh air from the outside.
I'm in a newlybuilt 1500 sq. ft. townhome 2 floors 3 bedrooms, and the back 2 bedrooms never seem to get cool. I have a Carrier 14 Seer 2 Ton condenser. The air in the front bedroom and downstairs is cold enough but in the back 2 bedrooms its very warm i.e. Front room 73 Back 2 bedrooms 78. Thermostat is set for 72 but on a really hot day it runs all day trying to get to 72 but never does. Any ideas?