Cooling Question

dkillianjr

Hey guys heres the question. The house I'm working on has a bedroom at the corner of the house that seems to always get sun. The HO asked what could be done to make the room a few degress cooler to match the house temp.

The house is a ranch. The room is about 12'x14' and is fed from the basement the with one 6" line about 20' long at almost the end of the trunk line. There is only one CO return to the house in the hall its a 48" perimeter diffuser. To make a long story short adding another run is just about impossible due to framing, ceiling height, and location of the room, ect. I had thought about a booster fan, but I wasn't too sure that would do it. The flow from the diffuser seems pretty good.
Any opinions guys?


Thanks, Dave

airwick

just an idea. With the door closed, as they might have it at night, does the send still put out the same? You might suggest they undercut the door so they get adequate flow through the room.

tool junkie

Cant pump cool air in? Sometimes you have to just find a way to keep the heat out if the cool air inside aint cutting it. Is the ceiling insulated? Look. Where does the sun set? Is there a wall in that room that is getting cooked in the afternoon sun? Cut the ac to that room, and then go in and feel the walls in the afternoon. Do they get hot/warm? You can install a awning or a overhang big enough to shade an exterior wall. If heat is radiating through an exterior wall, cover it with Styrofoam sheeting then cover that with another layer of sheetrock but you will loose about an inch or two of floor space. Sounds crazy but it works.

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neolitic

A very simple concept.
Very hard to sell, but effective.
Find the thermostat.
Find the "fan" switch.
Turn it to "on."
(May say "continuous")
Leave it there.

It really doesn't use more electricity
in the long run, and the temperature
evens out much better.

Then there are blinds and drapery too.

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dkillianjr

Thanks guys for the replies,

The house is insulated, the walls with r-13 and 1/2 foam. the ceiling with r-19. The door has a nice big gap under it. I like the idea Neo, but like you said its a very hard sell.

Normaly I would just give the HO my heating guys number, but this is sorta a weird situation. To make a long story short, the HO's have an autistic son and that is his room and he can't sleep cause its to warm for him. What the problem is the kid goes crazy when people he dosent know come in the house or if anything in his room gets changed. He gets so upset he has put his head threw several walls and stuff like that, I feel bad for them. But the kid has gotton to know me pretty good by now so he dosent ind me being around, thats why I'm doing this.


Now this might be a crazy idea, but how about adding a zone? Or something similar? Is there any easy way to do it?
Its a 12 year old gas forced air furnace with a/c.


Thanks, Dave

tool junkie

Is there space to work under the house? I gather these are floor registers? can you run another duct? You may need to restrict flow in other rooms to increase cfm to the kids room. Can you double up on the attic insulation over that room?

Post back and let us know if/how you fix this.

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neolitic

You could tell them that when you let
the fan run continuously, the blower
lasts longer.
The start windings usually go out first.
It is really the easiest thing to try first,
(other than checking the dampers)
and doesn't cost anything to try it out.

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KHouse75

Close the other vents some to restrict flow and increas flow to the kid's room. I adjust mine this way until I get even temps around the house. Works great.

dkillianjr

Thanks guys,
I like the idea Neo I am headed there tomorrow, with my head full of ideas and see what I can do. I'll let you guys know how it turns out.



Dave

neolitic

Nice that you're trying to help out.
Good luck with it.

Wonder where all the HVAC guys are in this?

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dkillianjr

Thanks neo, thats what I was wondering. Where I'm at there isn't even any HVAC lisensing required


Dave

mdshunk

Just make sure you don't block anything off too much other places in the house. You need to flow a certain number of CFM's of air across the coil per ton to keep it from freezing up. If the coil freezes up, pure liquid refrigerant (unevaporated refrigerant) can go back to the compressor and ruin the valves in the compressor. Just because you block off some registers the equivalent of 400 CFM's doesn't necessarily mean that a full and additional 400 CFM's will come out of the registers that are still full open. Just something to think about. Same story in winter. You can restrict the air flow in such a way that the furnace will start to shut down a cycle on the limit switch, causing it to fail in a short period of time.

mickeyco

Maybe a hole in the bottom of the door with a vent/grille cover so there's a return.



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mdshunk

Yes, basically when you have hot and cold spots, it all boils down to bad duct design. Enhancing the return by some means sure can't hurt. In the end, permanent corrective action will only happen from ducting changes.

dkillianjr

Thanks again guys,

I'm thinking I am leaning toward adding a second duct to the room. It looked pretty impossible the other day, but maybe once I take another look I'll figure something out. Md, thanks for the technical info Thats part of the reason I would just rather add another duct, its simple for a guy like me Mickey, I thought of that too, but there is already a 1 1/2" space under the door.


Dave

tool junkie

Cool, I think ducting is the way to go. Insulated Flex duct is a breeze to work with. Make sure its insulated.

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mdshunk

Not to be a party pooper, but just adding another duct run can screw up the rest of the duct system too. I would be hard for me to advise you how to proceed, other than to suggest you have an HVAC guy do a room by room "Manual J", then do a "Manual D" on the house.

dkillianjr

Yup thats what I was thinking, that way its a permanent fix and the HO's dont have to mess with anything.



MD, Forgive my ignorance, but whats a Manual J and Manual D? I have never heard those terms before.


Dave

mdshunk

Calculations necessary to properly size and install ductwork. Without these calculations (worksheets, actually), anything you do is a pure and absolute guess. Sorta like going to cut a piece of trim at 63-9/16" without using a tape measure. It might work out, and it might not.

neolitic

There's your problem.
Likely the duct work wasn't
properly done from the
get-go.
If you start adding and putzing
with it not knowing what you're doing....

Best to stick with tweaking
for a start.
Hell when you get under it
you may find pipe not even connected.
I've found my share laying
on the floor of the crawl.

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