We recently built a house that was completed in March. From day one I had been questioning the heating contractor about the size of the furnace. After we only a few weeks of being in the house with Wisconsin winters, I noticed problems maintaining temp. This summer the contractor completed the job by installing an AC unit. We found even with a cold summer, the AC was not handling the load.
I had been in contact with the contractor who keeps claiming it was sized correctly. The house is energy star rated so at min some calculations were done, but I am not sure they were followed.
I ended up buying a HVAC load program to run numbers my self. What I am finding out is the funance just makes the load requirements, 79,000 with no room to spare. The ac is undersized, at 3 tons. The program calls for a 4.5 ton unit. The problem I believe the contractor ran into is the furnace is only capable of handing a 3 ton AC unit.
My questions are now, what should I expect from the contractor? Who should help with this problem the builder, energy star, or the contractor? Why should I now have to fork out more money to fix a problem that the contractor should have known up front? I would not expect that average person to have to calculate heating and cooling loads to see if of units are sized correctly?
I had been in contact with the contractor who keeps claiming it was sized correctly. The house is energy star rated so at min some calculations were done, but I am not sure they were followed.
I ended up buying a HVAC load program to run numbers my self. What I am finding out is the funance just makes the load requirements, 79,000 with no room to spare. The ac is undersized, at 3 tons. The program calls for a 4.5 ton unit. The problem I believe the contractor ran into is the furnace is only capable of handing a 3 ton AC unit.
My questions are now, what should I expect from the contractor? Who should help with this problem the builder, energy star, or the contractor? Why should I now have to fork out more money to fix a problem that the contractor should have known up front? I would not expect that average person to have to calculate heating and cooling loads to see if of units are sized correctly?