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Here is your scenario: You live in Chattanooga and it is in the middle of Summer. Its hot and muggy. For the most part, your home cools quite well but there is that one room, maybe your bedroom, and it doesn’t quite get as cool as you’d like. What do you do?
Before we decide on our options lets first understand what is happening throughout the system. There is obviously air blowing through a series of ductwork in your crawl space and/or attic. Assuming your unit and ductwork have been sized correctly for your home, the air flow will produce pressure. This pressure is necessary for your unit to perform correctly. I won’t go into detail why, but understand that there is a relationship between the size of your home, the amount of air flow into the home, and the size of your ductwork. Now, let’s get back to solving the problem of that muggy room. Here are our options: 1) Add a Vent into the room Pro: An additional vent right into the room Con: Could negatively affect pressure. Labor intensive. Potentially expensive. 2) Close off Registers in other rooms Pro: User Friendly Con: Hard to correctly measure productive air-flow. Could negatively affect pressure. 3) Add Mini-Split Pro: Dedicated and thermostatic air. Will not affect rest of systems or pressure. Con: Potentially Expensive 4) Upgrade System Pro: Brand new. Can adjust tonnage for new Heat Load. New Technology. Con: Expensive. Unless your system has failed and requires replacement, this is obviously impractical. Some of the more practical points here are obvious. Sometimes it is ok to damper vents, sometimes it is not. Sometimes it is ok to add a vent, sometimes it is not. Your heating and air company will give you options that should be affordable and balance the system and its pressures. Other things that need to be considered are your ductwork and the shape it is in. Often times, ductwork, especially flexible ductwork, develop holes. These holes are bad, not just for your comfort levels, but for the pressure in your system. So, there is an off chance you may not need additional cooling but a minor repair. Granted, you may actually need your ductwork replaced. This stuff gets old. It loses its effectiveness. It also gets dirty. It gets moist. It gets cold. Mice love it, and raccoons. Obviously, because this stuff is in crawl spaces and attics (especially in the Tennessee Valley), the elements, along with the location of your ductwork will affect its life expectancy greatly. To sum this up, if you have a room or have several rooms that aren’t being heated or cooled properly, call someone. You have options. Of course, we would love it if you called us! 706-820-6041
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 It is extremely common for the heating and air guy (especially in Chattanooga and North Georgia) to hear from the homeowner, “I think its low on gas.” By gas the homeowner means refrigerant and the “low on gas” comment means the HVAC performance is sub-par. Or maybe not sub-par, but it isn’t performing to the owner’s expectations.
Let us breakdown what exactly the issue is in very pragmatic terms: Homeowner- You Me: HVAC Guy Your Home’s Location: Chattanooga, Rossville, Cleveland, Ringgold, Etc... Your Comment: “I think its low on gas Problem: Not conditioning air properly Now before we start to dive into specifics, understand a few things. Mainly, don’t act like this is a, “putting gas into a car type of situation.” It definitely is not. Gasoline may provide combustion to move components to put your car into motion, but gas (again, refrigerant) does not provide the energy to make your system move or turn on. Your system’s energy that makes the components function electrically is actually ran off just that, electricity. Yes, that is right, it’s your power bill. Also, this gas (or liquid) needs to be put in by a trained person. That person needs to account for Super-Heated Vapor and Sub-Cooled Liquid. They also need to pull vacuums and do brazing. They also have to follow very VERY specific EPA guidelines. ..and a lot more! Now, if the system is powered by electricity what is the “gas (refrigerant)” for? Yes, that is right again. It is used to cool, and in some cases it heats coils that air passes over to supply conditioned air to your house. See, refrigerants aren’t just air, or liquids. They are, at different points in time during the refrigeration process, both. Pressure and its influence on this gas produces liquids and gases. Heat is exchanged during the evaporation (evaporation coil) and condensing (condensing coil). Now, the process is a little more complicated than that, but this is very basic. When you think your unit needs some more gas, and it very well may, know that this “gas” isn’t gas at all. It is however, a substance that, depending on its pressure could be either gas or liquid. Now, if in fact your system does require some refrigerant to be added to it, you likely have a leak. Granted, all systems leak down. Refrigerant leaks out through the metal. It will leak out through brazing material. It will also leak out through service ports. But there is a distinct difference between an exceptionally slow leak vs a leak that, as you put in refrigerant, it comes right back out. Those leaks need to be repaired. Some Heating and Air Companies have no issue with shooting expensive refrigerant into a leaking system. I mean, business ethics aside, you have to call them back out AND they then get to charge you more money for more work. We do not do that. We operate with high standards and would never cause a customer to recklessly spend unnecessary money. Having someone to trust in Chattanooga, Rossville, Lafayette, Hixson, or wherever you live to come service your unit is important. Keep in mind this stuff isn’t cheap but we can make it affordable. In other words, we would love to give you some gas! www.indoorairsolutionsga.com |
JeremyI'm here to answer any questions and give some insight! Archives
September 2017
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