DIY Chatroom - DIY Home Improvement Forum - HVAC

Rheem 80% furnace

3rdroofdown — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:27:16 GMT

Hello,

I have a 1997 Rheem Criterion II 80% 75k BTU furnace that is vented with 3" vent pipe. I have just learned that this is not correct. The 3" outlet on the furnace should be adapted to 4" according to the specs. The furnace seems to run well. The vent pipe is a straight shot up through the roof, no elbows or adapters. I had the roof replaced last fall. At that time the 3" pipe terminated into a 4" at the roof. The roofers swithced the 4" that was there with the 3" that was on the gas water heater.

Is this okay or will it cause me problems later or damage the furnace? It has been running like this for years with no problems. Since the roof part was changed to 3", it will drip water every now and then when the furnace is running, not very much, but it never did this until the roofers switched 4" to the 3".

Thanks for you help.:)

Insulating basement ceiling - your recommendations?

jtmann — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:31:29 GMT

Insulating basement ceiling - your recommendations?

Hello:

I am looking for recommendations from the forum regarding insulating an unheated basement. I live in eastern Canada - cold winters! I recently bought a small (approx. 1400 square feet) 2-story home (three years old home) that I will live in for a few years while I build my custom home. I would like to make my first floor floors (laminate and vinyl) warmer and increase the overall warmth/efficiency of the first floor (living room, kitchen, hallway). I am considering the following:

-- Insulating the basement ceiling with fibreglass insulation batts. The ceiling is open.

-- NOT insulating the basement walls - currently no insulation on the basement walls (i.e., no sheet Styrofoam)

Remember the basement is currently unheated and I will not heat it - it is storage space only

I only want to do one insulation technique in the basement due to budget (i.e., insulate the floors with batt OR insulate the walls with sheet styro)

My questions for you are:

Q1. Is my rationale right that batt in the ceiling will make the first-floor floors warmer/improve heat above MORE THAN doing the basement walls with styro sheets? My rationale is that batt in the ceilings is directly insulating the first floor floors whereas styro sheets ion the walls is indirect

Q2. IF I do the basement ceilings should I use R12 or R20? I read on a government website that they reco R12 but I think they assumed that the basement walls were already done with styro sheets

Q3. If I do batt the ceilings in basement, I know it will make my basement colder than it is right now but I don't care - it is only a storage space. But if I use R12 or R20 ceiling batts without the walls having styro, should I worry about the basement becoming so cold that my water pipes freeze? Or am I overworrying?

Thanks - great forum!

Carrier Condensation Leak

joehomeowner — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:19:56 GMT

Just had my furnace Carrier 58XSC100-101JG repaired and paid $600 to have the control board replaced. The board was burned up and the pro said it was due to a condensation leak dripping down and eventually reaching the control board. He showed me the leak. It was where the PVC exhaust pipe mated with the exhaust fan assembly. Looking at it today the leak is still there. There is a rubber coupler that clamps onto the unit exhaust fan assembly ~3in diameter (OD) and then clamps to the PVC exhaust pipe that is 2" PVC. (this is a 2in - 3in coupler to the 3in PVC that vents to the outside) The PVC OD is actually 2 3/4in or so. The rubber coupler clamp on the pvc end is tightened all the way so the seal is poor. Thus it still leaks. It seams to me that the Pro I paid should have noticed the mismatch of pipe diameters and the poor seal. The average hardware store has nothing in 3in OD. Does anyone know the proper mating arrangement / parts for coupling the Exhaust fan to PVC exhaust vent piping?

Covering/Blocking a Baseboard Heater

jjorczak — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:22:55 GMT

I have a circulating hot water baseboard heater running along a wall in a large room. I want to build a large set of built-in bookcases along half the wall, essentially covering the heater. What are my options?

I am thinking of removing the heater elements and having the pipe run underneath the bookcase, covered with insulation. This will remove the heating ability of the heater, but I think the room will be fine because it has another on the other side. Is this safe and up to code to do this?

If not, is it feasible to reroute it to the front base of the bookcase?

Thanks,
Jeff

How do I know if my ohm readings on fan and compressor mean good?

webejamin_1982 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:11:31 GMT

Ok I have a condenser fan motor that ohms out at: Re-Br - 68.2 ohms
Bla-Br - 49.5 ohms
Bla-Re - 19.0 ohms
I also have a compressor that ohms out at: Run-Cap - 0.8 ohms
Cap-Start - 2.2 ohms
Start-Run - 3.2 ohms
So are those good numbers and how can you tell that from taht?
Also everything else is good Just put new contactor in. It is getting 24 volts to coil, but one question I do have is. The way i read it from main power souce was that it was supose to get 208-240 main but on one leg when I read it from line too ac case oot was 120 but the other line only read 14 would I have a breaker blown internally? I hope that makes some sence. Thanks for your time and help either way.

Freeze protection in utility room?

akguy — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:14:44 GMT

Just had a new Munchkin T50M installed. My only concern is with protecting the utility room from freezing pipes. Living in Alaska it gets pretty cold and the room that the boiler and my older (separate) gas water heater live in is an outside access utility room, about 5 ft x 3 ft, and I know it gets pretty chilly in there. I understand that the boiler itself has freeze protection and will fire off the boiler at 38F, running the circulator on the primary loop.

With my old setup, the boiler was on a standing pilot and also kept internal temps at 170F or whatever the boiler return was set at, so there was plenty of excess heat being dumped even when there was no demand (and there usually isn't demand because I run a woodstove nearly continuously, so the boiler is basically backup), adequately keeping the space well over freezing. However, now with spark ignition and direct venting the only source of heat will be from the water heater (minimal) and whatever freeze protection firing I get from the boiler.

I went ahead and had the installer pipe in two extra Tee's so that I could easily add a third zone and a small bit baseboard for the utility room itself, probably running a low temp thermostat at 35F or so (if I can find one...).

Does that seem like a pretty reasonable solution to the problem? Or can anybody think of anything that is smarter/easier?

Thanks!!!!!

BTW- the reason I'm not going with glycol in the system for freeze protection is that I am essentially also protecting inlet/outlet of the water heater within this space as well... make sense?

Repositioning Hot Water Baseboard Piping

JPM — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:15:07 GMT

Is it possible to create a secondary loop in hot water baseboard heat? In other words, I am thinking of putting in a "T" to the current set-up to add a section of heat piping to a wall that currently does not have it. Right now the piping is making a turn on an inside wall and I would like to also continue into the next room along the outside wall.

Sorry, I hope this is clear enough, I could not figure out how to add either pictures or drawings.

Attached Images

current.bmp (60.5 KB)

Lennox 80MGF - No Heat

Thome — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:02:58 GMT

Hello all, I have a furnace that will not provide heat. Here is what it happening at start up after resetting the furnace and turning up the heat... We get the call for heat, the draft blower kicks in and pressure switch actuates. (The pressure switch checked good using a meter during this also). Then the gas valve keeps clicking loudly like it is cycling on and off over and over again. Note the igniter is not on during any of this. This clicking continues until the unit locks out. Anyone have any ideas on a probable cause and isolation procedure?

Lowest Cost heating method calculator ?

Scuba_Dave — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:36:26 GMT

I don't suppose there is a calculator out there that tells you lowest cost based on your costs ?

IE Oil costs $2.49 a gallon, 86% efficient furnace, 1g produces X BTU's
Electric costs 12� per kwh (includes delivery), heater prodices X BTU's
I know its not quite that simple.......
No gas here, cost would probably negate any savings for years

We only use about 1 to 1.5 tanks of oil a year, that will change w/addition
I also burn wood to supplement in the Winter, and heat in Fall & Spring
So I'm wondering how to figure if Oil increases to $.$$ then its cheaper to heat with electric
Oil was $4 a gallon 2 years ago, electric has decreased in cost
I know electric usually costs more.....

I did search on the Internet....came back with the normal 90 million hits

down draft

roadhouse — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:32:13 GMT

hello, i have to stainless chimneys side by side one wood and one oil. when 1 is being used there is a down draft inthe other. any body have any advice, it would be greatly appreciated. to explain further, when im burning wood i get smoke coming bak down through the damper on my oil chimney.

Help Needed - Program Honeywell Prestige Thermostat

hennyh — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:27:30 GMT

I bought a Honeywell Prestige thermostat with remote outdoor sensor. However the installer's manual is pretty skimpy with respect to menu description and settings.

I want to setup my 2H/1C HP system (w/strip BU) to minimize energy use and maximize equipment lifetime even if some comfort get's sacrificed.

A lot of the options are obvious but here are some questions:

Code 220 -Compressor cycle rate. Default is 3. Does this simply determine the max. number of times the HP can come on per hour. I'm think of changing this to 2 to reduce number of cycles. Is the tradeoff greater temp swings between cycles? If I set this too low would it trigger aux. heat?
Code 350 - Compressor lockout. I'm going to choose 25 degrees. I don't see <25 temps too often and below that I'd rather just use 100% strip heating. (save wear on HP??)
Code 360 - Aux. lockout. I'm planning to start with 45 degrees. My HP will perform fine above these temps even if recovery takes longer by not using strip heating. Anything I'm missing?
Is there anything else in Setup that I should change from factory default? (other then basic configuration like date, time, type of system)

Background: Rheem 4T RPNE/RSHA w/strip heating, single stage, no zoning, NW Oregon, no add on dehum/no humid eqipment.

Thanks

Cold air return grill at furnace intake

Zeke2112 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:01:16 GMT

Hello everyone. Long time lurker, first time poster :)

I have a grill on my cold air return duct right at the intake to the furnace, just before the filter. This intake is allowing basement humidity and odor (cat boxes, etc) to permeate the entire house. Can I seal this off without any problems? The rest of the house has plenty of cold air return, with large "5-port" grills in each bedroom and each large room.

Thank you for your advice!

Zeke

Don Murtha new member

don murtha — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:38:21 GMT

Low flame on pilot I just installed a old Moore gas space heater in my garage/shop. Having a problem with a low flame on the pilot only about 3/8 " flame not enough to keep thermolcupling hot or stay on. Can get the heater to work by heating thermolcupling with my torch . is there any way of adjusting the pilot higher from the gas valve.:furious:

programmable line voltage therm for fan heat

nykije — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:23:21 GMT

My cottage has a heat unit installed at the bottom of the bathroom sink vanity enclosure. The other units in the house are electric baseboard units but this is a box that sits on the floor basically and blows heat into the bathroom. Don't know the model or brand. Right now there's a simple white knob hi/low line voltage therm installed on the wall that controls it but I'd like to change that to a more sophisticated line voltage programmable one.

The only one I've found is the Aube TH115 and it says electric heat only. It seems to constantly vary the voltage instead of just turning it on and off as the present one does. Is this OK to use with the fan unit? Or does anyone have another suggestion?

thanks for any help!

Blower motors

Trainfan1 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:39:25 GMT

My blower motor went out on my furnace. The old blower is a GE 1/2 hp model 5KCP39LG . Found two GE replacement blowers just not sure if they will work or not. Here are the model numbers HC41SE121A and 5KH39QN9401FT. The first one is a 1/3hp and the second is a 1/2hp. The original blower and the first new one are 1075 rpm the other new one is 1725 rpm. all are 60hz,115v, can anybody tell if the new ones will work and which is the best choice. The price is not that much to different either. Thanks .