adequate ventilation

robotman2009

One ac guy did ask me about off gassing but I havent found evidence of chinese firewall...my question is why are people being allowed ti buikd houses like this....regulations...it seems like we dont have enough of them and not enough people to enforce them and then not real consequences for trying to squrak by.

jagans

I dont see any continuous ridge ventilation, and you dont show your soffits. Do you have vaulted ceilings? Do you have eaves to ridge ventilation? Who built this house???? Plans?? Pictures???

Squark By???? Yup there are more Squarkers than Squeekers nowadays, and Squeekers were bad enough!

__________________
" A lot of men build things, and a lot of things fall down "

robotman2009

I have also checked the electrical box no oxidation or whatever it is called to indicate chinese firewall. This really sucks...believe it or not this is the only thing my wife and I have arguments over. She thinks it is all in my head...ive been tested for allergies three times both foodborne and airborne allergies. This really really sucks. Whats funny is I start feeling better whenever I leave the house.

robotman2009

No ridge ventilation...I heard its bad to mix different types of ventilation so since I cant put ridge ventilation on the main pyramid part of the house it seems better to just go with turbines. Soffits are on every side of the house....however it is semi blocked by vaulted ceilings in the attic....in these places there are soffit baffles on every other or every third rafter. Once again it seems the builder followed the 1/300 for the ventilation. I think this is the company that built the house. www.dfwexecutiverealty.com

robotman2009

Here is a screenshot of a rough drawing.

The red represents where there are soffit vents

Green represents the vaulted ceilings

Purple represents where the soffits are blocked.

Keep in mind I only have about 400 square inches of exhaust space for about 2500 square feet of attic....not to mention at least half of the soffit venting in the purple areas is blocked.

The reason im pushing this ventilation thing iss because my dads house...an older house...actually has holes where you can actually see in the attic but I never have issues at his house....he has two unblocked gable vents and two turbines and I can actually breathe when I go to his house.

Last summer I sealed up the house from the attic on the sides of the ac supply vents..had a lot of issues breathing so after a few months I opened them back up...the first night I did this I slept like a baby felt like I could breathe etc...after a few days it started feeling dusty in the house etc....chest tightness..etc.

This may be one of thos issues that isnt solved by one solution.

Attached Thumbnails

 

robotman2009

I have also checked the electrical box no oxidation or whatever it is called to indicate chinese firewall. This really sucks...believe it or not this is the only thing my wife and I have arguments over. She thinks it is all in my head...ive been tested for allergies three times both foodborne and airborne allergies. This really really sucks. Whats funny is I start feeling better whenever I leave the house.

jagans

See, you never should have left home.

__________________
" A lot of men build things, and a lot of things fall down "

robotman2009

Lol...I know right.

robotman2009

Something I found on attic ventilation.

http://www.trinityexteriorsinc.com/1...n-5-easy-steps

robotman2009

Something else I found on attic ventulation

Http://www.epa.gov/indoorairplus/tec...d_baffles.html

I cant find it now but I remember reAding something that said attic air can find its way into the house through light fixtures canned lighting ( these remained sealed up) especially if the air up there isnt finding its way out as it heats up and expands.

robotman2009

Here is a shot of one of the walls that dont have full ventilation.

http://i1153.photobucket.com/albums/...psc1fd10e2.jpg

jagans

I like the indoorair plus illustrations, too bad nobody has that type of detail unless they have a stick framed house with 2 x 8's for rafters. I keep saying that the pinch condition created by having 2 x 4 trusses reduces the space between the top wall plate, and the roof deck to a max of 3.5 inches. The best answer is 3 inch isocyanurate rigid foam insulation for about 4 feet in, foamed around with stuff. A vertical baffle of about a foot can then be placed at the end of the foam board, and blown in FG over the rest of the area. This will allow full flow air up through the continuously vented soffit at the undereaves. 3 inch iso gives you around R 20

__________________
" A lot of men build things, and a lot of things fall down "

robotman2009

So jagans does that mean im on the right track? Ive identified 3 or 4 potential causes for all of this.

Indoors especially during warmer weather I have

High humidity 50-60 percent ( I bought a portable dehumidifier which seems to make things better in the part of the house we use it in)

High particles

High chemical readings

Its possible my air handler unit is too big for my house

I have 1690 internal square feet with a 3.5 ton air handler and a 3 ton outside unit. It seems the builder like their ventilation calculation used an older method for calculating my ac needs. If I need according to older calculation methods 500 sq ft per ton, then im a little over...but if a mnual j calculation shows I need even less then I am way over...just cleaned the coils...before I did that my unit would stay on for about 10 minutes to heat the house before cutting off...now it is taking about 7 minutes....that seems way too short...the air handler is on med fan speed. Since it could be oversized and thus have too littke return (1 18 inch flex duct) I have decided to use the cheap fiberglass filters until I sort some of this out....I dont want to have too little airflow

Its possible from what ive read here and other places that my house is too tight...the door blower test would determine this...correct.

Finally my attic doesnt appear to have enough ventilation if I use the more modern 1foot of intake/exhaust for evevery 150 square feet of attic space. This may from what I have read be pushing humidity down into the house...also it could be compounding an already bad moisture problem in my ac since it might be a littke to greatly oversized.

I really like this forum...it gives me more of a homeownwer perspective...I have been to an ac forum and stufff but oftentimes they tend to focus on the ac...which imho we could be dealing with more than just one issue.

Thanks for the advice...olesse feel free to chime in more if anyone disagrees...I want to try and be as sure as I can about this.

robotman2009

I am thinking about turning the fan speed on the air handler down to low t the dip switches.

robotman2009

About a week after we moved in...this is weird...about two months before we did the iaq test...our heater just turned off...we called the warrannty company...they sent a guy...he said the wires at the box were switched st the box...so our air handler breaker was going to the outside unit and the outside unti breaker was going to the air haandler. Since the outside breaker is a lower amp breaker, when the air handler called for more juice because of the aux coils it threw the lower breaker. He fixed them back to the way they were supposed to be...and installed a heat pump thermostat....instead of a regualr heater thermostat....can anyone think of why things were set up this badly?