Amana 80SV

[Matt_In_Michigan]

My home is 9 years old and about 2600-2800 sq ft. finished.  Its a ranch with a finished basement. 

This damn thing cannot heat the entire house.  I've checked the dampers and registers they're all open.  Short of adding insulation, is there anything else to check for?  Loose or poor fitting ductwork?  A master damper (on a main duct or the unit itself)?  I'm about ready to pitch it and go bigger, or add a second unit.  My neighbor swears his heats his house (same size, same finished basement) just fine.

 

Help!

[hvacdrd]

Take a look at the nameplate and post a model number, or BTUH input. Are you on natural gas or LP?

When you state it doesn't heat the entire house what exactly do you mean? Does it run 24/7 with the burners never shutting off. Or is it just some rooms that do not heat well? Is the problem on the main floor or basement.

[Matt_In_Michigan]

My Apologies for not giving enough info. 

The model number is GUIO070CA30 (The O after the I may be a D).  The input is 69000 BTU/Hr and its running on Natural Gas.  By not heating the house I mean more rooms are not comfortable (60 or less) and almost all bedrooms have a space heater in one form or another.  I'm in the basement currently, and I'm not kidding, without the space heater its uninhabitably cold (like 50-55). 

And its both floors. 

[hvacdrd]

1 - What is the temp at the thermostat?

2 - What temp is the tstat set to?

3 - What type of tstat do you have?

4 - If the tstat is set higher than room temp what is the furnace doing? Does the burner/flame stay on until the room temp reaches the setting of the tstat?

5 - Do you know if the system has a fresh air make up - usually an insulated 4-6" duct that is connected from the return air duct to an outside air intake vent?

6 - Measure the supply air temp at the closest register to the furnace after the burner has been on at least 5 minutes.

7 - Has this always been a problem? If not when did it start?

[Matt_In_Michigan]

1 - What is the temp at the thermostat?

[glow=red]Temp is 70[/glow]

2 - What temp is the tstat set to?

[glow=red]It was at 68. Immediately after that, I fired it up to 74 to test the burners.[/glow]

3 - What type of tstat do you have?                                                                       [glow=red]Its a programmable LUX 500[/glow]

4 - If the tstat is set higher than room temp what is the furnace doing? Does the burner/flame stay on until the room temp reaches the setting of the tstat?

[glow=red]When the t-stat is turned up the burners fire up, so I assume the t-stat is sending the signal. Yes, the burner is still firing (Temp at t-stat 71, t-stat set to 74)[/glow]

5 - Do you know if the system has a fresh air make up - usually an insulated 4-6" duct that is connected from the return air duct to an outside air intake vent?

[glow=red]There is a 6" insulated duct that I assume is the fresh air make up. [/glow]

6 - Measure the supply air temp at the closest register to the furnace after the burner has been on at least 5 minutes.                                                                [glow=red]There is what I call a "check register" about 24-30" above the furnace at the beginning of the main duct. It registered 135 F[/glow]

7 - Has this always been a problem? If not when did it start?

[glow=red]We bought the house, in May of '04 when it was 5 years old. The first winter, we didn't even venture into the basement. So, to answer your question its always been an issue.[/glow]

 

 

[glow=red]Just a few quick questions. If the fresh air make up was clogged or partially clogged, would that reduce the efficiency? There is an Aprilaire humidifier Model 560 attached to it. What should the humidity be set at?

 

Thanks,

Matt

[/glow]

[applianceman18007260692]

Their is a product on the market called a Robin Hood duct booster. What ya do is mount it going into the basement or any cold room. What it does is rob the warm air from the hottest area and pull it down into the cold room. Robing Hood Clever name ain't it? You can hook it to a light switch for when you go downstairs OR you can get all fancy and install a line voltage thermostat. That is a fancy name for a thermostat that works on 120/240 volts. Down here we use them thermostats in water wells to come on when the temp approaches freezing.

[hvacdrd]

The humidifier setting is manually adjusted depending on outdoor air temperature. The colder the temp outside the lower the humidity setting to prevent condensation. The adjustment dial on the humidistat should have a table indicating where to set the control based on the temp.

As for the fresh air intake, it has nothing to do with efficiency. The concept is due to the tighter (as in air tight) construction methods, Building Codes now require this "fresh air intake." It is a good concept but it doesn't do much for "system efficiency" now that we are heating approx 150 cfm of 20'F air(or whatever the outdoor air temp is) every time the system runs. Mixed with 600 cfm of 68'F return air this takes the overall return temp down to 58'F before we even start heating. Now to get this same 750cfm of air back up to the current room temp of 68'F it requires about 10,000 btuh of your 69,000.

As for the issue at hand, most basements are not part of the design/layout of the heating system. Ideal situation would be some type of zoning system that would allow the two to heat independent of each other given the fact they are totally different environments. Air supply registers at floor level instead of from the ceiling(heat rises).

Air balancing the system is also critical to getting the system to operate as designed. If all spaces have a 6" supply duct they are likely NOT getting the same amount of air. When a load calculation is done prior to choosing a furnace each room is assigned a specific heat loss with a corresponding volume of air (CFM) to meet the "load."

Simply put the right amount of heated air needs to go in each space. Get more air in the colder spaces and less in the ones that are warm. The furnace may run longer cycles but is now heating the whole house instead of only part of it.

[volleyball]

This may be a longshot. A friend had a similiar situation after a brownout on a trane. House got very cold before furnace would turn on.  3 tech came and could not figure it out.  I looked at it being an amateur and figured the valve or the computer was bad. A generic computer was $75 so it was worth investing in. Replaced computer and now the house is warm .

when replacing computer, found transformer wire were reversed, corrected that. This is a townhouse and during the brownout, several neighbors had the same problem. One even had the furnace replaced on advice from their expert, my guess is that several came off of the assembly line miswired.

[Matt_In_Michigan]

So, I kinda live in a Mayberry-esque town.  Population, not many.  Excitement?  We did get THE Walmart Supercenter.  Floyd the Barber?  Nope, its Reggie.  During a recent visit to get the little remaining hair I have left buzzed off, someone made mention of a return air vent, or lack there of, in the basement. 

Much to my chagrin, searching high and low, there is not a single cold air return in the basement.  Would that really make that big of an impact?  How do I add one or two?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Matt

 

 

[RegUS_PatOff]

They usually don't put cold air returns in the basement because it could suck air from the gas combustion into it instead of going up the chimney.

Is your neighbor's house the same floorplan ?

You'd have to figure out why the location of the thermostat is getting up to temperature before the rest of the house.

Is the thermostat in the wrong location of the house ?

It shouldn't be near a furnace heat register or other source of heat.

Close the duct that feeds the room where the thermostat is located.