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View Full Version : Keeping up heat-new house! (Northeast Ohio)


medmike
01-01-05, 07:29 PM
If its cold out (mid 20's or colder), my downstairs will not get above 68 F, and upstairs is colder. Here's my set up (house built 1 year ago).
Furnace=Tappan G6RC 100,000 btu, heat blower speed set to default med-high speed (4 speed)
House square feet = 2,800 ft
Layout= Great room is 2 stories (=20ft high) flat ceiling about 20ftX12ft.
Have 3 upstairs bedrooms above the dining room,kitchen and garage.
Basement is unfinished.
Of note on duct setup is I have 8 cold air returns in great room (4 on floor and 4 are about 10 feet up) with 3 heat vents along south wall where windows are.
Have one heat vent to room above garage and 2 heat vents in main part of master bedroom (another is located in walk-in closet). The master also has 4 cold air returns (2 on floor and 2 up by 8 ft celing).
The coldest room upstairs has one heat vent with 2 cold returns
I also checked the temp out of ducts and show that the temp on 2 of them upstairs are around 68-70 deg while the rest upstairs show high 80's---> Turns out the 2 with low temp have the duct runs from the basement up thru outside walls (up to code?). One of these is sole heat vent to coldest bedroom!
Last note is insulation in my attick looks like around 8 inches of blown in fiberglass--not sure how much of this is the problem.
So is it me or is there too many returns.....and should ducts be run thru outside wall?
Any help is appreciated.

ps--I just checked the dampers a few weeks ago and found some of them to be partially closed....what would be the reason for this? I opened all of them all the way and got some warmer downstair rooms (such as utility room that was always cold and a downstairs bathroom that could have been a meat locker). But the problem of not getting above 68 deg is the same, with colder upstairs as described

Jay11J
01-03-05, 07:41 PM
I am not sure about your area if it's allowed to have heat pipe running up the outside wall.. Not around here.. too much heat lost since there is little or no insaulstion in the walls.

Dampers can be open if you need more air flow.. You can close them down in other area/room where you need less air flow.

Have you done a temp reading right at the furnace?

Temp reading near the blower, and temp reading on top where the air leaves. I want to see what kind of temp rise you have.

Ed Imeduc
01-04-05, 01:55 PM
From here about all I can say is what if?????
Is the furnace the right size for the home?Did they do a heat loss for the home? Where are you? 100K btu for 2800sq ft and 20o out there now dont sound right. I take it the furnace dont shut off at all. If the duct work is right the furnace should run all the time if the home is cold and the furnace to small
Duct in outside walls, NO way.

8" of insulation. New home should have been 12" or more.
Lots of returns help to make a job work good. some dampers closed down some. They where trying to get more air to other runs that didnt have any. Cause they screwed up on the duct work. What did it do last winter???? 1 year old can you get the builder back there???

ED :wall: