Air Conditioning - Major Central Air Problems...HELP

I just bought a new house with central air newly installed by the seller. It's a 3 story house with finished basement and finished attic. 2 furnaces (basement and 2nd flr) and 2 condensers, Weather King (Rheem) 10AJA3601 for the basement and 10AJA2401 for the 2nd floor. House is 2500 sqft.

There are 4 rooms on the 2nd floor and one large room in the attic. The lower level only cools to 70 degrees. The upper level only cools at night. It is totally useless trying to run the upper level AC during the daytime! There's 1 return on the 3rd floor, 1 return on the 2nd floor and 1 return on the 1st floor. There is no return in the basement.

The 2nd and 3rd floors are constantly hot (except at night) and pretty much unbearable during the daytime. The contractors used the floor beams as returns for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors. My inspector stated that there won't be sufficient cooling OR heating to the 2nd and 3rd floors because of the ductwork and lack of sufficient returns. He said there are supposed to be returns going to each of the 4 rooms.

Also, the ductwork used for the upper level is a kind I've never seen before. It's kind of flat and like a wide oval. It's not a circle like traditional ductwork.

So, here's my questions:
1) Should I have another HVAC contractor swap the connections between the two units, so that the 36,000BTU unit supplies floors 2 & 3 and the 24,000BTU unit supplies basement and 1st floor?

2) OR, should I just replace the 24,000BTU unit with another 36,000BTU unit?

3) Do I need to provide true returns to each of the bedrooms? Do I need to provide a return in the basement?

4) Does this whole HVAC system sound like a wash and I just need to start over???

5) Is there an easy way for me to test the furnaces to see if the heating portion works?

Sorry for the long post. It's pretty hot in Chicago and I'm not sure which direction to take this. I really don't want the seller to do ANYMORE work to the house because his workers are sub-par.

Thanks for any assistance you can provide!

gwoods

I just bought a new house with central air newly installed by the seller.

I dont know what kind of set up you have with them.

BUT Id for sure make them fix it Or call some one else in and have them go at it. Then send the bill to the other party. Id ask to see the heat loss and AC load that was run on the home. Yes that oval like pipe is ok If its the right size.


#1 NO

#2 NO
#3 it would give you a much better job

#4 Yes get some one to look at it

#5 turn them on at the tstat and see

I dont know the home but up there 5 ton for 2500sq ft should do the job.

If the ac job is this bad how bad is the insulation in the home???????????????????? :wall:

ED ;)