Do it Yourself: Re: [DIY] Diagnose a COLD Room

14 January 2015

Re: [DIY] Diagnose a COLD Room

1st level diagnostics..affix a 2" wide strip of tissue paper on each

duct, each the same length and weight, at the top, in the center,

hanging over the duct in the BR and a couple of other rooms

for comparion...turn on heat

and observe the flow by how far the tissue paper is blown

out in each duct...

If the LR tissue blows straight out horizontal and the BR blows

the tissue at say a 20 or 30 degree angle you know there

is a flow [problem and most likely the cause of the cold

room..if they all blow out horizontal go to a heavier paper

like notebook paper...or even by feel you may be able to

judge the output flow from a duct...but again you probably

already have done this..so it may indeed be time for

a pro HVAC guy with a flow meter...or buy an cheap anemometer

or borrow one from a friends outdoor weather station if convenient...

Go from there..

Will save a $100 in initial diagnostics...then you might know the

root of the problem (flow) and can talk more intelligently

to an HVAC guy...also examine the ducts with flashlight

of course you probably already did that as far in as you

can see..our duct had a piece of sheet metal fall from the

roof unit into the duct and blocked flow over 75% based

on the TPA (TPA = tissue paper analysis!!)

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From: "Bob Davis bob@wrobertdavis.com [DoIt_Yourself]" <DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups.com>
To: DIY <DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2015 10:15 AM
Subject: Re: [DIY] Diagnose a COLD Room

A diagnostic call from a reputable HVAC company is worth the money, in my opinion. They will take air flow measurements and temperature measurements and should be able to pinpoint the problem in 2-3 hours. Either something has gone wrong in your ductwork (closed internal damper or ductwork come loose) or the system was poorly designed and will have to be fixed.

I had the same problem in my house because the ductwork was very poorly laid out, starving airflow to the master bedroom/bath. The only fix was to re-do the ductwork. Now my house is perfectly balanced in the winter and the summer. My energy usage is also significantly reduced.

On Jan 13, 2015, at 10:52 AM, ddj0195@yahoo.com [DoIt_Yourself] <DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

We have just moved into a 9 year old house. It is a two story house and appears to be well built and in very good condition. However, now that the winter weather has arrived we are having problems with the master bedroom being too cold. All other rooms on the 1st and 2nd floors are warm and comfy. The master bedroom (with master bath and walk in closet) will be ok if the doors are left open, but gets dramatically colder if the bedroom doors are closed. There are several HVAC ducts in the room and also a return air register. So one would expect the room to remain warm when the doors are closed. Part of the master bedroom is above the garage which is insulated and stays much warmer than the outside temp, but is unheated so it is colder than the main house.

How can we figure out where the problem comes from? We would rather not bring in half a dozen contractors, all looking to make money off us. But if we could diagnose what the actual source of the problem might be, we can then fix it or manage the repair costs better.