HVAC Question - Ductwork and Load Balancing (1 Viewer)

[JaxBill]

House was built in 2002 and we have the original heat pump system. 2500 sq ft house

AC/heat work but certain rooms are colder/hotter than others. And it's not necessarily the ones that are furthest away from the air handler.

Had some HVAC guys come in to give an estimate for balancing the load.

1400 dollars to do the load balancing and install manual dampers

450 to clean the ducts.

A) does this seem like a very high estimate (especialy the first part)?

B) If the system takes a turn for the worse and I replace the pump & air handler, am I going to have to pay for this balancing all over again?

 

[bostonfred]

https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+adjust+dampers+hvac&oq=how+to+damper+hvac

No idea how easy or hard it is and can't recommend doing it yourself but it's an option I would at least consider before spending 1400 dollars 

 

[gianmarco]

What a bargain!

/Otis

 

[NFL-ons]

I am going to assume your system is properly sized, since a contractor has looked at it and determined they can balance the system.  You should be able to do a pretty good job yourself by adjusting at your vents.  You can also buy little fans that sit over your vent to increase airflow.  If your basement is unfinished and the duct work is readily accessible, adding dampers should b relatively easy.  The quoted price is reasonable for any contractor, but it is not too difficult a job.

System change outs are fairly simple, as well, even though they can b fairly expensive based upon the equipment you will be installing.  If you are not sold on a significant adjustment to the existing system, balancing should remain relatively constant, and, If it does need to be adjusted you would b able to do so at the dampers.

 

[jon_mx]

The biggest issue with many HVAC installations is they do not install enough returns in the house.  I have seen rather large houses have only one large return located in a central location such as the ceiling above the stairs.  This kind of works if you have a really open floor plan and your bedroom doors open.  But rooms which are closed off won't get heating or cooling unless they have a supply and a return.  No amount of adjusting is going to fix this.  

 

[ChiefD]

House was built in 2002 and we have the original heat pump system. 2500 sq ft house

AC/heat work but certain rooms are colder/hotter than others. And it's not necessarily the ones that are furthest away from the air handler.

Had some HVAC guys come in to give an estimate for balancing the load.

1400 dollars to do the load balancing and install manual dampers

450 to clean the ducts.

A) does this seem like a very high estimate (especialy the first part)?

B) If the system takes a turn for the worse and I replace the pump & air handler, am I going to have to pay for this balancing all over again?

Here are my thoughts:

For the $1400, it really depends on how many of those manual dampers they are installing. For your system, you probably have main trunks coming off of your air handler, and then you have your supply lines going to each of your rooms. To truly balance your house, you should have dampers on each trunk line coming from your air handler. AND dampers on each one of the supply lines to the rooms in your house.

For a 2500 square foot house, you probably have a 4 or 5 ton heat pump. So you are going to have anywhere from 400 to 500 cfm per ton of cooling. (so about 1600 - 2000 for a 4 ton unit).  Each supply line going to your rooms are normally 100cfm for each run. So you may have 16-20 supply runs in addition to your main trunk line. When they add dampers to each of those, they are basically taking those runs off the trunk and installing the manual dampers in those. Not to mention the dampers in the main trunk lines. So $1400 for all that work is reasonable IF they are doing it in all the supply lines.

As for the $450 for duct cleaning, I would save your money. An HVAC system generally does not have dust that accumulates in duct work. Most of the dust would filter out through your filter. Now, it makes some sense to take off the floor vents and clean those, because debris can accumulate there. But you can do that with a shop vac.

And no, you shouldn't have to pay for the balancing again if you replace. The company that replaces should be able to make any tweaks as part of an installation anyway.

Let me know what city you are in and I may have a client there. I do marketing for HVAC companies nationwide and also have sold residential HVAC.