Im amazed being here in south fkorida that you can run a heat pump in weather in the teens. How is it drawing heat from outside below freezing? We here are taught cant get heat from outside below 40 degrees. Basically just the heat strips then
There is always heat in the air until "absolute" 0 degrees. What no one is realizing is all over the country, Energy is cheaper in one form verses the other. Some places might only have electric available, the lucky ones might have natural gas available, that leaves propane and fuel oil as the last resort for the remaining customers. Around my area people hate the smell, the cost, and the maintenance of fuel oil but it's very popular in the extreme north eastern America. Propane is more popular in my area of Ohio vs fuel oil but both propane and fuel oil are more costly than natural gas and some customers worry about any gas in general as being "dangerous". Currently the cheapest way to heat until the "environmentalist" DRIVE the cost through the roof is natural gas. So to answer your question, I live and work the rural areas between natural gas being available only in larger towns and that leaves the alternative fuels or electric for the remaining customers like me and a good majority of my rural customers. That's why geothermal is popular around Ohio, but once again, it's a large financial investment to install but can save you money when you don't have natural gas available. So is a heat pump worth installing in Ohio? It depends on your fuel sources available, it's a price we pay to live free away from the pack rat city. No it's not always the best option but it might be the better option.
I live in the country-rural Ohio as well-and installed a Lennox heat pump and electric furnace. It does great. The colder it is outside the “cooler” the feel of the heat is, you can definitely tell when the strips kick in. It has no trouble keeping it 70 in here even in the teens.
@@tycobb8621 Heat pump is a lot cheaper to run than the electric strips but not as comfortable. when we have an all-electric heating system we leave the heat pump run nonstop. Sometimes we'll turn it off at 0 deg.
Checking the whole system over takes time but pays off. Years ago had a "senior" tech do a p.m. and he stated that everything was fine. Later that day, customer called a said the upstairs was hot. The original tech went out and said "your condenser coil is dirty", he cleaned the coil. Next day, customer calls and said that the upstairs was still hot. Original tech goes out and said "you're low on freon" and adds some R22. Later that day I get sent out when the customer called with the same complaint. I went into the attic to get a temperature reading and saw that the Space Gard filter door had fallen off of the housing and was letting 110 degree attic air into the blower housing. Got to know what you're working with before you start working!
Your absolutely correct. I try and not forget to cover the basics. As I get more years at this, it can be easy to skip things. We need to keep going back the basics and start eliminating possibilities one by one logically.
@@SOU6900 Unfortunately, that genius was kept on. It's so difficult to find bodies that can fog a mirror in this market. He eventually quit but not soon enough for my liking. Months later he actually applied to come back. I told the manager, hire him and you'll need a replacement for me. This tech was a living brain donor. Couldn't determine superheat or subcooling in the trade for 30 years.
Only a DIYer but seeing ducts like this in the 91 unit condo community i help manage convinced me to do a conditioned attic ( house in Northeast) Round metal ducts for all but the last 6 ft, Gut renovation townhouse Being in so many of the attics in Summer and Winter led me to think it was stupid to send AC air into a 120 degree attic in the summer time and Heating air into a 40 degree or colder in winter.
Good ole gray flex....that crap always deteriorated and splits wide open. I don't miss attic work at all. In residential here 95% of the equipment and ductwork is in the basement. Great video as always.
The defrost settings are still set to factory defaults. 90 minutes of run time and the quiet shift is turned off. It needs to be defrosting at least every 60 min. With the kind of cold you have I would probably set it to go every 30 minutes. And those units sound a lot better when the quiet shift is turned to ON. 👍
Had one the other day and was similar. Tried a gas & go but had to recover most when pressures suddenly jumped up to over 400. Echhhh, sometimes I think oil might be trapping and when it clears the oil the pressures suddenly jump up to normal. Then again I was using 422b. OEM always state, recover and charge by weight during winter. Realistically speaking we have no time for that...
I hate using alternative refrigerants on heat pump systems, everyone forgets that the condenser in heat mode is now your evaporator and it's a lot smaller. Not as much room to condense. Things can go south pretty quick LOL 🤣
Makes me appreciate metal ductwork here in San Francisco that is 60 years or 70 years old with the original wrap of asbestos insulation around it still in perfect condition like it was just installed.
@@ronstill3868 yep that’s what happens when it’s not properly insulated and airtight. That’s exactly what should happen with improperly installed ductwork by somebody not qualified and educated
@@coldfinger459sub0 the plastic flex used in the 70s gets brittle Metal duct would sweets in our humidity. It vanity be deal good enough. The moisture condenses threw the old duct wrap.
That would be the only one I've seen like that. The preferred method is cooling for lennox, carrier, reem and I think Trane and if it's too cold they recommend you weigh it in calculated by lineset length over the factory 10 or 15 feet.
Wow did you say a 15 kw heater on a 3 ton? I have a 3 ton and only have a 5kw heater. At 1500sq ft. It keep the house warm a little too warm. Yhat duct definitely needs replaced. The barrier is old and dried up due to attic too hot and years old. Plenty of room to run duct up there. Just have to plan it well. Good clean diagnosis Rick. Great video. Until the next one stay warm and safe.
Yeah 15kw, that's all gonna change depending on your design temp and where you live. I'm in Northern Ohio so it's cold here. Thanks for the kind words Ray 👍👍
That old grey flex always deteriorates. I have charged many Lennox ac systems in cold weather like that after an install to subcooling. Usually the charge is good or 1 or 2 degrees of sub cooling. I like that uei thermometer. Lost a dozen of them. Forget them on the ductwork. Find when I return next year for maintenance.
I see losing that thermometer easy because the magnet makes it easy to leave behind. I should have gone into more detail on the subcooling, specially with this having a fixed orifice. I regret not going into more detail about the video at the end to clear up a lot of veg comments. O well🤷♂️. Live n learn
@@HVACRSurvival i wish I knew what it was like not to get a bunch of neg comments on my vids. I don’t work on many air cooled heat pumps. I’m wondering where al the cold air was coming from?
@@thehvachacker I've been getting a lot of weird comments that don't make sense. It's like they talked it out in there heads but forgot I didn't hear what it was they were talking about🙈🤷♂️😂
I truly want to love the UEI folding thermometers. I have purchased at least 6 of them. However, they love to glitch out if they get wet. They also cannot be calibrated. I recently purchased two ThermoWorks 600D probe thermometers. Waterproof, digital, allows trim calibration. Hope these hold up better.
Thanks for the info! I might get one more but I can see leaving this behind like the previous owner did. I also noticed the plastic around the probe is starting to crack. I doesn't appear to be as strong as some of my other thermometers.
I truly want to love UEI but their amp meter crapped out on me after about a year. Does not read accurate voltage. Which now confirms it for me, I’m a fluke man
Thanks for the video. question - I have a air source heat pump with 24 KW heat strips for cold weather operation. (4) sets of 6 KW each. Have you ever seen heat strips go bad? When I run at 12 KW - Aux 1 heat - I am getting cold air out. But at 24 KW I did get warm air at the register. My tech says full electric current is going into the strips. Your thoughts?
That duct work is existing. definately not 2015. that was done in maybe 2000ish if not the 90s. Where i live we cannot install vinyl flex duct because of the reasons you saw. it just deteriorates over time.
If it's a 2 speed unit low speed would be lower pressures on high and low side. You need to make sure when checking charge on 2 speed unit you are operating in high speed
I watch one video, comment one time, and now you're on my feed. Take ra sa temps, find low ra, find ducts, make sure everything is clean and you're outta there. It's 25 degrees you can't expect much heat from that kind of system without additional stages a heating being brought on. I know you're making a video for your audience and it's probably the reason I wouldn't be good at being a youtuber. Bottom line is you gotta have a process and your videos make it seem like you're all over the map. I can't imagine doing the job AND making a quality video.
Sorry, I have no control over what YT feeds you. I did cover these two heat pump videos on my Sunday live show, the link is in the description section of both videos. If you have never watched my videos before then this might be why you might think I wasted a lot of time or have no clue what I'm doing. My live video helps put into perspective what I was looking for and expecting from these two heat pump's that I serviced.
@@HVACRSurvival I know you don't have control over it but now you've gained a new critic 🤣. I checked your channel out. I don't know about you but I find it challenging sometimes to switch gears going from large commercial primarily to residential. I'll watch a few more of your videos maybe give ya a sub. Props for doing the job and making videos that your audience clearly likes from what I can tell from other comments.
@@Dave_Thomason I started on residential in 95 and slowly added a commercial mix until now. I mainly do commercial refrigeration and HVAC since 2014 but would like to do even more industrial. I'm not perfect or know everything but I try to do things right. These two residential videos weren't the kind of videos I wanted to show but these are the kind of calls I'm getting sent on lately and for some reason these two videos have gotten a crazy more than normal views, so I'm getting a lot of new people watching. I normally don't show residential service calls because it's normally boring to me, specially if it's the same equipment I see day in and day out because it's the same problems over and over. Here's the thing..... I screwed up on the frozen HP video and blew the fuse because I wasn't familiar with that Nordyne control, I'm a critical person of others and of myself, but if I screw up I'll admit it, I believe it gains more respect and creditability to admit my mistakes and will help make me better prepared for the next call. I catch mistakes I've made that I didn't catch at the time of service while I edit the videos. It's a lot of work making these for a little attention (some good and some bad) and a couple bucks but it's been interesting to say the least. I mention all these things because of your willingness to be open minded from what I read in your last reply.
@@HVACRSurvival I can almost guarantee you that you got a lot of views on these hp videos because of the recent cold snap we had here in Texas and other places. Heat pumps work real well here because our "not summer months" (what I call the other three seasons) are mild. The company I work for has customers on their 3rd heat pump replacement and we still get calls about how their outdoor unit is on fire, is smoking, found it with the fan not turning when the temps cause them to start defrosting. I'll admit that my comments could have been geared more towards being more constructive and I apologize. I'm on my 10th year in the industry, came up doing residential in the beginning but now I do mostly commercial comfort cooling and heating. When I must (when dispatch tells me to) I take the residential and refrigeration calls. No one knows everything about this stuff and every day brings the opportunity to learn something new which is why I really love what I do. There are almost no two days that are the same. Keep up the good work.
All of these DIY questions are cracking me up. So many variables to the ole generic “my unit is not working, changed batteries in stat, what is wrong?” Lmao Um first call a licensed mechanical contractor then ask them what you asked me, lol. If only it were that easy. Great job.
I think I'm starting to notice that. It's hard to determine for sure if they are just homeowners trying to get out of hiring someone or if it's a new technician just learning.
Personally I treat them all like homeowners because of possible liability issues. Otherwise if they are a tech they should know how to find the proper answer locally. Hell half the time the supply house knows because everyone walking in the doors are having the same issues.
I know but it gives you a indication of the charge is close or not, kinda like temperature deltas. It's definatlty not a science on a system like this. Thanks for pointing that out, I should have done a closing video going over all the things I didn't go into enough detail on in the video. Thanks 4 watching!
Yeah they use a blue wire which is y2 on the geothermals. That's what gave it away to me. And they couldn't have jumped y1 and y2 because it literally staged as you seen that in the temperature rise and pressure changes.
Damn. Two 60A breakers for 15kw? Amps to spare! My AH has 40A breaker w/8kw. Outdoor ambient currently 24 and going down to 10 tonight. Outdoor unit currently running at 100% duty cycle and 30 min defrost setting. Thermo set at 81 with no strip being called for and maintaining set point. Unit 25 years old. Hope it holds together!
My heat rise isn't much. Would lowering the fan speed mess up my pressures? The freon is in the normal range (per the Lennox chart/hpx14. 3ton). Aux heat works great. I'm ready to pull out my hair as the heat pump only never seems to "catch up" when it's 30 or less out. Thx
You really need to know what your doing before you start changing the speeds. What I mentioned was a feature that Carrier offers on there ECM blower equipped equipment. It will automatically change back to normal speed when the outdoor temp gets above 40 deg F.
When it’s 30 or less out it’s generally going to defrost more often than not and won’t be nearly as efficient including being difficult to keep up with any temp swings. Hence why a lot of systems have temp lockouts of 30-35 degrees to only run backup heat below those temps.
@@jphvac5725 except when you're all electric. the heat pumps going to pull somewhere between 5 and 8 amps of current, the electric strips going to pull 20 to 24 amps per strip times three or four. You can run that heatpump non-stop and still be less kilowatt used. Welcome to the colder climates of the country😂. Now if you're one of the lucky ones that live in the city that have natural gas then yes you are correct that is where we will lock them out.
They're not complicated to somebody that understands how the refrigeration circuit works. The problem is there's a lot of people out there that don't understand how heat-pumps work, they just know how to make it run but they don't understand why. There is no real problems with heat pumps. Heat-pumps are a great alternative if you don't have natural gas. Why are heat-pumps more expensive? that's because they have more components in them than an air conditioner does.
Shouldn't you be checking the discharge pressure as it's coming back from the indoor coil instead of straight out of the compressor? Supposed to be hooked to true suction port and 3/8 port in heat mode.
I was on the true suction and Carrier as a orifice on the 3/8 line, if your in heating mode you'll be measuring suction pressure on the 3/8 line, not discharge. That's why I was on the 3/4 or 7/8 line for my discharge.
I could see with the older carriers having that orifice prior to the "liquid line" service port where you'd have to read pressure prior to it. All our rheem/ruud and trane heat pumps have metering devices inside the heat pumps so we hook to the liquid line port after heat transfer has taken place at the indoor coil.
Don't go up in that attic without a respirator purple that old stuff has asbestos in it and if it looks like puffed cereal real bad ,what goes in doesn't come out.
You mentioned a fan setting below 40°. Can you point out a manual or unit I can look that up in? I have not heard of that, nor been informed of that by out local Carrier dealer. Thanks!!
It only works on Carrier air handlers and furnaces that have a ECM motor. I should have gone into more detail at the end. How this works is they drop the G signal and the motor will drop in speed to help create a better temp rise. If you do this on any other type of motor or brand then the fan won't run... Not a good thing😁
@@Bryan-Hensley from what I've always read they use the y1 and or y2 signal to keep the fan running but at a reduced speed. This is only on ECM Carrier systems
@@HVACRSurvival Are you referring to quickly turning the fan off and on from the stat? Supposedly each time you do this it steps the fa speed down one.
@@publicmail2 I definitely wouldn't use 50 in the example he was using as the higher end for regular heatpumps. Every heatpump I sell doesn't drop much at all until around 30. And they are pushing out good heat at 20. That's where things start going downhill.
Was it the first thing? I remember checking the system (discharge) hot gas and liquid lines by hand, outside and inside, the air filter, verifying fans were operating inside and outside, asking the customer what was different about the operation, and doing a visual and audible inspection.
At 7 degree outdoor temperature should my 2ton Trane XR heat pump have enough capacity to heat the home to 75? Or is 7 degrees too low to even rely on the heat pump?
@@twosawyers are you on electric aux? then you should run it below 20. imo 10 to 15F is a good lockout temp on all electric, i've seen some people recommend running it down to 0F. when the defrost comes on, even on gas, the furnace or strips is supposed to come on to temper the air. you shouldn't get a cold blast. wasteful but it can still make sense to run the hp.
Looks like Aaron is green too huh..? Its ok gents, 90% of seasoned techs claim they know heat pumps, after 5 questions during the interview I'll know who knows what.
What a shame. That is a total crap install. Whoever ran all that flex should be ashamed and run out of the business. Ill guarantee the airflow at the diffusers is weak at best.
What kills me is how people that don't know their ass from a hole in the wall try to judge me on things they have absolutely no clue of because if you've watched any of my 250 plus videos you know damn well I don't try to sell anybody anything they don't need. So suck it 👍👍
Wow you really left a lot of dumbass comments. Trying to diagnose it in the first 30 seconds.. ✅ #1. Going with the obvious of changing a defrost to 30 seconds... And would likely just leave afterwards ✅ #2. Not knowing why to bleed your gauges ✅ #3. 👉👉👉I'll bring you on a live stream and debate you in front of the whole RU-vid community if you think you're that great.
