They installed it in TWO DAYS!!! Yup, 3 guys, 2 days...
The installers deserve large accolades for this task, as is obvious they are the ones that actually do the work. But be clear, the behind the scenes on this one was one of the most talented contractors I have ever met. He and his wife laid this entire system out on CAD, on an overlay of my house plan that they modified. Every single duct length, size, location, wire, return...all of it was planned out in advance. Gary knew exactly what stud bays would lay each duct, where they would transiton, etc. Gary's wife actually did the layout on CAD.
Gary knows more about HVAC than anybody I have ever met, and with my background, I can assure you I am hard to impress in this particular area.
Here are some pictures...
WaterFurnace Synergy3D system. Amost 600 Pounds. I wasn't there, but they tell me it was heavy. 5 guys they say, and there were only 3 there, so must have asked their boss (my contractor) and the 5th guy maybe was the delivery truck driver??? I'm glad I wasn't there for that part. More about the stand later (I promise not to dissappoint) OH, the ductwork that is attached is the returns, of which there are 3. This pic was taken before they were done. And the unit is sitting out of plumb, which drove me crazy and I had the guys help me straighten it out.
So, I was really concerned they would screw up all the attic storage space. So from the beginning, I made it crystal clear we were to minimize the impact on this space. This probably looks bad on the picture, but it only really wiped out about a 4 x 8 foot of space. The ductwork is up fairly quickly and high enough you can get underneath it. These things are 14 inch ducts, and they are insulated to R6, so probably close to 2 feet in diameter. Bigger than they look in the picture, but I still have plenty of room for our Christmas decorations for sure.
Looking up from the Kitchen... These ducts are traveling hither and yon to the opposite side of the house. You are seeing 2 giant supply ducts, and 2 giant return ducts. They are secured pretty close to the rafters, so my foam guy is going to hate me for talking him into going after the ductwork. He normally likes to go before, to avoid this problem. BUT. I have my reasons (structural and mechanical inspections, not being able to see where they are putting nails, and possibly nailing into my plumbing, etc). To calibrate your eyes, the peak of this vault is 14 feet off the floor.
This is an air distrubution box. The air comes into the triangle shaped box, which is about 4 feet to a side, and then pressurizes the box fairly equally on the opposite two sides. With the pressure being uniform, they can now tap off with different sizes to predict the airflow requirements of the individual ducts. The triangle box is also suspended from the rafters. Behind every attachment point (covered in the flex duct) is a hard pipe connection, with an adjustable damper inside to boot. There are hard pipe connections at every single attachment point. I thought about using hard pipe for the whole job, but the price difference was STAGGERING.... Even hard pipe for just the supply plenum across the attic halfway was several thousand dollars more. I couldn't justify the cost difference.
This is the one pipe that travels up and over the storage space, then coming down on a distant bedroom before it spiders off to the associated bath and closet. Note that they even kept my sons catwalk to the train landing clear. Thanks HVAC guys...
I have some family in town, and when we (my brother in law and myself) walked into the house after being gone for a few hours we were shocked. You could not even walk through the house. Ductwork and trash everywhere. Wow... I'm thinking. But, their system worked really well. They laid out the entire system on the floor below, so they could measure and connect everything beforehand (in large part anyway), then they set all the supply and return boxes up above, and then gradually moved the whole apparatus from low to high, and then attached it. They used the garage for staging everything. You couldn't walk in there either. So, after two days, my brother in law and myself walked into the house late afternoon, and the system is DONE. Everything swept, and in new condition, not a speck of trash anywhere (except for the one garage bay where I told them to put everything, which is trash all boxed up and ready for haul).
Another shot of ducts. This one is that same triangular box, but you can barely see it from here. The square box you do see is an air return, above the piano area. Some other things I should bring up... First, I ended up installing the Panasonic vent fans I bought (they hooked up the ducts and such, but I stuck them into the rafters). I didn't want to get "location surprise" on those fans, as I was pretty picky on their location. Ended up being a good call, because they were weird. The fans actually break apart in two pieces and need to be screwed together with a little finger screw they supply. But, if you didn't read the directions, you would never know this, and they had been taped together. Yes, I read the instructions. BTW, the fans are rated at a fairly small 50 and 80 CFM (depending on location). They produce less than 0.3 sones of sound. So you can't really hear them, just a little air noise. They are superbly engineered with a special plastic wheel, isolation mounts for the motor and cage, and a special plastic housing over the larger ones to reduce noise. The standard builder fans cost about 15 dollars, make incredible amounts of noise, leak, and move almost no air, they are worthless. For my purposes, I installed the larger Panasonic fans in areas where either myself or wife would control them, and the smaller fans in "unsupervised" locations like the kids bathrooms and the guests. Their only purpose is to remove humid air (showers) and anything stinky. Don't run them at other times. The ducts on these is not insulated, but flexible hard aluminum pipe. They are terminated under the eves with a special double damped, caged vent, which is also very, very white. I hope we can paint them.
Also, they ran 8 inch hard pipe for the kitchen hood vent. I ran into a lot of flack with the roofers over exactly how to vent this through the tile roof, which I didn't want to do anyway. So, in the end, I vented it out over the porch, which is sealed off away from the living space. This also allowed me to use a damper type vent cap. The kitchen venting is essentially the same as the bathrooms, humid and stinky things got to go, but you don't need to pull 1000 CFM to make that happen, smaller for longer is the mantra here... AND, if they aren't quiet, then nobody will turn them on.
They also ran a "fresh air return" from the back of the house. This thing allows the system to draw in air anytime the house is low on pressure, and actually hooks right into another return. So, if the house gets low on pressure, it can suck in air from this thing as needed. This can happen when you are running a fireplace or other vent fans. I could have installed (and still can if I change my mind) an Energy Recovery Ventilator in place of this, but I have changed my opinion on their necessity. The ERV uses energy to operate, operates too much, and can't adequately remove humidity from the incoming air... so why pay 1000 dollars for a piece of equipment you have to feed electricity to for the priviledge of slightly better air than you can get for free??? OH, and this only really matters when the temperatures are at extremes... I would want to shut it off the rest of the time...
Forgot to mention in that picture above, that the catwalk you can't see to the left is still perfectly clear... No wires, no ducts.... so far...
Ok, for some fun stuff. If you haven't been paying attention, then you don't know I am an incessant tinkerer... Here is my latest contraption... This would be a vibration isolation mount. You are looking at an extremely heavy wooden platform, on top of another heavy duty platform, which is supported by 6 Chevy big block lifter springs (Autozone $2 per). The right side sits 1/4 inch higher than the left to account for the unit sitting further right than left. The springs don't actually "dampen" vibration, but they help isolate any movement above from transfering mechanical energy downward into the slab, or to the wall behind (sits out away from the wall too). Since the compressor and a lot of other mechanical equipment is all contained right in the GSHP, I was worried about transferring vibration and noise into the structure of the house. This was my idea, and took just a few hours to build. Additionally, when the HVAC guy ordered the unit, he ordered an "air bed" for the unit to sit on. This basically looks like thick black foam. Between the fact there is two walls between the unit and every living space, plus all this apparatus, and the fact that GEO units are supposed to be very quiet, and it is the 3D version (touted as quieter than others), I am hoping we are safe on noise...
Here is a closeup of those springs. By the way, if I really wanted to dampen the movement of the unit, I would have to add an absorber of some sort. The spring just allows the top part to move independently from the bottom... Once upon a time I could have written a differential equation, and with some spring coeffecients and damper information, would have been able to predict if this thing would work...even check for harmonics... Instead, I am just guessing. It's a lot more fun.
Have a great weekend....
