The air handler sits in the northwest corner of the attic. A giant 18 inch duct runs the entire length of the house - about 60 feet.
Monday morning - things slowed down a bit. Now that the house is closed in - we do not have to rush to do anything. Gary and Joe continued to work on framing and preparing the walls for closing. Gary Wayne and Josh went to do finishing work on the other house they are building. We have been going at a torrid pace and I hope we keep going that way.
Giddens Air Conditioning was out in full force. They were installing the main air handler. There is a lot of work to laying out the air supply ducts and the air return ducts. By code - each bedroom - living room - and kitchen must have both air supply outlets and air return outlets. In the old days - homes had only one air return outlet and all the air moved to that one spot in the home - usually to ceiling in the hall - and it returned to the air handler. The more ducts you have - the more evenly the air is distributed. Each duct must be insulated with fiberglass and then covered with a foil paper.
In our case - the installers are being extra careful to do a neat job. We are taking pictures of every step and attaching them here.
We chose a Trane Heat Pump. In the winter is sucks heat out of the outside air and brings it into the home. In the summer - it sucks the heat out of the home and deposits it outside. As the air passes through the cool coils in the air handler - water condenses on the coils and drips into a catch pan and it then is drained outside. If the outside air drops below freezing - an additional electric heating coil goes on to heat the home.
Our Trane system is rated at 19 on the SEER code. That means it is very efficient. Combine that with the liquid foam in place insulation - we should have an energy efficient home.
This is Ben Giddens colorful drawing of the air distribution system. The blue lines are the cool air going out to the rooms. The orange lines are the ducts that return the air to the handler. In the air handler - air is heated/cooled/dehumdified/filtered - and return to the house. It is a closed system - the air is recirculated.
This is a box of air vents. Each vent has a damper on it to control the flow to that room. There are also other dampers in the lines to control the volume of air going into each room.
This is the air filter. It sits in a magazine and slides into a drawer in the unit. Every 6 months - you replace the filter medium.
Ben Gidden is installing the condensation drip pan. Gary built the platform to hold the air handler.
This Insulation wrap is used to keep the heat inside the ducts. It also prevents a warm attic form heating up the ducts.
Our street used to be busy - but since they build a new park nearby - traffic has slowed considerably. Still - any contractor would like to hang their shingle on this home.
Giddens has a crew of 4 people. Gary is here with 3 of them - Ben was busy somewhere else.
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