Jim greengo
Well-known member
You're buying them from the wrong place,post a picture of filter housing.
Sometimes you can stack multiple filters in there and rotate them out.
Caution to home buyers
- Thread starter McFarmer
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You're buying them from the wrong place,post a picture of filter housing.
Sometimes you can stack multiple filters in there and rotate them out.
Purolator 20x25x5
dcg9381
Well-known member
Agree, heat pump down here in the south does nothing but run the compressor when it is below freezing. Need Aux strips to fire up.
Mine is a merv 11 filter and thick. Ain’t cheap either.
Not a ****** 20x20x1”.
My heat pump cuts out at -21 Celsius. It will maintain my house temp. But will not shut off. 1876 sq ft full basement.
Stage 2 it calls for a strip in the furnace and so on the more the temp drops.
If switch to emergency heat it only uses electric furnace.
ForceFed70
Well-known member
Bretny
Well-known member
The quick fix for this could be have her remove the bottom hose on the over flow tank. Heat the car up, put the hose back on tje now empty tank and before it cools fill the bottle with non mixed antifreeze. Might be a good idea to heat it up after it cools a bit to.
You could always have her fill with non mixed antifreze, heat it and hope for the best.
This is the actual temp and not the feels like temp right? Cars dont feel -30* when its -5*. They are only the actual temp but get colder quicker.
checkthisout
Well-known member
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Out of curiosity, what's the BTU output of the current system and how large should it be?
-30 is crazy low temps.
Do not do this. $30 is normal for an air cleaner.
Yeah, thirty below on the thermometer.
Jim greengo
Well-known member
Stack some 20x20x1s together,swap the dirty one out every month .
Then put a new one on the furnace side.
Jim greengo
Well-known member
Well enlighten me oh wise one,I can buy the fat filters through supply house for $15.00 or less for each,not everybody has that option though.
And yes,there are plenty of furnaces out 5here with stacked filters in them.
Plenty of cars driving around with check engine light. Plenty of tradesmen handing out bad advice. Just because there is plenty of something doesn’t mean it’s the right or better alternative.
justinjoyal
Well-known member
Stacked filters !
Forums are great, but they are also full of misinformation.
To make it short: dont do that.
Forums are great, but they are also full of misinformation.
To make it short: dont do that.
99LeCouch
Well-known member
Minus 30*F is probably a bit below design temperature for the system. It will run continuously at those conditions and might not reach the thermostat setpoint.
If -30*F is a fluke weather condition, as long as the system does fine at more normal temperatures its probably sized correctly.
Here is a link to a site that lists design conditions for points around the world: http://ashrae-meteo.info/
It shows in metric units. The figure to look for is "heating DB" under the 99% box. That will tell you the temperature that a correctly sized heating system should still meet a setpoint at.
If -30*F is a fluke weather condition, as long as the system does fine at more normal temperatures its probably sized correctly.
Here is a link to a site that lists design conditions for points around the world: http://ashrae-meteo.info/
It shows in metric units. The figure to look for is "heating DB" under the 99% box. That will tell you the temperature that a correctly sized heating system should still meet a setpoint at.
JRC3
Well-known member
The filter is 5" because it's heavily pleated to give more surface area. Probably because it has a high merv rating and will clog faster, more surface area means it will take longer to clog. Basically it makes a 25x25" filter act like it's like triple the size, maybe even more.
Jim greengo
Well-known member
What ever makes you happy,doesnt mean it doesnt work either.
Jim greengo
Well-known member
The 1st filter is doing the work,the others are just filling the gap because some fast talking salesman talked them into buying a giant over sized filter to begin with.
Just like the salesman who used to push the electronic filters on everybody because of how good they were supposed to work,till they quit working then the fast talking salesmen were nowhere to be found.
JRC3
Well-known member
^
Maybe you should Google MERV.
Maybe you should Google MERV.
Jim greengo
Well-known member
The filter is 5" because it's heavily pleated to give more surface area. Probably because it has a high merv rating and will clog faster, more surface area means it will take longer to clog. Basically it makes a 25x25" filter act like it's like triple the size, maybe even more.
Depending on whether or not your house is a laboratory or not they get dirty a d should be checked every month just like a regular filter,if I had a dollar for every no heat call I've had over the years where somebody's furnace kicked out on high limit from 1 of those monster filters being clogged up.
Then they ***** that they just changed it 2 mos ago,it is supposed to be good for 6 months!
Higher merv ratings mean it's going to be more restrictive sooner,same goes for ac season causing iced up coils and other issues.
I change the pleated true blue filters in all my rentals every month,they say they're good for up to 3 months but for $2.00 a piece it's not a big deal .
But do what ever makes you happy.
themiller
Well-known member
I look at inspectors as an investment with an immediate ROI - nothing long term. Pay them $300-500 and use that to have the sellers to spend $1k-10k remediating issues (real or otherwise - I'm looking at you loose toilets and GFCI outlets that fail all the $*@ing time). If your inspector doesn't at least pay for themselves - you've been duped.
As for the furnace - I'd be happy it's not sized to -30. This cold of weather in her area has happened what - once in 25 years? Get a space heater or two and move on with life. Properly blown in attic insulation goes a long way and could very well make that unit capable of handling the -30.
As for the furnace - I'd be happy it's not sized to -30. This cold of weather in her area has happened what - once in 25 years? Get a space heater or two and move on with life. Properly blown in attic insulation goes a long way and could very well make that unit capable of handling the -30.
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Depending on whether or not your house is a laboratory or not they get dirty a d should be checked every month just like a regular filter,if I had a dollar for every no heat call I've had over the years where somebody's furnace kicked out on high limit from 1 of those monster filters being clogged up.
Then they ***** that they just changed it 2 mos ago,it is supposed to be good for 6 months!
Higher merv ratings mean it's going to be more restrictive sooner,same goes for ac season causing iced up coils and other issues.
I change the pleated true blue filters in all my rentals every month,they say they're good for up to 3 months but for $2.00 a piece it's not a big deal .
But do what ever makes you happy.
Well then don’t put any filters at all. Then you never have to change. I get the fact a more restricted filter that blocks more dust is gonna plug faster....so your solution is put in a more open filter to let more dust through? Lol
I’ll just change the filter when it requires it and enjoy the clean air. It’s not some extreme laboratory condition just better air quality.
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Jim greengo
Well-known member
No,my answer was to put in a less restrictive filter and check/change it when it needs to be changed.
Versus put in a filter that costs 25 times as much a d doesnt last any longer.
Or is that too hard of a concept to grasp?
You think your less restrictive filter is just as good? Because that’s what your implying.
Seems like an easy concept for me to grasp. I’m not lazy or cheap. So I’ll maintain a better air quality and change my merv 11 filters when they need to be changed.
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justinjoyal
Well-known member
bczygan
Well-known member
HVAC systems are not designed for extremes.
Bill
Bill
danski0224
Well-known member
Depending on whether or not your house is a laboratory or not they get dirty a d should be checked every month just like a regular filter,if I had a dollar for every no heat call I've had over the years where somebody's furnace kicked out on high limit from 1 of those monster filters being clogged up.
Then they ***** that they just changed it 2 mos ago,it is supposed to be good for 6 months!
Higher merv ratings mean it's going to be more restrictive sooner,same goes for ac season causing iced up coils and other issues.
I change the pleated true blue filters in all my rentals every month,they say they're good for up to 3 months but for $2.00 a piece it's not a big deal .
But do what ever makes you happy.
I have a Aprilaire 5000 filter system and an incline manometer measuring TESP.
I've had the same filter in the system for over 5 years now
danski0224
Well-known member
The clear majority of residential HVAC systems are NOT capable of handling anything more than a plain old fiberglass air filter.
Yeah, the system appears to function with the 1" 3M Purple filter in place, but if you actually measure the TESP, it will be well over the design spec of 0.5" WC for almost every single residential fan- whether it is a furnace or an air handler.
And yes, because the package says "good for up to 90 days", it gets left in there for 180 days...
At one end of the problem scale, it causes a loss of air flow and efficiency. At the other end, it will cause equipment failure. In the middle, AC coils freeze up and furnace limit switches trip due to poor airflow.
Those that want better air filtration need to step up to a pleated depth media filter, properly sized for the system. That means that 2 filter assemblies may be needed and 2 return openings to the air moving equipment. Pulling 3 or more tons of airflow through a 16x25x1 pleated air filter is just asking for trouble.
These larger filters aren’t on older systems for the most part. New systems should be designed with these filters in mind. Mine is a 20x25x5.
The air handler had a 20x24x1 in it that was removed as it’s not needed.
checkthisout
Well-known member
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I still wanna know how many btus it would take to keep said house warm at -30.
And would like to know size of current system.
This seems more interesting than throwing lipstick and hitting each other with your purses over air filters.
And would like to know size of current system.
This seems more interesting than throwing lipstick and hitting each other with your purses over air filters.
I asked these types of questions at the beginning of this thread but the OP didn't respond. Perhaps he doesn't know?
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checkthisout
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Or maybe he's outside with his tongue stuck to a flagpole?
ripperd
Well-known member
Bingo.
So our cold here overnight was ~-28F.
I looked up the ASHRAE tables, and design temp should bar around -10 to -13F here in the twin cities. IE, if everything was sized perfectly according to specs, the furnace in our house would run continuously and probably only be able to obtain a few degrees under setpoint. This is the entire point - don't waste efficiency and money all year long just so you can make setpoint on the 2-3 coldest days of the year.
On the flipside, pretty much every HVAC contractor errs on the larger side. Our house maintained setpoint overnight, although the furnace did run quite a bit, it did not run continuously.
Also, I saw another poster saying antifreeze mixes will freeze at -20F. That is bunk. Typical 50/50 starts to freeze at -34F. Note that that is the temperature at which ice crystals begin to form, NOT the temperature it turns into a hard block. It will be slushy and still move around until much colder.
BD1
Well-known member
Check the electric resistance heater for size. You maybe able to remove and install a larger KW heater. I find it odd that they would have installed a heat pump in that area. My guess is that natural gas is not a option so they went with electric.
danski0224
Well-known member
Do a load calculation for your house at design temperature, then re-do it for -30.
Then you'll know
Holey ****....Did you guys just move to the great white north.....or just get overwhelmed witt the media hype. Cars and building don’t feel wind chill .......they just cool down faster but never drop below the thermometer reading.
Guess we are forgetting the winter of 2013-2014 it was last colder for a lot longer period of time. Then add the propane shortage and $4-$5 per gallon.
Furnace can’t keep up and think it’s an air flow issue.......temporarily remove the filter. Betting it won’t help much, but it’s a confirmation test.
Go to Walmart or the big box store ......Get 2-5 $25-$40 space heaters as a supplement. Same cost to operate as the electric furnace. Just be careful with the placement and kids. Problem solved........
After this settles down in a two day
.........have a free energy audit, where they will find all those air leaks, poor windows and marginal insulation in the attic etc.
Guess we are forgetting the winter of 2013-2014 it was last colder for a lot longer period of time. Then add the propane shortage and $4-$5 per gallon.
Furnace can’t keep up and think it’s an air flow issue.......temporarily remove the filter. Betting it won’t help much, but it’s a confirmation test.
Go to Walmart or the big box store ......Get 2-5 $25-$40 space heaters as a supplement. Same cost to operate as the electric furnace. Just be careful with the placement and kids. Problem solved........
After this settles down in a two day
.........have a free energy audit, where they will find all those air leaks, poor windows and marginal insulation in the attic etc.
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If I remember right I said I didn’t know and didn’t ask.
She said this morning it is keeping up but not shutting off. Better than the 51* she woke up to yesterday. The kids stayed with us so no one is out on the road at -30 actual.No school yesterday and today.
Working on a Disney LEGO set. Should take most of the day if I can keep the brakes on the oldest.
Most homes in the area have NG.
Thanks everyone for the tips.
joe_padavano
Well-known member
THANK YOU! I'm really tired of the over-hyped "wind chill" or worse "feels like" numbers. These are BS numbers made up to make things sound worse so you'll tune in to the 24-7 weather reports. Yeah, a real -20F is damn cold. The -58 or whatever "feels like" number is just BS.
Here's a hint. If the real temp is 34F and the "feels like" number is 24, water still won't freeze.