Job completed for Steven B.

Completion date: February 10, 2021

Location: Charlottesville, VA

Why did the customer contact us?

Steven reached out because one side of their home is always much cooler than the other side of their home.

Solutions provided:

Our visit to Steven's home was less about tools and more about looking, listening and poking around - a really scientific start! After he discussed the problem and showed me around, we started to really look for the how the duct system was designed and installed. Luckily he had photos of the basement before it was finished, which was key as one photo showed a major secondary trunk that we likely would have missed otherwise.

Using the photos we were able to identify the spot above the ceiling where the secondary trunk broke off from the main trunk. And then we started to work backwords - we counted the total number of supply registers and using some standard numbers for the cubic feet per minute of each supply, we determined a roughly total of the airflow the system could handle - 1900 CFM, roughly a 5 ton system.

On a 3 ton system capable of moving roughly 1200 CFM. 

The furnace blower is not capable of moving enough air to reach the far side of Steven's home.

So Steven is strategically adjusting the supply registers throughout the house to find an acceptable balance between both sides of the house and between the basement and main level. 

So far we have been able to close the gap from 6-7 degrees to 3-4 degrees on some of the coldest days of the year - which is not perfect but is the best we can achieve without major changes.