Derek Cole tackles three HVAC problems: a leaking bathroom vent caused by missing insulation around the vent boot, a clicking Coleman furnace that needs professional inspection for a faulty blower or heat strips, and a bedroom that won't heat or cool due to duct pressure loss from an oversized trunk line.
Hey, on this episode we talk about water leaking out of a vent, my electric furnace is clicking, and I have a ductwork problem. You ask your comfort and energy questions and they get answered. This is the Ask Derrick Cole Show.
We have had heavy rains the past few days. The air vent in my upstairs bathroom is now dripping water. It is the only vent doing this. I went into the attic, but I did not see any leaks. Any ideas? Should I pay for an HVAC person to come out, or is this something I can handle myself?
I would pay for an HVAC person to come out because what it sounds like is that part is not insulated. So with all the— around here, with all the rain and the humidity and, you know, 70 degrees, things are going to condensate. So if you have your AC on and it's blowing the cold air, it's obviously going to condensate with the hot air or the moist air outside. So you're going to open yourself up for leaking, condensation, water dripping. That sounds like that's what's going on there. So either you need to seal around that vent and that boot in that space Or there's no insulation going around that boot to where the door connects to it. I would pay for somebody to come out and take a look at it because that definitely should not be happening. But it sounds like insulation sealing kind of a problem, and the HVAC guy can handle that with no problem.
I have a Coleman electric furnace and it makes a clicking noise while running. Is this something I should have checked out?
You should have it checked out because it shouldn't make any clicking noise. A lot of times in the Coleman furnaces we've seen the most— I mean, you got a blower wheel in the furnace and you have the strip heat in the furnace. So you really only have a couple of moving parts in that furnace. So if it's the wheel or if it's the heat strips, that is the question in making the clicking noise. What that wheel can do is, you know, with dust, dirt buildup, can get out of balance and it could be rubbing on something, making that noise, or it could be in the heat strips itself. So yeah, you need to get it checked out. It's not something I would recommend you open up and look at and do yourself because You're messing with the electricity and components, and you'd be better off having somebody look at it for you.
We have one room in our house that is always cold with the heat on and hot with the air on. Is it possible that we have a duct issue?
So the advantage to having Megan ask me a question for herself is that she's actually here. So let me ask you, um, Where, where's the room at as far as the house?
It's on the far left side, like it's an end room on the end of the house. It has two exterior walls. It's a bedroom.
Okay, so you got two exterior walls in that room. How many grills or vents do you have? Two. One on each wall? All right, so in the— you check the airflow? Is it blowing out pretty good? Each one? Is it Far away from the unit?
Yes. The unit is on the other side of the house.
Right. So what's happening is this is in the crawl space, the duct?
Mm-hmm.
So when your husband crawls under there and looks at it, what he'll see is one solid piece of trunk line. So if you go into like a Zaxby's or a Red Robin and you look up at the ductwork, you see You see a big piece reducing to a smaller piece, reducing to a smaller piece. Okay. A lot of homes we go to don't have that going on. What we're doing there is you're making sure you keep the pressure up as you go on. So the room at the end of the house with the end of the duct system is getting very little air compared to the one at the beginning of the run. So what happens is it's not reducing. So when we go back in there with the new duct system, obviously we're reducing to keep pressure up. It's kind of the same principle with a garden hose. Okay, you turn the water on all the way, hold the hose up, you see the water come out, right? You put your finger over it, what does it do? It goes a lot further. Same principle with air. So you want to keep that pressure up to make sure it gets all the areas in the house equally and it's balanced out. And that's probably what's happening with your system. I cannot think of a home— I could be wrong— a home that I've been under that has probably had that reducing going on with the duct system. And they all have the same complaint. It's hotter or colder in this room at the end, or it's hotter or colder in this room with the most glass on the southwest side. 'Cause it gets the most sun exposure. Well, that room needs more air than the room on the opposite side that's on the north end with the walls. Makes sense. You got more exposure here. So it's a duct problem. I mean, you can seal your duct system to help it a little bit because you are losing some under the house, but it's still not going to be what it can be. Alright, so that's episode 64 of the Ask Derrick Cole. Make sure you hashtag questions on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter, and we'll get them on the show. Hey, good to see y'all.
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