Duct work in crawl space

[Troy Farmer]

Hey all, I was inspecting a house today and they have done an addition on the east side of the home which is very cold compared to the west side, When entering the crawl space and investigating the source here's what I came up with. It kind of looks like a home made job with wires and duct tape.
I think they may have cut one line so they could add two additional lines to feed the two vents on the east side this is why it is so cold because the air has to travel further??. The picture doesn't show well but there is a metal trunk box in the middle of this nest.
One last note it takes about 15 min for the room to get to a warmer temp.
Any suggestions??


Thanks

Troy Farmer
http://www.presidentialinspection.com
info@presidentialinspection.com

[Brian E. Kelly]

If you suspect it is a homeowner special and a portion of the house is not getting warm reccomend an Evall by an HVAC contractor.

The ducts do not look correct and the duct tape and wires is a sign of unprofessional installation.

[Charley L. Bottger]

It looks like a hatchet job, as BK stated Home Owner Special. Many times when add on occur folks will just tie into the previous Duct system and just automatically assume the existing system will handle all. It's kind of like stuffing 10 LBS of crap in a 5 LB bag it don't work.

Just curious what was the SQ footage of the home and the Tonnage of the system

As a past installer to achieve the proper CFM at each outlet I did not install more than 3 eight inch drops on one 12 inch trunk line. Occasionally would add one additional six inch drop if the run was short but never more than a total of 4 drops per 12 inch trunk. And never 4 eight inch drops.

Whoops I just exceeded the SOP's
</IMG></IMG>

[dchew]

Most times during a remodel, they don't check the capacity of the HVAC system to see if it's enough to service the existing house and the addition. The system needs to be designed to have the right capacity to handle the thermal load of the entire building plus enough flow capacity to get the conditioned air to the rooms.

Make a note of it in your report and suggest that a energy consultant do a thermal load evaluation of the HVAC system and the house envelope.

[Troy Farmer]

To everyone that responded thank you I got what I needed.

Troy Farmer
Presidential Inspections LLC
208-573-5300