Fixing the Problem with Unbalanced Heating Systems

A series of branches that go out to the rooms right there looks like you've got another one right here you can see a branch and now you get a sense now when this air pushes down here there's more and more resistance so remember upstairs there's a lot of air there then less and less and less and less and that's really why okay the other thing i can see right here is why your second floor doesn't have any heat you this is a branch right here and this goes looks like it goes to the first floor so that's about what eight feet long and all these branches are the same diameter and this one here looks like it goes to second floor well that might be 28 feet long where is the air going to go it's going to go to this one the path of least resistance.

Okay so how do we fix the problem well this is a perfect candidate for zoning forced air zoning we can put in motorized dampers that can balance the whole system and make any room the right temperature sound good that sounds great all right so what the guys are installing are these motorized dampers they're blade style dampers you can see it right here and there's a motor right here and now in the mode when it's on the thermostat's calling it looks like this when it isn't you can see the blade close and tight see that wow that's cool all right it gets even cooler with how you wire it so you can see this motor right here and we're going to put one of these dampers on every single branch so just imagine that these two are on the first floor branches well if i want to wire it i'll just come right here with a telephone jack daisy chain them together so now when that thermostat calls they both will open and both will close there's an indicator light to tell you whether they're open or closed that's great not available um we have uh motorized zone dampers we installing all these branch runs how many there's 23 branch runs so we'll take a zone damper this is flexible duct we'll cut it we'll uh we'll install the zone damper and secure it with cable ties good i'll give you a hand do all of our new wiring comes back to this control panel we need a way to communicate between the thermostats the new zone dampers and the furnace itself you can see everything's color coded here's the first floor thermostat wires into this strip right here here's a second floor thermostat and you see right here the same going over to the furnace itself the connections to the first floor zone dampers is right here with the phone jack connection here's the second floor connection right there now whenever we add zoning there's one more very important thing i want to talk about and that is this blower is big enough for all those registers and now we're going to close off half of them so i'm worried about having too much airflow through the registers too much airflow sounds good no it isn't in this case because if you have too much you're going to have noise and whistle and everything else so it's not good so what we need to do is to put in a thing called a bypass damper now this is a weighted damper right here now this is going to install right here between the supply trunk and the return trunk so just imagine that the furnace comes on the blower comes on and now it's pushing out and it's half of it's closed off pressure builds up here instead of having to try to fight its way through the registers we'll have it come down here it would lift this damper and that means some of the air would come right back into the return and go right back here and that'll keep it quiet upstairs that sounds great all right okay so how we doing guys we're doing good i've sealed up all the new connections with either mastic or tape and i'm adjusting the weights on your bypass damper here so that we get the proper amount of airflow to all the registers upstairs we're on the home stretch good job rich thanks i got one more thing to show you upstairs so we need to find a control point a thermostat up here on the second floor for your new zone now we could run a wire up inside the wall but i actually want to use this it's a wireless thermostat simple to operate turn it up turn it down because it's wireless it can stick anywhere on the wall you don't have to run a wire behind it or it has a little stand so i can actually set it onto a nightstand or a bureau and the only rules about placement are the same as for any thermostat you want to get a good reading it doesn't want to have direct sunlight it doesn't want to be in front of a register to get a false reading so here is your control you are now the keeper of the control

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enit's right this way all right so you got a long and very clean basement you know i was coming didn't you yes we did look at this we've got here's our main trunk here looks like an oil fired furnace so that means you've got a burner right down here and that's going to fire into a chamber and that's going to heat up the air there's a blower right here that's going to push the air up across a heat exchanger now it comes up and there's okay there's a cooling coil back here so now the air can go across a coil that's inside here to be cool the air in the summer and the air goes out through this plenum you can see right here here's the return air that's going to bring air back from the building comes back here through a filter cleans the air and then it goes back to be either reheated or re-cooled now that blower pushes up through this plenum you can see right here this insulated trunk right here so now that air is going to push down this trunk and you can see there's a series of branches that go out to the rooms right there looks like you've got another one right here you can see a branch and now you get a sense now when this air pushes down here there's more and more resistance so remember upstairs there's a lot of air there then less and less and less and less and that's really why okay the other thing i can see right here is why your second floor doesn't have any heat you this is a branch right here and this goes looks like it goes to the first floor so that's about what eight feet long and all these branches are the same diameter and this one here looks like it goes to second floor well that might be 28 feet long where is the air going to go it's going to go to this one the path of least resistance okay so how do we fix the problem well this is a perfect candidate for zoning forced air zoning we can put in motorized dampers that can balance the whole system and make any room the right temperature sound good that sounds great all right so what the guys are installing are these motorized dampers they're blade style dampers you can see it right here and there's a motor right here now in the mode when it's on the thermostat's calling it looks like this when it isn't you can see the blade close and tight see that wow that's cool all right it gets even cooler with how you wire it so you can see this motor right here and we're going to put one of these dampers on every single branch so just imagine that these two are on the first floor branches well if i want to wire it i'll just come right here with a telephone jack daisy chain them together so now when that thermostat calls they both will open and both will close there's an indicator light to tell you whether they're open or closed that's great not available um we have uh motorized zone dampers we installing all these branch runs how many there's 23 branch runs so we'll take a zone damper this is flexible duct we'll cut it we'll uh we'll install the zone damper and secure it with cable ties good i'll give you a hand do all of our new wiring comes back to this control panel we need a way to communicate between the thermostats the new zone dampers and the furnace itself you can see everything's color coded here's the first floor thermostat wires into this strip right here here's a second floor thermostat and you see right here the same going over to the furnace itself the connections to the first floor zone dampers is right here with the phone jack connection here's the second floor connection right there now whenever we add zoning there's one more very important thing i want to talk about and that is this blower is big enough for all those registers and now we're going to close off half of them so i'm worried about having too much airflow through the registers too much airflow sounds good no it isn't in this case because if you have too much you're going to have noise and whistle and everything else so it's not good so what we need to do is to put in a thing called a bypass damper now this is a weighted damper right here now this is going to install right here between the supply trunk and the return trunk so just imagine that the furnace comes on the blower comes on and now it's pushing out and it's half of it's closed off pressure builds up here instead of having to try to fight its way through the registers we'll have it come down here it would lift this damper and that means some of the air would come right back into the return and go right back here and that'll keep it quiet upstairs that sounds great all right okay so how we doing guys we're doing good i've sealed up all the new connections with either mastic or tape and i'm adjusting the weights on your bypass damper here so that we get the proper amount of airflow to all the registers upstairs we're on the home stretch good job rich thanks i got one more thing to show you upstairs so we need to find a control point a thermostat up here on the second floor for your new zone now we could run a wire up inside the wall but i actually want to use this it's a wireless thermostat simple to operate turn it up turn it down because it's wireless it can stick anywhere on the wall you don't have to run a wire behind it or it has a little stand so i can actually set it onto a nightstand or a bureau and the only rules about placement are the same as for any thermostat you want to get a good reading it doesn't want to have direct sunlight it doesn't want to be in front of a register to get a false reading so here is your control you are now the keeper of the control youit's right this way all right so you got a long and very clean basement you know i was coming didn't you yes we did look at this we've got here's our main trunk here looks like an oil fired furnace so that means you've got a burner right down here and that's going to fire into a chamber and that's going to heat up the air there's a blower right here that's going to push the air up across a heat exchanger now it comes up and there's okay there's a cooling coil back here so now the air can go across a coil that's inside here to be cool the air in the summer and the air goes out through this plenum you can see right here here's the return air that's going to bring air back from the building comes back here through a filter cleans the air and then it goes back to be either reheated or re-cooled now that blower pushes up through this plenum you can see right here this insulated trunk right here so now that air is going to push down this trunk and you can see there's a series of branches that go out to the rooms right there looks like you've got another one right here you can see a branch and now you get a sense now when this air pushes down here there's more and more resistance so remember upstairs there's a lot of air there then less and less and less and less and that's really why okay the other thing i can see right here is why your second floor doesn't have any heat you this is a branch right here and this goes looks like it goes to the first floor so that's about what eight feet long and all these branches are the same diameter and this one here looks like it goes to second floor well that might be 28 feet long where is the air going to go it's going to go to this one the path of least resistance okay so how do we fix the problem well this is a perfect candidate for zoning forced air zoning we can put in motorized dampers that can balance the whole system and make any room the right temperature sound good that sounds great all right so what the guys are installing are these motorized dampers they're blade style dampers you can see it right here and there's a motor right here now in the mode when it's on the thermostat's calling it looks like this when it isn't you can see the blade close and tight see that wow that's cool all right it gets even cooler with how you wire it so you can see this motor right here and we're going to put one of these dampers on every single branch so just imagine that these two are on the first floor branches well if i want to wire it i'll just come right here with a telephone jack daisy chain them together so now when that thermostat calls they both will open and both will close there's an indicator light to tell you whether they're open or closed that's great not available um we have uh motorized zone dampers we installing all these branch runs how many there's 23 branch runs so we'll take a zone damper this is flexible duct we'll cut it we'll uh we'll install the zone damper and secure it with cable ties good i'll give you a hand do all of our new wiring comes back to this control panel we need a way to communicate between the thermostats the new zone dampers and the furnace itself you can see everything's color coded here's the first floor thermostat wires into this strip right here here's a second floor thermostat and you see right here the same going over to the furnace itself the connections to the first floor zone dampers is right here with the phone jack connection here's the second floor connection right there now whenever we add zoning there's one more very important thing i want to talk about and that is this blower is big enough for all those registers and now we're going to close off half of them so i'm worried about having too much airflow through the registers too much airflow sounds good no it isn't in this case because if you have too much you're going to have noise and whistle and everything else so it's not good so what we need to do is to put in a thing called a bypass damper now this is a weighted damper right here now this is going to install right here between the supply trunk and the return trunk so just imagine that the furnace comes on the blower comes on and now it's pushing out and it's half of it's closed off pressure builds up here instead of having to try to fight its way through the registers we'll have it come down here it would lift this damper and that means some of the air would come right back into the return and go right back here and that'll keep it quiet upstairs that sounds great all right okay so how we doing guys we're doing good i've sealed up all the new connections with either mastic or tape and i'm adjusting the weights on your bypass damper here so that we get the proper amount of airflow to all the registers upstairs we're on the home stretch good job rich thanks i got one more thing to show you upstairs so we need to find a control point a thermostat up here on the second floor for your new zone now we could run a wire up inside the wall but i actually want to use this it's a wireless thermostat simple to operate turn it up turn it down because it's wireless it can stick anywhere on the wall you don't have to run a wire behind it or it has a little stand so i can actually set it onto a nightstand or a bureau and the only rules about placement are the same as for any thermostat you want to get a good reading it doesn't want to have direct sunlight it doesn't want to be in front of a register to get a false reading so here is your control you are now the keeper of the control you\n"