Sunday, I ran the copper refrigerant lines in the crawlspace from the blowers to the outdoor unit. They are temporarily supported in place with a few hangers and some velcro straps. Once insulated, they will be permanently supported.
Monday, I spent Valentine's Day with my love.
Tuesday morning, I determined the motion sensor on the side of the house was bad. I spent almost an hour looking at lines and reading voltages and what not. I am slow. The rest of the day was spent helping install my parents' new dishwasher.
Wednesday, I replaced the motion sensor with a new one. I then made flares for the indoor refrigerant connections. It was too windy/dusty outside to work on the exterior flares.
Thursday, I connected the outside flares, pulled a vacuum on one set of blower lines, and cracked the service valve briefly for some soap & bubble checking with low pressures. No bubbles were spotted. This was an exciting day, as I learned the difference between standard hose fittings and low-loss/anti-blowback hose fittings. The latter are very, very handy.
Friday, I vacuumed the other blower lineset, also performed low pressure bubble checks and then fully opened both service valves. This was another fun day of driving back and forth from Milford to Dover, as I discovered the very limited space around the service valves on the Fujitsu required just the right combination of tiny fittings to adapt from a 5/16" to 1/4", and to bend 90 degrees from the unit housing for clearance. The wiring was completed, and the system connected. The instructions stated to wait 12 hours after power before testing.
Saturday morning, I tested the system heat. It was about mid-forties outside. The outside unit was very quiet. It very slowly ramped up its speed. The indoor blowers were also incredibly quiet.. Even full blast, the fans make little noise. They put out nice heat, too.
After an hour or less, I shut down the system to allow the lines to cool, so I could insulate them. As I was fumbling with some pipe insulation outside, I noticed a small bubble slowly form and pop at one of the low pressure flare nuts. I stooped down for a closer look, and watched another bubble slowly form and pop. Doh.
After some investigation of my documentation I determined it was possible I could perform a "pump down" or "recapture" to suck the refrigerant back out from the linesets into the outdoor unit. Then, I would be free to disassemble the flare and try again. If I haven't lost too much refrigerant - which I don't think I have - then it should still work fine without dealing with a recover/recycle operation. I don't have equipment for that, and would likely run a few hundred dollars to have a contractor perform for me. I don't even know if a supply house would sell me the R410A if I had a recovery unit, without a CFC card..
I realize now a nitrogen pressure test is critical to ensure a tight system before bringing the refrigerant into play. A $100 regulator isn't much of an investment, and I found a local supply house with nitrogen tanks.
So, I ordered online a nitrogen regular for $60, a leak detector for $40.. it should arrive sometime the middle of this week, and then I can check for leaks before I release the refrigerant again.
Once that's all done, I can check pressures and temperatures and compare to the spec sheets to ensure the charge is within acceptable range. The unit comes charged with enough refrigerant for a total line distance of 100ft. My units are roughly 40ft total, 60ft less than the max. The specs list a charge of about a quarter oz/ft, so with 60 x 0.25 = 15oz lost, it should still perform to spec. The total factory charge was 74oz, so that's about 20% lost. This is a guestimation of course, only testing will tell for sure.
In the mean time, I'll remake that one flare I know for sure is bad, when the weather looks good. I can run the pipe insulation as well. And finish the condensate piping. And the drain/waste/vent piping..
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
My poor blog..
It's been so neglected :\
A quick recap of the past week.
Thursday. The electrical inspector arrived for my rough-in. He looked around a bit, then shockingly noted I didn't make any splices in my boxes. I told him I didn't know I needed to. Live and learn.
He also noted at my aerial service entrance, the weatherhead was at 10ft from grade, which would cause the driploop to hang below that elevation, which is a code violation. He recommended I add a upward bend at the end of the conduit, to bring the weatherhead up about a foot, to place it in front of the soffit box.
Friday-Sunday. I purchased some necessary tools for making the box splices. I went through the house, each circuit at a time, splicing up neutral/ground/hot pigtails. It went a little slow at first, but near the end I'm now a pro splicer :P
The best tools to use I found were a pair of wire cutters to cut the romex to length, a pair of sheath strippers to quickly remove the romex sheath - and make sure they're bent nosed, or you won't be able to strip it inside the box, a pair of stripmasters to strip the individual THHN conductors, and a screwdriver with a hole at the end of the handle designed to turn wingnuts. Wingnuts are a brand of wirenuts with little wings on 'em, they're easier to turn, and the screwdriver really saves your fingers after putting on a ton of 'em. I also ordered an adapter which chucks into your drill to turn the wingnuts, but it still hasn't arrived yet - I'll try it on the next house!
Monday. I borrowed a large pipe cutter from Ed and cut off the existing weatherhead. I glued on a 90-sweep and then glued the head back on there. This was a real pain, with the conductors in place, it was difficult pulling the head and ell onto the existing conduit. Ah well, now the inspector can be satisfied that my drip loop won't hang a few inches below the magic ten foot line. I then scheduled another inspection.
Tuesday. Inspector eventually showed up, glanced at my splices, and left within 90 seconds of arrival. Before leaving, he told me I still get another inspection for free before they charge for additional inspections! He said I could use that for my final inspection. Mmm hmm. I'm sure, as an employee of a profit-oriented enterprise, he won't find anything that will need to be corrected at the final inspection. I then called the city to have the aerial line switched to the house.
Wednesday. A worker showed up early in the bitter cold to make the swap. We BSed a bit while he was working, and I made sure to tell him where the 10ft line was, and that the inspector was nitpicking and the bottom of the loop needed to be above that line. Of course, the neutral loop still ended up just at that line. It's a grounded conductor, so really there is no danger, but if the inspector wanted he could pitch a fit.
Once the power was switched, I jumped for joy. I was going to install a receptacle for power for my tools, but I realized all I had was a box of the old receptacles, which aren't Tamper Resistant. A few months ago, I had to apply for another electrical permit from the county, since my original permit from my temp pole install was over a year old. In that time the state adopted the newer version of the code, which requires all receptacles to be TR. It also requires additional AFCI breakers. All this crap costs money. I think I spent an additional $100 or so on this junk.
Thursday-Friday. I installed some receptacles, switches. Wired up a few circuits to the main panel. Now I have lights in the crawl and attic, and all the exterior lights wired up. I installed a few receptacles in the crawl and outside, and one in the laundry closet for my tools.
Now I'm going to finish plumbing, but I also want to get the HVAC system running. Those blowers can still give me some heat before I add the ductwork. It's all wired up, just needs to have the refigerant lines attached and pressurized. I have the copper and flaring tools.. Just need to run the lines, and then pull a vacuum on a nice, warm day. I'm also looking into getting a tank of nitrogen to run a nitrogen leak test, this would be a smart thing to do if not expensive. Otherwise, if there is a leak and I release the refrigerant into the lines, that will be a very expensive mistake to fix..
A quick recap of the past week.
Thursday. The electrical inspector arrived for my rough-in. He looked around a bit, then shockingly noted I didn't make any splices in my boxes. I told him I didn't know I needed to. Live and learn.
He also noted at my aerial service entrance, the weatherhead was at 10ft from grade, which would cause the driploop to hang below that elevation, which is a code violation. He recommended I add a upward bend at the end of the conduit, to bring the weatherhead up about a foot, to place it in front of the soffit box.
Friday-Sunday. I purchased some necessary tools for making the box splices. I went through the house, each circuit at a time, splicing up neutral/ground/hot pigtails. It went a little slow at first, but near the end I'm now a pro splicer :P
The best tools to use I found were a pair of wire cutters to cut the romex to length, a pair of sheath strippers to quickly remove the romex sheath - and make sure they're bent nosed, or you won't be able to strip it inside the box, a pair of stripmasters to strip the individual THHN conductors, and a screwdriver with a hole at the end of the handle designed to turn wingnuts. Wingnuts are a brand of wirenuts with little wings on 'em, they're easier to turn, and the screwdriver really saves your fingers after putting on a ton of 'em. I also ordered an adapter which chucks into your drill to turn the wingnuts, but it still hasn't arrived yet - I'll try it on the next house!
Monday. I borrowed a large pipe cutter from Ed and cut off the existing weatherhead. I glued on a 90-sweep and then glued the head back on there. This was a real pain, with the conductors in place, it was difficult pulling the head and ell onto the existing conduit. Ah well, now the inspector can be satisfied that my drip loop won't hang a few inches below the magic ten foot line. I then scheduled another inspection.
Tuesday. Inspector eventually showed up, glanced at my splices, and left within 90 seconds of arrival. Before leaving, he told me I still get another inspection for free before they charge for additional inspections! He said I could use that for my final inspection. Mmm hmm. I'm sure, as an employee of a profit-oriented enterprise, he won't find anything that will need to be corrected at the final inspection. I then called the city to have the aerial line switched to the house.
Wednesday. A worker showed up early in the bitter cold to make the swap. We BSed a bit while he was working, and I made sure to tell him where the 10ft line was, and that the inspector was nitpicking and the bottom of the loop needed to be above that line. Of course, the neutral loop still ended up just at that line. It's a grounded conductor, so really there is no danger, but if the inspector wanted he could pitch a fit.
Once the power was switched, I jumped for joy. I was going to install a receptacle for power for my tools, but I realized all I had was a box of the old receptacles, which aren't Tamper Resistant. A few months ago, I had to apply for another electrical permit from the county, since my original permit from my temp pole install was over a year old. In that time the state adopted the newer version of the code, which requires all receptacles to be TR. It also requires additional AFCI breakers. All this crap costs money. I think I spent an additional $100 or so on this junk.
Thursday-Friday. I installed some receptacles, switches. Wired up a few circuits to the main panel. Now I have lights in the crawl and attic, and all the exterior lights wired up. I installed a few receptacles in the crawl and outside, and one in the laundry closet for my tools.
Now I'm going to finish plumbing, but I also want to get the HVAC system running. Those blowers can still give me some heat before I add the ductwork. It's all wired up, just needs to have the refigerant lines attached and pressurized. I have the copper and flaring tools.. Just need to run the lines, and then pull a vacuum on a nice, warm day. I'm also looking into getting a tank of nitrogen to run a nitrogen leak test, this would be a smart thing to do if not expensive. Otherwise, if there is a leak and I release the refrigerant into the lines, that will be a very expensive mistake to fix..
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