All right, open this guy up. Oh man. I'm going to miss my old trusty seat clamp holding my filter down. What am I going to do? This video is brought to you by Sportland Quality, Integrity and tradition.

So this is a multi-part series. This is me going through and changing the air conditioner in my house. If you haven't seen any of the previous videos, where I do an evaluation explain what's really wrong with my house Where I do blower door tests duck Blaster tests determine the infiltration on my house repair a good majority of the infiltration tighten up the blower door, fix some very common problems that a lot of people do with their homes and the way that they don't realize that their homes work. we were doing that.

So there's a a huge series of videos. We talk about the load calculation that we did. We talk about, um, some of the things that I did to, uh, reduce the air infiltration on my house, sealing up can lights, and different things like that. So anyways, there's a whole series.

Uh, definitely want to go back and look at those. There's links in the show notes. There's links popping up in the cards right now. It'll definitely help you guys to understand where my head space is and why I'm doing this.

So let's get on with the video. All right. At this point, I'm starting to run duct work, my existing system still in place, I'm just everything's being ran in new places. so I'm trying my best.

First off, we took it outside and we stretched it to get the memory out of the flex. pull it tight for I don't know, We just pulled it tight for about 2 minutes, let it sit, then we brought it up into the attic and I'm starting to run it using duck Saddles to try to keep it as straight as possible. Now I'm going to go around and start sealing the boot to the duct work. So I got some duct, mastic or duct sealer right here.

All right. What I did was I pulled the jacket back, used a Panduit strap giant zip tie to tie the duct on, and then use duct tape to tape it on. and then I use duct sealer all the way around and we're letting it dry. Then we'll pull the jacket over, use a Panduit strap and then uh, I'm actually going to spray foam around these boots too.

Um, we just stretched this duct out. This is a 9-in duct and the whole idea is that we're grabbing the inner liner. It's not so much the outer jacket, it's the inner liner and we're pulling the memory out of the little piece of metal that's wound in there. Um, you know we're going to bend it and flex it to get it up into the attic, but it's just that we're trying to get the memory out of it.

but when Adam My buddy Adam Muffet who did the load calculation for me when he did the load calculation and the duck design. he did account for some compression when it comes to the Ducks But I'm going to try my best to pull it tight and you know, strap it up and everything. It's kind of a pain in the butt, you know. I don't do a lot of installs and stuff and I've never use these duck.

Saddles but I mean this is kind of what I'm doing. I'm folding over the nylon webbing stay St Ling it stapling it and then putting the duct saddle, trying to keep the duct as straight as possible as it goes into there. and then I'll pull the insulation back once we get it all duct sealed. but I'm trying to get this one supported because I have to bring in another duct underneath this to drop down back behind me all the way down in there, right right there at that boot.

so a little bit out of time, but it's working so good or pretty good so far. I'm keeping it pretty straight and everything. Some of this is kind of a challenge because I'm trying to support the duct work running that way right and I'm trying to make sure it's got Saddles under it. but unfortunately I've still got this old duct work here that I can't remove yet.

So I've got the top one supported with a saddle. the bottom one. we'll have to put a saddle. once we yank this out.

there'll be plenty of room and they both run over that way. I'm trying to remember that people are still going to have to come up here. I'd like to have the insulation replaced in my attic someday. So I'm running the duct work in a way that you know it's out of the way as much as possible.

So my plenum is going to be right in this area right here, somewhere around the existing Plum. So I'm just dropping all the Ducks right here. And because I'm not going to get to these for about a week or so, everything's capped. so we're not going to get dirt in the Ducks so we have plenty.

We'll trim it up. This flu pipe will be going that'll become I Think that's going to become a fresh air vent, but we'll route it another way so you can see the duct work coming that way and then we'll have much more room when we remove this guy. That's the one. I'm just kind of prepping everything.

You see the thermostat wires right here. See, like I said in the video, I ran two just for Giggles There's the power for the fan coil so we're getting closer and closer. Probably hard to hear me, but it's about to get real. I Got a froth pack and we're going to go up and we're going to, uh, insulate all the boots.

So I went up and I prepped everything. It's nice and warm in the Attic it says to use this above 75 ideally 8085. I've been having it sit in the sun I actually set it on top of the condenser while I was doing all the prep work. so it's going to be a trick to get up there and everything.

but I'm all suited up bit Overkill but I don't want to get that crap on me so let's get on it all. this is not anything I could film. um I sprayed the boots like crazy. The jackets are on.

You can kind of see that one over there. There's one over there too. It's kind of hard to see, but that was really difficult. so uh, we're going to let that cure.

um I followed all the instructions so I can still use more of the froth pack. but I I mean I'll if anything I'll just use it to seal up top, plates and stuff. There's not a whole lot left in it, but uh, we'll just leave it up in the attic cuz it'll stay nice and warm up in here so we're going to let that dry. I'm going to get down from the attic for today and then, uh, we'll come back up and uh, finalize some more work tomorrow tomorrow.

My plan is to measure for my plenum which is going to be way over here I Know it looks crazy right now, but I've just got a lot of flex shoved up here. um I'll end up cutting it, shortening it, straightening it even more I just kind of have it pre- ran. um, you know, temporarily until I Can you know, get everything 100% So we have, um, a stand to elevate the filter media, cab, media, whatever housing and then we have a transition to my fan coil. How do I want to seal this? Um I'm like questioning whether or not I should make C channel and like slide it on and then seal the outside with tape or should I just put a gasket in between screw it down cuz I can't.

Well I really don't want to put screws I guess I could. It's not going to make a difference, but I can put a gasket in there and then put a screw through here into here all the way around. what's going to be the best way? I mean that flange sounds like a really good idea to get a really good seal and then. but I mean it's not going to be removable.

But do you want it to be removable is the question? I'm so ready to get all this stuff out of my garage. It's just crazy in here right now. Okay, what I'm doing is I'm pulling the blower assembly and the coil out of the cabinet. That way it's easier for me to get the cabinet installed where it goes on the coil.

There was a secondary drain pan for uh cuz you could lay the unit on its side. We're going to take that out completely. There's no need for that. The only issue with taking that out is we have to make sure that these holes don't pop out when we take that out cuz they do stick out the side right there.

But yeah, we're eliminating that. One less thing to deal with. Um I Will say not a huge fan of how chaotic they leave the capillary for the external equalizer line and the sensing bulb for this spoiling expansion valve right here. Shame on you carrier because that's all potential leak sources right there.

so we'll make sure when we put it back in, we route everything nice and pretty. We'll also double check make sure that they've got sensing bulb. Yeah, it's nice and tight. It's strapped nice and good, so that's a good sign so that's cool.

Um, yeah. moving along, going to get ready to start mounting some uh, sheet metal to the coil and everything or to the cabinet? I Am going to put some tape on this metal tape. um, and then tape the seam and then we'll mastic it after. I Went ahead and hit it with some alcohol, wiped it down, got it nice and clean and dry trying to get the oils and stuff off of it now.

I'm going to tape it, we'll get the cap on it, we'll do the same to the cap and try to work our way through just trying to do a little bit at of time. here. It bothers me that these guys put their dang label all over this tape. so I used a tape knife, pushed it down, tried to get out most of the seams that I could got a nice clean Edge I'll clean this bottom up right here actually I probably won't Well, yeah, I will.

but um, then we'll get un tape the other side and I still plan on masing on this too. So we'll We'll do a clean edge with masking tape and then we'll mastic it nice and neat. put the cap on it at the end. I'm going to flip it over to the other side too.

And the level of my insanity. This tape I basically found the halfway mark so it's an inch and a quar right and I put inch and a quar. Sharpie So that way I can make sure that the tape goes straight. so I put little Sharpie marks the whole way down.

that way I can get a nice clean, straight line of tape I taped the seams. there's a little fudge spot right there, but I taped it with blue tape and then peeled back the blue tape so you get nice clean lines. I'm just going around I'll let that dry and then we'll go back and touch it up. I got it all up top too.

same thing looking nice my wife hvacr wife she doesn't get all excited about the clean lines like I do like look at how pretty that looks like oh my gosh, she's just like eh. she said she liked it better with just the tape on there like fuzz. now. Yeah, it's got fibers.

don't touch it. Those are fibers. Okay, it's all about air sealing. Look at that.

Clean lines. Nice. All right it is happening. I am getting ready to uh, recover all the gas out of my existing system I've just been letting it run to cool down the house for the little last bit of it, but it's going to be probably down for most of the weekend.

Uh, vacuuming down a recovery cylinder I got a freshy and uh, then we're going to recover the gas out of it and we're going to start cutting the old system out. Uh, like I said, it's going to be a a process over the weekend. It's uh, Friday October 13th at about 1:51 p.m. and I'm hoping to have this done by Sunday Let's hope at least running at least Still got some work to do.

still got lot lots of things to do. got a tie and piping all that good stuff. so let's get going all right. So I left it so that way it could Purge We're purged out.

We're going to zero out the scale. We're zeroed now. I Can open this completely open? just a look up power now. So we got this guy running.

Now it's pulling down. We're going to get all the refrigerant out of it then. I'm going to cut the lines now. I'm always thinking of the worst case scenario: I'm not going to chop the lines here right here until the new unit's hooked up and working, just in case we run into any problems or something.

I'll just cut it back that way. it's out of my way. Then we'll get this guy out of the way, get the new unit placed, and kind of go from there. Open this guy up.

Oh man. I'm going to miss my old trusty seat clamp holding my filter down. What am I going to do? So I'm going to try to make this as easy as possible. We're going to pull the blower assembly.

We're going to disconnect everything we can. We're going to pull the coil and then we'll worry about getting the furnace out of here. Get the blower assembly out. You can see that I was closing in all the wall cavities down in there.

Um, I Tried to do as much as I could. The only thing I didn't do was the bottom side of this roof deck because I probably am going to have to adjust it for the new unit. Got the coil? Cut Loose We got a little bit of oil dripping. That's fine, man.

they crammed this thing in here I don't even know if I can get this coil out. it's going to hit this. My gosh, they weren't thinking straight were they I think I can lean It Forward if I can get this drain pan off, maybe I can lean it forward and get it out. It's going to be tricky though.

That's absolutely insane that they fit that giant. I'm pretty sure if I remember right, it's 100,000 BTU furnace in there. good gosh. I don't know what they did to get that thing in there, but I was able to yank the furnace out.

So I'm going to get this outside and then, uh, we'll get on getting the fan cab or the coil cabinet out. Just kind of getting a test fit for what it's going to look like. media filter, fan coil. Just enough room to be able to slide it in and out I spaced it all that way and and then we get a plum going on the top of that.

I got to figure some things out here because my, uh, surge protector? yeah, I don't know where I'm going to put that unless I move everything over. There's not a whole lot of room right here. I guess I could push it if I push it back further. that's probably going to be the best bet is to push it back further.

I'll have to cut all that out. so my measurements were pretty good. Um, still. you know there was a few things that I didn't know I've still got to cut out the opening more on the base I got a new piece of plywood for that I I think I want to move it over to the right as far as I can and then to the back as far as possible because I have to have room for my uh, surge protector in here too.

but so far everything works out. it fits right at the top like I planned it and uh, that's going to come up another 3/4 of an inch if I set a piece of plywood on top of that I have to fill this so this is basically pushed back as far as I can go and that just opened up a crap ton of space. Um, I can actually get my head right in here and get back here. The plenum sits on top and it's flange so I'll be able ble to, uh, mastic tape it or something I haven't figured that out yet but I got to see how far back I can cut this I got to go into the attic I think I have this whole cavity right here and if that's the case, I'm going to cut it back here.

Shoot it up! I'm going to have to patch something right here I also got to get rid of all that crap, but by pushing it back I just gave myself a crap ton of space eventually. I'm going to get this gas line out of the wall, but this is going to be a pain in the butt and require two people because I got to shut off the gas to the house, bust this nipple off, leave the 90 on the wall, and then go on the roof and try to twist the gas line up there. But I'm not going to worry about that right now. I'll just get a cap for this.

um, by pushing it back back there if I can push it back that far I got room to mount a surge protector anywhere I want I can actually Slide the unit over just a little bit more I'm going to plug that hole right there. The line set in a perfect world is going to come down right right here, straight right here. I'll have uh, ball valves, dryer, sight glass and then it'll 90 like right in this area into the thing cuz I think it's right here I think is where the line sets out I can't remember. um, but yeah, there's there's actually a ton of space I just got to I had it pulled forward for the moment at this point.

I'm going to work on getting this plywood deck up so that way I could put a new sheet of plywood down with a proper opening. There's also some rot in the back that I've known about because I know from the previous owners of this house that there was a water leak years and years and years ago and it there's just damage from it so we're going to try to solve that. So what? I did I had already framed in all the plywood or all the the stud cavities or whatever and I set it up so that way I can put a sheet on the bottom too and then we'll seal it all off. That way we're not pulling from the stud cavities and we're only pulling from the returns and then we'll air seal it and everything.

But yeah, I just got to get in and move this framing around. Well now I'm really committed. Oh man. getting this plywood sheeting up without ripping out the drywalls? a pain in the butt.

but I got it all the way on those Corners all completely out I'm almost there. and uh, you know I've had this Hammer forever. It does really good. I don't do a lot of carpentry so you know it's just kind of used for everything, but it's a little too big for what I'm doing and it's kind of fun because I'm using my wife's little crappy tool set that she got years ago with this tiny, cute little Hammer because it fits into the tiniest spots to get the nails right under the drywall.

Go figure. Thank goodness for those cheapy. Dollar Store tool sets right? Just don't use them for anything heavy cuz the damn Hammerhead will break off the stick handle whatever you want to call it. Whatever you do, do not tell my wife HCR wife that I'm using her Dyson to vacuum up all this crap.

but but it's a pretty cool vacuum. it works good. So from the looks of it all I need to do now is pull out this nail. this nail, this nail and this nail and this whole assembly will pull out and then I'll be able to reframe where I want it to be pulled out this side board so I can get a new one in the back right there because that was the one that had rotted out.

Put that in, then I'll put this back in and then we'll start working on a platform and framing it up. So I put a piece of 3/4 or 7/8 plywood down so we've got real stability now. I can set my equipment on here and then get an idea where the holes need to be cut and then once I'm 100% sure where the holes need to be cut, then I'll pull this out, cut it, and then frame underneath it. That's it.

Now it's time for the HVAC overtime show cuz it's Friday evening about 5:30 so jump in the shower and then get on the show at 6:05 p.m. Pacific Well we survived a night without air conditioning. We're babies over here. Um um, it got pretty chilly last night.

It got down to like probably 55 60 something like that. So it's uh, breakfast time having my coffee and going to get started on the working right now. Probably going to regret this, but this popcorn texture is going to create a problem when it comes to patching the ceiling. So I'm going to go ahead and quickly take off the popcorn texture just a spray, bottle water and a uh, putty knife and scrape it off, clean it up, and then proceed forward.

My thing is is that once I start something I just go crazy and start going nuts with everything. So I ended up pulling the whole drywall out of the ceiling because I was sitting here thinking how I was going to patch it and it's just not going to happen I can just put up one whole sheet of drywall and be done with it. but I did knock down the popcorn texture on the walls so we're good on that now. I just need to go get some drywall.

I Got to pull these nails out of this wood, put a piece of wood in the back to frame it. so that way the drywall has something to stick to and then, uh, we've got everything in the front and all that. that'll be good. All right.

First test fit, got the plum up there. So now what I'm going to do is I'm going to find exactly where I want it to be Mark the hole on the bottom. so I know where to cut the wood and then measure out for the drywall. because I'm going to put a piece of drywall around the plenum.

It's going to be tricky. It's going to be very interesting how this is all going to pan out, but it'll just take some time I want to do it right? I don't want to take shortcuts so all right at this point I got the whole platform framed on the top and the bottom. I went ahead and framed it on the bottom to and I'll seal it and everything. so then we'll air seal it, the concrete and everything.

so that way it's completely sealed. We'll seal all this up here. and I need to go ahead and cut my drywall so let's see how much I mess this up because yeah, Drywall and me? You know we not the greatest friends. So the odds that this fits in here? What are the odds? All right fits there.

That's a plus. Holy crap. I Measured right? Wow. I'm impressed with myself.

Cool all right now. I Got to cut out the square for the freaking duck to go through through it. That's going to be the hard part, but we know this fits so that's perfect. Platform's all finished, both sides, all the way underneath.

Still got to seal it, but it's all finished. Got in here. Uh, pulled down all the drywall and just put a whole new piece up there. Cut a perfect hole that way.

it's nice and airtight. Uh. cocked it. I'm not going to go crazy in here so I Just cocked around the corner of the drywall made sure there's plenty of screws, threw some texture on it.

I'll paint it later. Um, yeah. I knocked down most of the popcorn finish in here. There's like a little bit right here, but I'm not worried about that again.

this is never going to be seen. Yeah, so we're about ready I need to get a cap for that and as soon as this texture dries, we're going to shove the duct up there and then set the equipment all right. All right. come on in.

Okay, it's going to want to turn on you. You don't want it to turn. You want it to just kind of be right there. all right now.

Hold on just a second though, because I don't know if that's going to work. Try to see if you can hold it just from this side holding the back. Hold this side right here. no left hand right there.

That hand right there. There you go. because if I slide a unit in here, it's going to push right in here. Okay, Are you okay? Don't look up.

Okay. Are you okay? Yeah on. just let me go get the unit. It's like bending out.

It's okay. just hang on. Oh, this is fun. What's that I said.

this is fun. Thank you. There you go. Okay, you okay for a moment my eyeball you okay for a moment.

All right strong. Mom right We go. You okay kind. SL it down slowly, push the back up there.

There you all right? There you go. All right. You're good. You let it go one out and that is uh, teamw work.

five Say so. High Five Did it. High five. We did it.

Thank you. All right. we are pretty much set. It looks crooked, but it's level.

What it is is all these wires that are holding the insulation in the unit are throwing me off. So I put a Neo gasket down on the bottom. Um I used that because the unit. when I when I set it on the platform, it kind of was Topsy Turvy Kind of like the platform was bowing a little bit.

So the idea of using the Neo gasket is that I can put screws down and tighten them down at different levels while it's still maintaining a seal because of the neopren gasket if that makes sense. Um so now I just need to make sure everything's good. What I was just doing right now was getting in here because you can see the plenum and the liner that you're looking at right now was on the outside of this piece right here. So I had to shove the liner in.

so that way it's on the inside so it is all the way around so that's good and then now I just need to secure this down right here and tape it and then secure the plenum down to the unit and tape it and then secure this down. so that's what I'm working on now, but the cabinet's all sealed I cocked all the seams in the corner again I don't This isn't going to be perfect in here I might paint it later, but I'm not stressing this right I just wanted it to be no more popcorn texture and you could see. my hole is like awesome I went about a/ inch bigger than what needed to be because I can spray foam it on the top. um I wanted to make sure I had a little bit of wiggle room back and forth, but I mean it's nice and snug all the way around.

same thing on the back. it was very tricky. Um what I did was I went in here and I taped this seam very meticulously all the way around. got the tape on the bottom side of it too and made sure it's nice and tight all the way around.

So we sealed it here and then I went all the way around the side too and even around the back. Now the back was a pain in the butt. I had to get my tiny daughter. it was a thing, but we got that all taped too now Uh yeah, so we're just going to keep on moving.

I Got in here I Sealed everything all along the sides. Nice and clean. Lines all over here. Nice clean.

screwed it down to the platform. Got up here, sealed all this all the way. The tape, getting the tape, and the duct sealer on the back was a nightmare. but we're good.

um This Guy's in now I'm going to go up into the attic and start tapping into the plum now. it's just a matter of uh, cutting in the holes with the start collar, screwing them in, pooking them, you know? Pooky this duct tape all that good stuff Panduit straps um I'm also getting in here and kind of pooking the inside right here to keep that insulation from, you know, blowing out and stuff and then also I kind of try to get some Pooky or duck sealer in there too. um I'm definitely going to have to like loosen some Saddles cuz that one's kind of making a p in but I'll be able to deal with that I'm just getting them all lined up. uh I'm not pulling the insulation over because we want to let the duck sealer completely dry before we get the insulation over.

That way we know we've got nice tight seals. so I always save these These are from uh, dual pressure controls Regular pressure controls. These things are awesome as brackets. So I've got my electrical disconnect I ended up moving it here and then my surge protector.

I'm putting one of these behind it too to secure it. So these things are awesome. Always save these things. thermost w Wi junction box and I went around and I siliconed all the penetrations to try to keep the cabinet as airtight as possible.

I just got to hook up the thermostat I've already got the condensing unit wiring hooked up here um, trying to clean it up as best as possible and then, uh, get to the piping. As far as drilling the line set up, what I'm doing is I put Unistrut on the wall and then I just took a piece of insulation and pushed it up. So that way I get an idea and I'll Trace around it, drill a tiny pilot hole in the center and make sure that we're clear up top to bring the line straight down right through there if it all works the way. I want it to a all right.

So we we Zoom lock, maxed the catchall the ball valves, the SE all sight glass. um, we press those on. Okay, but we still have to braze these connections right here. So I've got nitrogen flowing through the system I Utilizing one of the ball valves that I installed I put some of the Viper wet rag heat blocking Compound on the back side and the front side to protect everything holding back the insulation and we're going to braze these up real quick, hopefully without causing a problem.

So a well what? Welcome to my office! Got my bag full of stuff I Love that little bag! uh veto CT XL got it from True Tech Tools I Load that thing with all kinds of stuff. Uh, check it out if you like what True Tech Tools has I have an offer code. Big picture one word: use that offer code. You get a discount on checkout on majority of the items on their website.

There's a few things that doesn't apply on, but if you use that, you'll get an 8% discount for the veto bag. Um, and then I get a small commission from it. so uh, I still got to foam these and stuff but I'm not worried about that yet right now. I Got my line set right here.

so suction, liquid or liquid and Vapor line I guess you should call it so I just need to slide onto those and then connect to right there. shouldn't be too bad. Got some copper and stuff so I'm going to get to it all right at this point. Um, I've got the line set all pressed in the Attic insulated electrical all done at the fan coil inside, everything done there.

So now we need to hook up the new condensing unit. So I'm going to get the old one out of here I already recovered the gas the other day. helps if you turn your oxygen on. So we've got the final braze joints right now.

actually I'm going to braze and press cuz I don't want to deal with uh I don't have a cou and I don't want to deal with saging it so it's no big deal without pling of press fittings. I've got the Viper wet rag blocking the heat from the valve itself and we are purging with nitrogen. Okay, so I already cleaned all these fittings and they're good to go. So now we just need to, uh put them together There we go.

All right. So going to put that right there? that one's pressed there. We go there. We are nice and good.

All right. we are good to run a pressure test now. My whole entire house looks like this. There's stuff everywhere I mean I've been trying to clean up, but it has been a long weekend to say the least.

So I got the uh vacuum pump running on the system. um, waiting for it to uh, start registering. We're doing a one hose pull right now. so uh, give it some time and I'm going to start doing the electrical now.

Uh, pull the vacuum. It all went good. um I'm just finalizing the thermostat wire I've got to dress this up I'll strap the conduits together and make them look pretty later. um, evacuation turned out really good.

We passed the Decay test. the final vacuum was 336 microns and uh, it did really good. So uh I'm going to get the control wiring figured out real quick. Once we get the control wiring figured out, then we'll get uh, some gauges on it and get ready to open up the service valves.

All right, it's a Family Affair I Had my daughter help clean out the return cabinet, had my wife put on the return grills um thermostats in place I just got done doing the condensate drain put uh AC Easy's on here. super easy to blow out the drains and stuff and see I put in a bunch of them so those are really nice. Um I got this clear trap um from Supplyhouse.com Actually it's just the clear part so you can make your own so that was pretty cool. Um yeah, everything is looking good I just need to go out and uh, change the breaker.

See, my entire garage is a giant dumpster fire of stuff going on from this project. It's like 8 or 9:00 at night so I already got the cover off the breaker panel and the existing AC breaker is a 40 amp and we're putting in a 25 amp. So I already got the fan coil right here. Did that a long time ago.

so now we just need to swap over this breaker right here. Um I Had ordered these a while back so I got a 25 amp right here. So this is a really big one. two three.

please don't blow up. Let's see what happens. Okay, the ICM starting up. see if it measures the remaining 237.

this thing starting up. Now let's go inside and start up the inside unit. Okay, I got the inside unit. Give it a second for the ICM to start up.

There it goes and it's like we've got a display. So now I've got to program everything it's searching. doesn't have a heater? It's just like figuring itself out. None.

So I got to go through and just follow all the steps. All right. For whatever reason. I Couldn't connect with my phone, but it's now gone through a couple tests.

It asked me a few questions. Now it's doing an air flow verification test. So it's running the indoor blower motor. so we're just going through the steps.

that's a trip. Look at that static pressure 24. That's pretty epic. All right.

Now it's time to go open the Service valves. It's very interesting this whole charging process. So basically I have to wait 25 minutes for it to stabilize before I can start adding gas and it's running it at a fixed low speed right now. Um, we do have a temperature differential but yeah, very interesting.

So um it said says that once I meet the once the timer stops then I charge to 6 subcooling. We're currently at 1 right now, but it's running in very low speed on the indoor fan too. So very interesting and for whatever reason I can't get my phone to connect to I don't know if I need to update something or what, but all right it is the next day. it was super late last night I got it up and running but I wanted to check the charge again to make sure because it was starting to get kind of cold.

They say that they don't want you charging below 65. I was right at 65 degrees last night like at 11:15 1120 when I was charging this thing up so wanted to make sure everything was okay. Um, went ahead and just double checked everything went through the steps. Uh Target sub cooling is 5.8 de and we are right there It is throttling 5.76 right in that area.

Okay, so I'm happy with that. We're good to go now. I'm not done with with this job, but it's running and it's charged. Okay, there's lots of things that I still need to figure out.

Lots of loose ends that I have to tie up. There'll be plenty more videos coming like uh, there's still some insulation that I need to seal up out here I already sealed in the Attic but I didn't seal up out here. Got to get a clamp on this guy. Uh, still got to program the surge protectors but we are operating.

We are running. Still got to cut off that old line set. seal that up. I'm pretty happy with the way things turned out, especially for doing it all by myself using my wife for her muscles and lifting and then uh, having my buddy Adam when I should say do it all by myself doing the work by myself, having my buddy Adam muffit help me with the design, the duck design and everything.

and then I did all the physical work and like I said, my wife helped me lift. You know we're a good team. we kind of get things going. couple things I still got to figure out uh still got to balance the system airf flow still got to uh uh, figure out how to connect to the service technician app via Bluetooth cuz I can't get connected it says not registered so maybe I need to register the product first or something so I'll look into that.

Um, but we are running I got to get a better uh reading for my energy monitor because uh, my energy monitor was only monitoring 115 volt furnace uh leg and now I've got a 208 volt uh fan coil so I still got to do that. Um, let's go take a look inside and see what's going on in there. So I'm still going to be patching up the old registers I just have the dampers close for now which is not ideal, but it'll work okay. um.

air flow super quiet? okay? uh I'm in the charging mode right now. You can see it's calling for 5.8 de sub cooling at the valve I Landed with the thermostat right there. Tried to seal everything as best as possible possible. We come into the cabinet in here.

you guys can see the drain line I Already showed these earlier but with the AC E's those are really awesome being able to have that Still got to cap that old gas line. Plenty of room you can see I Got a moisture indicator right here. also acts as a liquid indicator, but it doesn't mean a whole lot on a variable capacity residential system. It's more or less a moisture indicator letting us know if we have any moisture in the system.

We've got ball valves valving off the dryer if I ever needed to change the dryer I used Zoom Lock Max ball valves you guys kind of saw Zoom Lock Max see all sight glass still got to seal that insulation disconnect switch right here. surge protector right there uh I Got in the Attic today and spray foam all around the plenum to seal off the uh to air seal. basically this cabinet because this cabinet's completely air sealed now since I cut out the combustion air vent, the uh, fresh air vent and everything in here. we uh we sealed all that off, put new drywall up.

so this is a completely airtight cabinet. Um, still going to replace that receptacle cuz it was getting really difficult to pull the furnace plug out. We still have that to use if we need to. Uh, this was my old doorbell I'm going to figure out something with that, but I am very very happy with everything.

Looks like I'm missing a screw right there. so I got to get that figured out. But I'm just super stoked This thing is so quiet. Got my large media filter right there.

Super awesome so that is it for this one. Stay tuned. There's going to be more commissioning videos once I'm dialing in the air balancing and all that good stuff. but I am super ecstatic to have this system running and uh now I can relax and uh, kind of research some more and have some more fun.

Boy, my head is still spinning from this install now. I'd been planning this mind you, this has taken me what 8 months. Okay, okay but here's the thing. people are like oh my gosh, it took you that long to change your air conditioner but I wasn't in a hurry.

it's my own house I had no pressure from anybody other than myself I was the biggest influence of pressure and I wanted to take my time and I'm still not done. This literally was just the main system change over. Okay, we haven't addressed uh, air balancing. We haven't addressed a full commissioning yet.

We haven't addressed sealing up the return air cabinet like there's so many things that's going to happen. We haven't addressed fresh air. Uh, there is a lot going on. this was just the initial install.

Uh, it was exhausting I tried to do everything that I could but I did it all myself. I had my wife come in and help me with the part that you saw where I had her hold the plenum up I had my daughter come in and help me with some taping things because she has small little arms and she could fit behind the fan coil but you know that's why is cuz I was just taking my time and you know I know I could have asked people for help but I really didn't didn't want it because sometimes I just like doing things by myself right on a job like this. where I know that I'm going to want everything to be done a certain way, especially on my own home, right and be super meticulous about things I had fun doing this. it was exhausting but I had fun.

So the course of this video takes place over Friday Saturday Sunday and about half a day maybe 3/4 of the day on Monday Okay, I had the equipment up and running by about what 11:15 11:20 p.m. on Sunday uh and then Monday literally I spent cleaning my van kind of getting some of the tools out of my garage I still haven't even cleaned my sidey and it's been like a week and a half two weeks. It has been a whirlwind for me, been super busy at work and then on top of that I had to fly out to Uh Atlanta to go do some work with a good partner of mine Heatcraft Refrigeration and so I actually literally just got back from Heatcraft Refrigeration last night. uh, it's currently October 26th of 2023 right now.

um as I'm filming this point right now I'm sure this video is not going to post until a couple days later, but but this was a uh, this broke me this job. This really did break me I really should have used some help, but I'm kind of glad that I didn't because again it was just the experience of going through it all I realized that that some of the things that the tendencies that I have to like over focus on hyperfocus on some like weird things like taping my line straight you know and things like that but then other times it's like eh. you know my brain just works in mysterious ways but you know uh I didn't plan on doing new drywall the the the top lid of the closet I didn't plan on scraping all the popcorn texture off, but you know there was only so much I could do before I pulled the equipment out and then once I pulled it out it was like yeah, this is going to bug me. This is going to drive me nuts.

It's going to make it impossible to paint in here in the future. so we're going to town now. There's a lot of work to be done. A a lot of work.

Uh, pretty confident that I'm going to have to make that closet part of the system I'm going to cuz right now it doesn't really breathe very well inside that closet. So I think that can lead to some issues. So we're going to have to bring um, something in there, some sort of ventilation or something into the closet. We still got to bring fresh air into the house.

That's going to be a whole another project. Um, still got to bring uh, pressure relief Ducks okay into the house too because each bedroom is technically over pressurizing at the moment because we don't have a proper return path um, from each room. So we're definitely going to be doing that. We're going to be um, doing more of, a, uh, just just a lot more stuff.

This is going to be an ongoing process, but this was insanely crazy. Still have some issues, right? Uh, for whatever reason I don't know if there's a board that's bad inside the the the heat pump condensing unit or or what, but I can't connect to the condensing unit with my smartphone app using the service technician app. Now what I mean by that? There's two different apps that you can utilize to connect to this equipment. You can use the homeowner facing consumer facing app which is like carrier home I think or something right? I have full connection to that that connects to the system.

Looks at everything that works fine, but the Service Technician app I've yet to be able to connect to that. so I don't know if I'm doing something wrong. Uh I have no idea I've never installed a piece of this equipment, haven't had an opportunity to make any phone calls or do much research just because I've been so busy. Definitely got to work on that.

Uh, but overall I was pretty happy with everything I really am I'm sure I'm absolutely sure I'm going to change things I'm absolutely sure I'm going to find problems I'm absolutely sure that this is going to be an ongoing process. This whole video series was me learning. Okay, I've installed Res Residential equipment I've never done a legit 100% Well, let's just say I Let's let's not say I'm 100% proper on this job. Let's say maybe 90 to 95% proper.

As far as following the rules and doing things the way that I think I should be doing them. Um, you know I there was a lot of effort. This was a team effort. My one of my best friends Adam Muffet was the person that helped me with the design.

Okay, so he helped me to size the equipment, design the duck system. Come up with that. Now you know in a perfect world. Okay I know I'm going to get all the flex duct haters in a perfect world I Did you know rigid duct the entire way? But that's just something that I decided not to do.

We went with Flex Duct I may change that in the future. It's okay, right? I Don't understand the apprehension out there where people are like you're a hack if you use flex duct. so be it if it works, it works. If it doesn't it doesn't it's you know, like we don't need to have this contentious I Don't know if that's the right word, but we don't need to have this this argument about it like it's my own house.

If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. But so far it's working great. but I still have yet to commission the system. One thing I will say is that I did do a very rough and dirty uh CFM measurement using a very highly accurate powered Flo Hood The Ace and two Flo Hood okay uh, distributed by Retro Tech and you're going to see a bunch more stuff too.

As I'm doing the commissioning right, we're going to do duck Blaster testing. We're going to test for leakage. We're going to do a full Comming on the system. But one thing I will say spoiler is that the measured air flow does not equal the delivered air flow out of the supply registers is not equal to what the Uh infinity thermostat says that it is.

The infinity thermostat says we have 850 Cfms being delivered now I'm measuring well over a th000 Cfms being delivered. but in talking with a few people, it kind of makes sense because someone told me and I I may be correct I haven't done the resear SE Arch myself. but it totally makes logical sense is the lower you go with your total external static away from the design conditions of the equipment, not of the system, but the equipment right Because we did a load calculation on the house we designed it at. you know I don't remember what our design total external static pressure was, but um, you know the lower you go away from the 050 total external static or whatever the equipment is meant to operate with, the less accurate the Uh CFM measurements on the thermostat R Now I don't know that to be completely true, but it sounds logically sane to me.

It really does. Uh, you know because there is no static pressure sensors in this system. all they have is an ECM motor and a couple circuit boards and so they're backwards calculating CFM based off of the current draw and the operating conditions of the existing ECM motor. So if this system was, let's just say designed to operate or manufactured to operate with 05 in of static, it would make sense to me that as I go lower than 0.5 in of static because of my duct design and everything that theoretically the Uh calculations and the airflow measurements that the thermostat thinks it's going to be operating at may not be as accurate that that logically makes sense.

we'll have to see. So there's a lot more stuff to talk about. This basically Was The removal of my existing equipment right? the installation of the new equipment, the rebuilding of my mechanical closet, the installation, and you know, quick startup of my equipment and it is operating now. Some things that I will say that I am completely satisfied with is the noise of the system.

It is insanely quiet. In fact, my family is not satisfied with that at all. We have white noise generators in every room now because we've lived in this house for nine. Whatever years it is.

and uh, you know we were so used to that fan noise from. you know, the big pressure drop that we had across my system because it was massively oversized with an undersized duck system with an undersized horrible return air? Grill Um, you know. So there was a lot of things that we got used to that. Now it's whisper quiet in my house.

Okay, it is amazing. Um the Uh Zoom lock Max press fittings. Oh my gosh, everybody out there a good majority of the people I should say were saying oh my gosh, it's going to leak I Mean we passed an amazing pressure test. We passed an amazing uh Decay test on the vacuum.

No leaks, no leaks install. Oh, but you know I know the haters out there. Yeah, but it won't last a year. Okay, well then once it lasts year, they'll say it won't last two years.

Okay, once it last two years, it won't last three years, you know, or they'll say, well, my braze joints will last 40 years. Okay, but is a system going to last 40 years? You know that look time will tell. but I trust the Zoomlock max fittings I trust the Press fittings I used them on on my own house I was not paid to use those fittings on my house. Yes, Spand does sponsor my my videos and stuff but they didn't pay me to use their fittings.

Okay, um, no they didn't I chose to use them and I us them in conjunction with brazing. I'm never going to stop brazing completely. No Okay, I'm logical here I could have cut the end bells off my uh, fan coil and I could have cut the end bells off the condensing unit and put a press fitting on there. But why that seemed a little counterintuitive to me.

I'd rather just go ahead and braze those fittings than press everything else I pressed where it was convenient when I was installing the ball valves and the dryers. and the sight glass of which I'm sure people think I'm Overkill but why not? You know it's fun for me. Why did I run my equipment line sets on Unistrut and try to go straight? It's just the commercial service technician to me. I Had fun I wanted to.

Why not right? You know, who cares? Yeah, it's Overkill who cares I don't care. You know what it it was I had fun with this project and it's awesome. But you know I trust those fittings and when I was putting the the dryer and the ball valve and the SE all sight glass up against the wall I was thinking man, you know I could braze against the wall I could but it seemed a little bit more difficult where I could just press right at those fittings. Now you know again, I try to be as practical as possible and I don't judge other people for the products and the tools that they use to each their own.

For me I like those press fittings now I prefer when I can to go ahead and bend a 90 and use couplings for the Press fittings. that's my preference. Okay, no judgment against people that use you know uh, 90s for their press 90s? That's fine. no big deal.

Okay I have fun bending copper. Uh, it. to me it's it's kind of an art and and I have a lot of fun doing it. So I did I analed the pipe I bent the pipe I You know, like I I had a lot of fun doing that.

So I used the Press fittings in places is where it was practical and made sense to me. You know, up in the attic when I didn't want to drag my oxy acetylene torch kit up there? Okay, cool. You know that was fun so it is what it is right? But I really really had a lot of fun with this project and stay tuned again. there's going to be a lot more to follow.

We got to do a lot of testing. Um, you know a lot of commissioning for this system. We got to figure some things out so stay tuned. More videos to follow.

if you haven't watched all the videos. definitely go back. Uh, in the cards there should have been something that popped sub down in the show notes is going to be a link to the playlist and it's You know there's a whole series of videos so thank you so very much for making it to the end. Remember, if you haven't already, please consider checking out my website: Hvacr Videos.com Merchandise available as usual on there hats, beanies, sweaters, all that good stuff.

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