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Contents
Home Performance Report
Thank you for having us to your home for a home performance assessment. I hope that it was beneficial. We learned a lot about your home and your goals during the brief visit. So, let’s jump in to some of the things discovered.
Below is a summary of your goals, house measurements, and our budget discussion as well as my observations and some recommendations. As part of the service we ran load calculations that help determine the right sized HVAC for your home as it stand and with some upgrades. Those are attached as are bids for replacements.
Once you read the report you’ll have 3 options: do nothing, pick and choose upgrades, or do more planning for more difficult goals or complex projects. These options are discussed at the end of the report as well as our leanings for your home.
\goalsimage
Your goals:
- Add air conditioning.
How Leaky Is Your House
One of the main objectives was to perform a blower door test and load calculations for the home. We discovered that the blower door number was {{ home.cfm50 }} CFM50 for the approximately {{ home.square_feet }} \squarefoot ({{ home.lair }} LAIR). A leaky home, most often, is an uncomfortable and uncontrollable home.
Air leakage tends to have one of the largest impacts on the load of a home.
- Around 1:1 homes begin to be more controllable / comfortable
- your home is {{ home.cfm50 }}:{{ home.square_feet }} \squarefoot for a ratio of {{ home.lair }}
- Leaky homes are very difficult to maintain comfort with HVAC alone.
Observations
The below sections are observations about the current HVAC system and the home.
HVAC Observations
- Current furnace is sized appropriately based on the load of the home.
- Current duct system is not sized adequately for the system.
- Filter is too small for the system.
- Return sizing is not adequate.
- Supply sizing is marginal.
- Current static pressure is already high.
- These problems may become worse when AC is installed.
Home Observations
- The house leakage is high for the size of the home.
- May be hard to control comfort without shell improvements.
Load Calculations
Several load-calculations were performed on your home to determine the proper equipment sizing for this application. Below is a comparison of the load-calculations with the current air leakage and several improved air leakage targets.
Your Loads
| CFM50 | Heating Total | Cooling Total | SHR | LAIR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| {{ home.cfm50 }} | Current | 55,102 | 20,726 | 0.79 | {{ home.lair }} |
| 2,000 | 40,320 | 17,279 | 0.85 | 1.5:1 | |
| 1,350 | 35,885 | 16,245 | 0.88 | 1:1 |
Note:
- The lower the heating and cooling total's the better.
- An undersized air conditioner is better than an oversized one.
- Supplemental dehumidification may be required for SHR's below 0.83.
The above table shows the relationship between air leakage and the amount of heating and cooling that is required for the home. A tight home is easier to control the comfort levels, offers superior IAQ levels, and lower utility costs.
The projected cooling size required for your home is around 2-Tons for the current leakage rate, or 1.5-Tons if shell improvements were made.
[Here is a link to your load calculation reports][loads-folder]
Airflow Assessment
While on site, we also measured the total system airflow and static pressure of the system. Static pressure is equivalent to the blood pressure of your system and gives us a better understanding of the overall ability for the system to provide the proper amount of airflow, as well as how much it may struggle to do so.
Static pressure is the amount of resistance that the blower has to work against in order to move air through the system. Things that have an effect on the static pressure of the system include, air filters (size and type), duct sizes, amount of ducts, length of ducts, duct fittings and transitions, as well as internal system components. Each component of the system has a resistance associated with it that the blower has to overcome, by taking some key measurements we are able to determine the TESP of the system. While there are several static pressures in the system, when we talk about static pressure we are generally referring to TESP.
Static pressure (TESP) has a range of low, acceptable, or high. While these numbers are specific to the actual equipment, most manufacturers follow similar standards. For the sake of simplicity, 0.5" wc or under is an acceptable target, 0.8" wc is generally the max acceptable static pressure (although we like to stay well below this if possible), and above 0.8" wc is considered high and should be addressed. Low is generally not common and is rarely problematic, so it is not focused on much.
\newpage
Your Static Measurements
![True Flow Report][trueflow-image]{ height=50% }
The above image is a snapshot of the static pressures recorded for your system. This shows that the static pressure of your system is very high (1.114" wc). The primary culprits for the high static pressure are that the filter is undersized for the airflow required and the return duct sizing is small.
These measurements were taken in the heating mode because your system does not currently have air conditioning. Currently the heating airflow is on the low side for what is required for your system (1200 CFM would be ideal). This should be adjusted if possible during the install to get better performance and efficiency out of the system, given that some static pressures can be improved during the project.
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[Here is a link to the full airflow report.][trueflow-file]
\newpage
Static Measurements Forecast
![True Flow Forecast][trueflow-forecast-image]{ height=50% }
The above image is a snapshot is of a forecast of the static pressures after adding air conditioning. It should be noted that these measurements are based solely on the airflow required for cooling mode, not for heating mode (in other words, heating mode is going to be higher because the airflow requirement is higher).
This shows that with an upgraded filter we can get the static pressure below the 0.8" wc max target while in cooling mode.
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[Here is a link to the full forecast report.][trueflow-forecast-file]
Summary
The purpose of the home performance assessment is to help find the overlap between the house needs, the goals, and the budget to see if there's a viable project.
The house is pretty leaky overall. This is due to the age and construction style of the house. This may lead to comfort problems or trouble maintaining comfort in all areas of the house.
Based on the load calculations, the previously quoted systems are too large for the current load, so we need to update the proposals to be for 2-Ton systems. This will help with the fact that the static pressure of the system is already really high. The static pressure for heating will likely still be above the 0.8" wc max threshold.
An upgraded air filter is going to be required to help alleviate the blower motor. Another return may be required in the living space to further drop the static pressure, however this could likely be done in the future if desired. I would estimate that adding another return would be in the $800-1,200 range.
While on site it was mentioned that you would like some of the ducts to be sealed that go to the second floor. This is something that is not included in our general proposals. I would estimate this to be an additional $150-300 and will add options in the updated proposals.
Since the goal is to add air conditioning, then I would recommend going with a 2-Ton system. If the system does not maintain then you could look into shell improvements and air sealing the home.
Regards,
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[Here is a link to all the documents][document-folder]
[trueflow-image]: "{{ links.images.trueflow }}"
[trueflow-forecast-image]: "{{ links.images.trueflow_forecast }}"
[loads-folder]: "{{ links.documents.loads_folder }}" [trueflow-file]: "{{ links.documents.trueflow_file }}" [trueflow-forecast-file]: "{{ links.documents.trueflow_forecast_file }}" [document-folder]: "{{ links.documents.document_folder }}"