Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days

[pclausen]

That's it!
I originally had one of the genius multiple speed outdoor DC compressor units, that really did sound like a Trane or a Rolls Royce jet engine as it varied it's speed up and down. It lasted 16 years before the shuttle valve froze up. That's 14 years longer than most of that design. The new unit we replaced it with a couple years ago for the main part of the house has 2 single speed compressors and is very quiet. The second compressor only runs when the weather is real extreme, so it is much more efficient than the old one, which was supposed to be the best in the industry at the time, but proved to be a dud. Of course the freon type had changed in the meantime so new piping and a new inside unit was the best way to go. That's when we put in the fancy air cleaner. It was part of their rebate promotion at the time.

Lol, that sounds similar to what I just went through and I in fact replaced with what I think is the exact same system you have. My old system was from when my house was built in 1997, so it lasted 16 years before the furnace finally gave out.

My new system is a fully communicating one (Trane XL20i 4ton heat pump, Trane TAM8 air handler, Trane Clean Effects air filter and Trane XL950 thermostat). The heat pump contains a 2ton and a 4ton compressor and will try to get away with only running the 2ton as much as possible. Unlike dual stage heat pumps, which still consume 80% power at stage 1, the system with 2 compressors truly only uses 50% at stage 1. In total, it has 5 stages of heating (2ton hp, 4ton hp, 5kw aux, 10kw aux, 15kw aux). Thermostat is pretty cool. Here's a good representation showing all 5 heat stages usage history over a week:

Indoor setup:

Outdoor unit. Makes the 1.5 ton Carrier for the upstairs look tiny in comparison. (that dark oily spot on the Carrier is from when the coil blew out the 2nd time in as many years)

We actually considered a ground based (geo thermal) system for mom's house, but at 1500 sq. ft. the ROI just wasn't there. That was also the reason for not going with a 20 SEER heat pump. 16 SEER seemed like the sweet spot.

I used those 3M Filtrete filters in the return on my old system, and the guys over at hvac-talk warned be big time about using those as they get very restrictive very fast, and your efficiency goes down the drain. Since my system is only a couple of months old, I have not yet had to clean my new electronic filter, but will do so over the next 30 days. Being communicating, the thermostat will tell me when the filter needs to be cleaned.

Anyway, back to mom's build. It looks like the trusses are only 1.5 weeks out now!

 

[pacerron]

I used those 3M Filtrete filters in the return on my old system, and the guys over at hvac-talk warned be big time about using those as they get very restrictive very fast, and your efficiency goes down the drain. Since my system is only a couple of months old, I have not yet had to clean my new electronic filter, but will do so over the next 30 days. Being communicating, the thermostat will tell me when the filter needs to be cleaned.

I guess so, my thermo has never alarmed and the little scale on the side of the unit has never gone beyond half way before I checked it. But seeing is believing. It only takes a few seconds to unplug it and take the cover off to see.
My unit is on the down side of the cold air return instead of under the cabinet like yours so mine has to catch it all or pass some thru. I can envision dust falling off your prefilter which would be on the bottom, in your installation, and dropping into the pan. Nothing wrong with that. You can always vac the pan with the filters out. Over half our house has tile floors so not much carpet here to catch the dust.
I hope you have dry weather for a couple weeks until you get the doors and windows in and the roofing on. I hate seeing homes under construction getting soaked before the outer skin is on. Ron

 

[architect]

Just found this, great documentation.
Just a comment on building insulation, I can not tell from drawings/ building section you posted, I assume 2x6 walls, more based on Code requirements today. Please do not use fiberglass batts, best is open or closed cell foam, next is celulose, mineral fiber (roxul or thermafiber) or last 1" spray of closed cell foam with batt of fiberglass or mineral wool or celulose. Rigid on exterior is also great. Fiberglass wrote the rules, notice that R value is at 75 deg. at 0 deg. is worth less than 1/2 the value.
Good reference is Home | EnergywiseEnergywise | Guaranteed Energy Saving Building Solutions
I, as you could guess from my 'name' have been doing architecture for 38 years, my 5200 sq.ft. house uses as much gas to heat as a house we just bought for our daughter, 1200 sq.ft. currently unoccupied and thermostat set at 52 deg. (we are retrofitting insulation, plumbing heating etc.)
The best option if the price was for fiberglass batt is the $2000.00 option of sealing house with 1" closed cell spray prior to putting in batts. Watch ceiling penetrations like can light fixtures, best would be blown in cellulose.

 

[SPIKER]

I have not used any of this companies product but read somewhere they have the highest efficiency systems on market now. this is based on several web sites so take it as a note of look for yourself...

WaterFurnace - Smarter from the Ground Up™

interesting products though I'm not installing any new systems but they will be near top of my list..

Mark

 

[dstig1]

I used those 3M Filtrete filters in the return on my old system, and the guys over at hvac-talk warned be big time about using those as they get very restrictive very fast, and your efficiency goes down the drain. Since my system is only a couple of months old, I have not yet had to clean my new electronic filter, but will do so over the next 30 days. Being communicating, the thermostat will tell me when the filter needs to be cleaned.

They get restrictive because they are working. If you don't filter out any dust, then your filter will never plug up. And if it doesn't filter out dust, then why even have one? If you are regular with changing filters, then using good quality filters (...that actually do something...) is a good idea to take out a lot of recirculating dust. I doubt you would see a drop off in total system efficiency that quickly, but I certainly haven't measured it or looked up any data on it. Besides - you are filtering out the dust & crud for you, not for the furnace (that is a side benefit).

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Great suggestion on the garage steps. I kind of did that when I added my garage to my house, I put a small transition between the existing house and the garage, and put a small basement area under it, with steps from the garage. All I have to do is cut a door hole thru the wall to get to the rest of the basement. I also have a walk out, and also steps in the house to the basement. I framed a stair opening to the room over the garage, but did not put stairs in, but have it just in case. I had preplanned a hallway upstairs to connect to a future over the garage space.

I just started using the Filtrete filters with my geo units. They work great, they do catch a lot of stuff that the cheap filters on my old air handlers never caught. I change at least once a month right now, because they catch so much. My geo unit will alarm if the air flow gets blocked too much, and I also programmed the thermostat to remind me monthly to change the filter. I do like that graphical thermostat. does it store the usage to a file or to a computer somewhere?

Love your house pics.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Great suggestion on the garage steps. I kind of did that when I added my garage to my house, I put a small transition between the existing house and the garage, and put a small basement area under it, with steps from the garage. All I have to do is cut a door hole thru the wall to get to the rest of the basement. I also have a walk out, and also steps in the house to the basement. I framed a stair opening to the room over the garage, but did not put stairs in, but have it just in case. I had preplanned a hallway upstairs to connect to a future over the garage space.

I just started using the Filtrete filters with my geo units. They work great, they do catch a lot of stuff that the cheap filters on my old air handlers never caught. I change at least once a month right now, because they catch so much. My geo unit will alarm if the air flow gets blocked too much, and I also programmed the thermostat to remind me monthly to change the filter. I do like that graphical thermostat. does it store the usage to a file or to a computer somewhere?

Love your house pics.

 

[mjncad]

Pete:

Either you installed your Trane system yourself, or you found an HVAC company that actually takes pride in their installations. It sure looks good.

 

[EddieWalker]

Great idea to move the stairs!!! I really like how that changes everything in the living area.

Eddie

 

[pacerron]

Pete,
I wonder if you have considered moving the HVAC air handler to the other end of the basement bathroom since the stairs in that location have been eliminated.
It looks like it would centralize the unit better. I don't know how they had planned running the hot and cold air trunk lines taking into consideration the two wooden cross beams I added in "brown"
I would think running them as I have depicted cold=blue, hot=red would make a little sense. That way they could be hung from the bottom of the floor joist, leaving the little gap required at the top and not stick down much, if any, more than the beams. The red hot trunk may need to be sized down as it goes toward the perimeter of her house.
The hot laterals to each room would then fit between the joists. I would want a cold air return inside the master bedroom in case your mom or whoever in the future likes to sleep with the door closed.
I'm not a heating engineer so your company will, of course, design for the best flow..let's hope., along with not messing up more basement space than absolutely necessary.
I'm not an architect, either, but it appears to me from the drawings you posted that the perimeter studs of the house are 2 x 6?
Ron