FordNut
08-08-2006, 06:35 PM
Anybody having your home heat pump replaced may be interested in this...
This past weekend I made a tragic discovery in my home. Mold. Lots of it. Here's the story-
I bought the house 20 years ago and had a heat pump installed at that time. It was installed in the attic because the crawlspace is too small for people to get into for access to install ducting. At the time of the heat pump install, I also had insulation added. It already had cellulose batting, I had 12" of fiberglass blown in on top of that. Then about 10 years ago I had the interior remodeled, installing suspended ceilings as part of the work. All has been well until this year, when the 20 year old heat pump gave out and repair parts are no longer available. New heat pump was installed in May. Now I have mold growing between the old ceiling and the suspended ceiling.
I spoke with the HVAC contractor working on our new facility at work and he said that is a common problem these days. The new heat pumps must meet federally mandated energy efficiency ratings and some of the performance changes which have been made to comply result in a reduced ability to remove moisture from the air. He recommended that once the mold remediation is done that I should add a dehumidifier in the duct system or the mold will return.
What a pain, upgrade to a new system that doesn't perform as well as the old system. I imagine when you look at the energy consumption of the new heat pump and add in the power consumption of the dehumidifier it is probably higher than the old system was, as well as more complex and more expensive.
Anyway, a word of advice if you have to replace your heat pump, make sure and check the moisture content.
This past weekend I made a tragic discovery in my home. Mold. Lots of it. Here's the story-
I bought the house 20 years ago and had a heat pump installed at that time. It was installed in the attic because the crawlspace is too small for people to get into for access to install ducting. At the time of the heat pump install, I also had insulation added. It already had cellulose batting, I had 12" of fiberglass blown in on top of that. Then about 10 years ago I had the interior remodeled, installing suspended ceilings as part of the work. All has been well until this year, when the 20 year old heat pump gave out and repair parts are no longer available. New heat pump was installed in May. Now I have mold growing between the old ceiling and the suspended ceiling.
I spoke with the HVAC contractor working on our new facility at work and he said that is a common problem these days. The new heat pumps must meet federally mandated energy efficiency ratings and some of the performance changes which have been made to comply result in a reduced ability to remove moisture from the air. He recommended that once the mold remediation is done that I should add a dehumidifier in the duct system or the mold will return.
What a pain, upgrade to a new system that doesn't perform as well as the old system. I imagine when you look at the energy consumption of the new heat pump and add in the power consumption of the dehumidifier it is probably higher than the old system was, as well as more complex and more expensive.
Anyway, a word of advice if you have to replace your heat pump, make sure and check the moisture content.