Wednesday, 12 January 2022

New System for 1948 Home

Hello! We are soon to be owners of a 1948 2-story home in Bowie, TX (near Wichita Falls). The home used to have gas heaters in each room and one gravity furnace mounted in a wall near the middle of the home. We'll be getting a whole new system but I figured I'd ask a few questions here before I start getting quotes because I don't know what I don't know.

The home has a closet in a back room, but no other space on the first floor to reasonably install an air handler, and even that closet may be too small. There is very little attic space because the 2nd floor fills most of the attic. (This house was designed to mimic the tudor style I think?)

Total sqft first floor is 1080
Total sqft second floor is about 500 sqft

I'm curious about the possibility of designing the system to use smart vents (WAIT!). It seems like if the effort and detail went into designing the whole system to function with ecovent (since they have the pressure sensors) that they could be handy for fine-tuning or *maybe* let me get away with a single system? We will almost always occupy either the first floor (living space) OR the second floor (bedrooms), but very rarely both. We will be doing spray foam installation in the roof (2nd floor bedrooms all have ceiling directly under roof joists for about half of the room) and sealing or replacing windows, and I'm not strictly opposed to opening the 1st floor walls and spray foaming those also.

I know I need quotes that account for Manual J, but are there specific questions I need to ask or forms I need to look for to ensure they're accounting for work that will be performed after they write the quote?

Is a single system with ecovents a pipe dream? I'm hoping that the way we use the house and the size of the house will let me get away with it!

If I can't get away with that, what kind of suggested systems should I expect to hear about? I assume everyone is going to want to demo the inside of my house and take away half my livingroom to install two split systems and two handlers.

The 2nd floor joists are 2x8, will that give enough room to run the trunk through the floor or is everyone going to want soffits (again, tearing up my previous livingroom)?

I suspect some folks might suggest mini-splits, but I haven't seen any that offer decent air filtration. We play outside a LOT and have dogs. Dust and hair mitigation is a daily chore. Filtration is a must. Are there any mini-splits that offer good filtration? (even if it means more maintenance, I'm OK with that)

What other information should I be looking for that I don't even know I don't know?

Thanks in advance!


source https://hvac-talk.com/vbb/threads/2235488-New-System-for-1948-Home?goto=newpost

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