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noisy airflow

jamesb | Posted in Energy, Heating & Insulation on December 2, 2005 12:33pm

Hello again.

For those of you who offered advice on the Electrical portion of my conversion from Furnace to heatpump. Thanks. 

I have another issue with the conversion…

When the airhandler is working, I can close my eyes and pretend that I am in a wind tunnell.  Now, this is the part that I did not even attempt myself. I did bring in professionals to do the unit installation.  The new airhandler simply went where the old furnace/airhandler was located and was joined to the existing duct work. I have not had the installers back out yet although I have spoken with them.  I am hoping for some insite from you guys so I at least have a clue when they come out and want to sell me a whole new duct system….

The house was built in ’57. I know that the vents (air from the handler) are old. they are the circular type with an internal louver to close or open the vent. the return was put on last year, is very open and has no filter.

My first reaction is to replace all of the vents.  And then to replace the return with one that will allow me to place a filter inside- the only filter now is an electrostatic one that sits directly in the airhandler….. or will the restricted airflow casused by an additional filter just make things worse?

any insight would help.

 

 

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  1. WayneL5 | Dec 02, 2005 04:00am | #1

    There could be a couple of reasons your air sounds noisier with the new furnace.

    • The blower for the new furnace could be moving more air.  The higher the velocity in the duct, the more noise.  The blower might be larger just because the design is different, or is could be a clue that too large of a furnace was installed.
    • The design of the furnace blower is different and it could just be noisier.

    If you are hearing a rush of air originating close to the registers, slowing down the fan speed (on some furnaces that is possible, so long as the temperature of the air does not rise above a set limit) would quiet it down.  If the noise originated in the furnace blower itself then replacing some length of the main duct or the plenum with acoustic lined or acoustic board duct would help.

    1. brownbagg | Dec 02, 2005 06:02am | #2

      mine is brand new. I use sheetmetal instead of fiber board for ducts. Mine is so loud you reach for the TV remote when it comes on. Its just the way somethings are.. 2+3=7

      1. jamesb | Dec 02, 2005 06:34pm | #3

        Thanks.

        the immediate responce from the contractor was "of course it's louder, it's moving more air"

        fine. no argument there.  the new unit is actually smaller than the old one, but since the old unit had an oil furnace, the set up is a little different.

        I am thinking that playing with different registers/grill/vent whatever, that I might be able to cut down of some of the noise. 

        we'll see....

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