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Why is closet so friggen COLD !!!!!

Cork in Chicago | Posted in Energy, Heating & Insulation on June 29, 2006 02:53am

I’m checking out the equipment in our woodworking shop to make sure we have all of the proper maintenance performed on our equipment and opened a closet to check out the air handler for the central air for the office attached to the shop. The closet was very cold. Turns out we had the air conditioner on in the office and a large amount of cold air was going into the closet. It turns out there is a 1″ gap around the PVC condenser pipe coming out of the air handler and cold air is being blasted out of the hole. I asked our shop foreman about it and he thought nothing of it. His only response was that every year the units “freezes” because there is a small leak of refrigerant some where between the outside unit and the inside unit. So once a year he calls repairman and has the AC serviced.

My question is: Should all this air be pumping out the air handler. Why in heck should we pay for making a meat locker out of a large closet? Is there perhaps an old gasket that has given out or is this kind of a thing normal.

I don’t want to make waves with the foreman who is both a good man and a great commercial wood worker, and I’ll be the first to admit I don’t know “didly” about HVAC, but I have an obligation to my boss to make sure all of his equipment and money is being handled correctly.

Should I get a tech. in to check it out or just “let it slide”?

Thanks for any info.

Cork in Chicago

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Replies

  1. DanH | Jun 29, 2006 03:33am | #1

    Plug all the holes you can find with duct seal and foil duct tape.

    If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. --James Madison
  2. User avater
    SamT | Jun 29, 2006 04:04am | #2

    I'm checking out the equipment in our woodworking shop to make sure we have all of the proper maintenance performed on our equipment . . . I have an obligation to my boss to make sure all of his equipment and money is being handled correctly.

    [I] check out the air handler for the central air ...a 1" gap around the PVC condenser pipe coming out of the air handler and cold air is being blasted out of the hole. . . every year the units "freezes" because there is a small leak of refrigerant . . . Should I get a tech. in to check it out . . ?

    Yes.

    The Air Handler is costing you an appreciable part of a dollar every day. Maybe the shop hands are storing their lunch in the closet.

    Every year, the coolant leak is costing 1/2 as much as it will cost to repair both problems. Every year.

    Don't use the company your foreman used again. They've already sold you several unneeded calls and pounds of refrigerant that THEY have allowed into our air to make you call them again and again.

    You really need to talk to your shop foreman.

     

    SamT
    1. DaveRicheson | Jun 29, 2006 01:07pm | #3

      Hooray!

      Precise, to the point and very correct.

      Good on you.

       

      dave

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