Crystal Clarity
I want some new laws of thermodynamics. Thermo means relating to heat and dynamics relating to the forces of change within a system or process. If we don’t break down that term like that, we get mired in the world of arcane physics and get dragged into the realm of energy conservation and things like entropy, which are all about randomness and uncertainty. The first two laws of thermodynamics were promulgated in the mid-Nineteenth Century and then there was a 60 year hiatus until the third law and another forty years for the fourth law to come about. The fifth law (something about machines ceasing to function as the wear and tear accumulates to whatever energy it took to create it….which seems intuitive) is still being debated and hasn’t been officially canonized by the scientific community. And as for the sixth law, it seems to be theorized that the world comes to an end once all this matter and energy are fully randomized and are no longer interacting with one another. My mind starts to fracture after the first law about the conservation of matter and energy (which sort of makes sense), and it explodes somewhere between the fifth and sixth laws.
I’m sure the scientists among you (I know at least one reader of this bog is a noted physicist) think I’m trying to be funny, but my mind is simply too constrained to go all Einstein on me and think in the metaphysical realm. If Zuckerberg can’t make the metaverse work, what chance do I have? I operate in the here and now and the not too distant future and all theories of happiness suggest that staying in the present is the surest path to happiness. At the moment, happiness for many people of the world is being defined by heat and its management, which is why I find myself on the topic of thermodynamics.
I once again awoke too early and while it was not due to excessive heat, it could have been because I am in the midst of a heat crisis and I’m trying to sort it out. To begin with, while it is hot here, it needs to be said that 90 degree heat that goes down to mid-60s at night is not dastardly hot by any standard unless you are in Antarctica (which hit 70 degrees one day in 2020). My friend Steven called me from La Quinta in Palm Springs today and told me that it is supposed to hit 120 degrees tomorrow and he has decided that summer in Palm Springs is not to be toyed with since he cannot even go into his pool since it is 100 degrees. Now that’s hot. But having lived here through four summers now, I can honestly say that it is pretty damn warm right now. My daughter Carolyn, who just spent 3 days in Disneyland (I drove up this evening to pick her and the family up to return them here) where the temperature has been like it is here on our hilltop, says that this heat seems more debilitating to her, more so even that in Orlando, where she was in June. I told her I think it just feels that way because she is not hydrating enough and that will sap you physically.
My problem right now is that when we returned last Friday night, our dog sitter, Natasha, had not cooled the house down to the level that I like before we arrived. For all of Saturday and Sunday I worried that the A/C on the north half of the house, basically our living room, MBR and office, was not working enough to cool the daytime heat down. The rom temperature was hovering at 78-80 while the A/C cranked 24 hours. That is unacceptable, so I called in the HVAC specialists and went beyond my regular team who hold the service contract because I feel they are the high-priced guys who have taken me to the cleaners once too often.
My first foray yielded two technicians from two firms that I have used for household infrastructure. These firms field any and every unqualified person they need to just so they can say they sent someone. They are minimally trained and really mostly do not know what they are doing. They both suggested conflicting solutions that were not only different from one another, but also ended up being different from what their respective seniors thought should be done. I’m not talking about being slightly different, but 180 degree contradictions from what I was told when they were here compared to what their bosses said I should do. Needless to say, the price of the suggested fixes were staggering, as high as $21k…and remember, that is for half of the house since the south half worked fine.
Right now I have a 5-ton system on the south side that serves about 1,500 sf, which sounds very over-powered, but which cools that half of the house like a charm. It was installed by my main HVAC provider in 2019, along with the furnace for that side for $20k, which I am still stinging from. But here’s the thing…it may have been overpriced and overpowered, but it works and when it gets hot on this hilltop, that’s all that matters.
The north side has about 2,200 sf and has two zones for some reasons, one for the living room and one for the MBR/office. That side has a smaller, older unit, which I have now been shown (proof positive finally) is a 3-ton condenser (the part outside with the fan), a 3-ton coil (the part that gets cold and across which the cooled air passes), which sits atop a 3.5-ton air handling unit that is integrated into the hybrid (propane and electric) furnace for that side of the house. Those units are 2012 vintage (the year I bought the house) and was clearly put in by the prior owner. I know this now because it is a brand that is not a name brand and that my HVAC people say is not up to the quality they install (York or Lennox, like I have on the south side). I’m inclined to forensically suspect that this was a quick fix to solve an inspection shortfall when the house was for sale, since the house was 15 years old and the older unit was probably in need of replacement.
Additionally, there seems to be a ducting problem which does not have to do with the air delivery ducts, which seem plenty big, but with the return ducts. Those two zones have return vents that merge into one undersized return duct. None of this was known to me until today, when a 20-year HVAC veteran was finally sent to me by my primary provider. He knew his stuff. He showed me how much better the unit worked when he removed the filter and opened the filter door. He characterized that as giving the system a second lung, and it suddenly all made sense.
His diagnosis was to add a return duct and replace the overworked coil with a 4-ton coil. Once he measured he realized that a 4-ton unit would not fit in the short vertical utility room. I was ready for the “you therefore need anew smaller furnace”, but he said, no, he would just turn the furnace horizontally and that would work fine. I then asked if he thought I needed a new 4-ton condenser and he said, “why?” His feeling was that That would handle the load just fine until it stops working in another 5 or so years. The bottom line is that he is doing this fix on Monday and its all being done for less than $10k. I don’t want to get out ahead of myself and say that I have found an honest and competent HVAC guy at long last. I will wait until the fix is in and the room temperature goes down like it should. But at least I now have what I think of as crystal clarity about how this all works…we’ll see.