post complete mdl numbers of both outside HP condenser and inside air handler.

you need to take a supply air temperature at several different registers. an inexpensive digital thermometer from a big box store willl be fine. note time of day and outside temp as well.

sorry for your trouble. I would be fretting too but don't panic just yet.

post back.

IMO

"He called back about an hour later and said it was because it's so hot outside."

"And the reason that check has been cancelled is that it is hot INSIDE!"

Bill

surely this is install related.

obviously the refrigerant charge should be checked along with compressor operation.

I don't like the idea though of dealer not responding immediately especially since the weekend is here. This in itself makes a statement about the dealer's concern.

again, I would like to know mdl numbers and inside supply temps.

IMO

Everything, then again, maybe just one simple thing.

"The house is 1750 square feet and we got a 4 ton unit as we are enclosing the garage."

Anytime a customer wants to purchase a system sized for the current SF plus additional SF to be built at a future date, the system designer must give careful consideration as to how the larger system will act in the smaller space/load until the addition is built.

Your problem could be, and this is complete speculation, that their strategy was to run the two-speed compressor in low speed (roughly 65%-70% of the 4.0T capacity) until the garage is improved. Then, when the additional load and ducts from the garage conversion are in place, wire up high speed to run on demand. If that was their strategy and low speed capacity is not enough for the 1750 SF you have a potentially huge problem until the garage conversion is complete.

Hopefully, I am wrong.

It can take several hours to pull down a super-heated house. Even in the worst conditions, over night will resolve this issue, if the system is the right size and correctly installed.

Not responding the next day on a 1-day old install is not good customer service.

oneugly - Why would that be a huge problem? Just enable high speed and it should be fine. Obviously low stage isn't too much cooling.

If it is a two stage system with VS air handler and the proper thermostat, all of that should happen automatically. Something else is very wrong.

What concerns me is the attic ventilators. What kind of ventilators? If there are two powered attic ventilators running, they could be sucking all the cool out of the house, especially if it is poorly sealed.

OP, please tell us about the ventilators. If they are powered, try turning them off and see if that makes a difference.

david cary - What do you think the odds are that their 1750 sf house will have 4.0 Tons worth of ductwork to match the 4.0 Tons worth of air flow needed to run their new 4.0 Ton heat pump system? Somebody better know the answer before enabling high speed.

Good point.

Finally made it back here with the model numbers. The heat pump is 4A6H6048E1000A. The air handler is 4TEE3F49C1000A.

Our old unit was a 3 1/2 ton Heil which wouldn't go any lower than 77 degrees, but even with messed up coils, it still kept this house cooler than the new 4 ton is doing!

Two guys came out today and they said the freon was a little low, so they put in more...already? in a brand new system? does that mean there's a leak? I overheard the first guy saying "some oil was leaking" to the second guy on the phone.

They said they stand by their products, but would do whatever it takes to make us happy. We have a Trane now which we are very happy with for 10 years with no service calls. We went with AS because they make Tranes. The box actually said "Trane" on it. It's a 4 ton American Standard Heritage 16 (16 for 16 seer).

Today it stayed on 79 degrees, dropped once to 78 and back up again to 79. I have never seen an a/c unit "increase" in temperature.

When they left they said to leave it on 76 degrees all night and "see what happens." They also told us to not leave any doors open...it's just my wife and I and we are in our 60's. Why would we leave doors open???

I have never heard this before but he said any a/c company would tell us the same. Any a/c system will not cool any lower than 20 degrees below the outside temperature. For instance, if it's 99 degrees outside, your a/c will not go below 79 degrees. That's totally BS, as our current Trane system will prove this is not right and I can take him to three other houses where the temperatures go down to the low 70's. My son just called me, as he conducted a test, and his unit is now down to 73. It took it 45 minutes to go down from 77 to 73 and it stayed on 73.

Why haven't they offered to bring us a new unit since there is evidently something wrong with this one? I also told them if a 4 ton unit can't cool 1750 SF, how in the world will it cool the additional 480 SF to be added later? We would really be in a bad shape then. At first they said "we weren't giving it enough time." When a unit stays at 79 degrees all day and you have it set on 76 degrees, isn't all day long enough?

I'm beginning to think this is a bad unit. He said they would do whatever it takes to make us happy. I said I would be happy when the unit could reach 72 degrees, as this would tell it it could keep the additional space cool enough (hopefully).

What they did is run the ducts and put in the vents to the garage already. They put dampers on and said when we got the garage finished, all we needed to do was open up the dampers. Now I'm wondering if this was a good idea.

"Let's wait until in the morning" was their final comment of the day, as if that will make some difference. Of course, it will get cooler during the night as it's cooler outside. Any dummy knows that. I just want it to be cool during the day. Who wants to pay a $200-$250 electric bill and be sweating in their house at 79 degrees?

I really thought we picked the right system...evidently I was wrong.

Bill

what is the supply temp and return temp?

Don't know but I'll find out tomorrow. At one vent he said it was reading 11 and it should be 14? I believe that's what he said. If they can't fix it properly to go below 79 degrees tomorrow, they can just take out the entire unit and I'll start all over again from scratch.

They were there over 3 hours today and problem isn't solved. They have one more day.

It's probably not the system. It's more than likely the installation.

And you still haven't told us about the attic ventilators.

Downsouth, You sound like a very impatient person. It is possible that there is an internal problem with a brand new unit- these things do happen and it may take some testing and investigation on the part of the installing company. Give them a chance. We are all here to assist you but you must give us some info to work with. Just complaining that it won't get cool does not help us try to help you. Can we get some supply and return temps along with time of readings and outdoor temps?

Downsouth - I totally disagree with refrigman1. So far they have taken your money, given you BS explanations (20 degree statement - what a croc) and they have no plan. You have been more than patient. Did I understand you correctly that they installed ductwork to the garage already? In most states that would be illegal. Did they pull a permit and get a final inspection? What a mess.

downsouth

I am sorry for all your trouble.

Do you mind stating the mdl number of the thermostat?

If you haven't paid dealer yet, I wouldn't. And if you have paid him, I would put a hold on the check.

I would call owner of the company and give him an update.

While I have never liked AmStd Heritage 16 mdl and would have preferred the Heritage 15, you should not be having issues like you are experiencing.

Patience is fine but how about a little bit of dealer concern and competence. This is not rocket science and a good troubleshooting tech who knows AmStd HPs should be able to quickly determine the problem. You are getting nowhere with the techs from yesterday and I would not invite them back.

When you have time, give us a report this morning. I would like to know the supply temps you are getting.

IMO

I don't have any supply or register temps to give. The guys didn't come back out today and I don't know how to get these supply & return numbers you are asking for. The installer did call first thing this morning to see how the system was doing. Yesterday before they left they added more freon. Today it did a lot better. It actually stayed at 76 all day, quite different than yesterday. It even dropped to 74, but it wouldn't maintain 74 degrees. Today's temperature was 95. I am being patient and giving them a chance. The installer was really nice and concerned, and wants us to be happy.

I will get the model number of the thermostat in the morning. We don't live there now but we're over there every day remodeling. There is no one running in and out of the house. All the major remodeling was done before we had this new a/c installed. We're staying inside emptying boxes, etc. and will be living there permanently in two weeks.

About the ventilators, I don't know the brand but they run by power. The a/c guy said he had them set to come on when it reached 95 degrees in the attic. I don't know what "cool" air it could be taking out as it has gotten way above 100 degrees in the attic.

Will post tomorrow after we return home. No computer access there now and we're going over to spend the night to see how cool it will stay tonight.

Thanks to everyone for your comments.

Downsouth

Today was 96 where I am at, also very humid. I keep my T stat set on 73 and it will STAY on 73 UNLESS it gets above 93 degrees.....If it goes above 93 degrees outside, my t stat will go up a couple of degrees briefly from say 4 pm to 7pm. If you take the temp coming out of your registers it should be in the 50's. Mine is 55 degrees currently. I realize that there are many more things involving cooling, but from what I've read, the normal register temperature on any A/C should be between 50 and 60 degrees.

My dad's A/C will not cool during the hottest parts of the day very well. It runs and runs. I asked him to stick a thermometer in the registers and see what the temp was coming out. He left a thermometer in there for 4 hours the lowest temp he could get was 67 degrees. I told him something was wrong! He called for service, they came out....Inspected...took a little coolant out........Same thing......My dad then called my brother and asked him to take his supply temp coming out of his registers (just to make sure I wasn't crazy) and my brothers temp was 53. My dad then realized something was really wrong. Called for service again.....They spent a few hours there, took all the coolant out.....Re charged everything.....and Finally got the temp down to 60 degrees coming out of the registers. They said there was absolutely NOTHING they could do to get it any lower....Why? I don't know

If you take the temp coming out of your registers it should be in the 50's. Mine is 55 degrees currently. I realize that there are many more things involving cooling, but from what I've read, the normal register temperature on any A/C should be between 50 and 60 degrees.Blanket statements such as that are misleading. The output (supply) air temperature is a factor of how much heat is removed from the input (return) air as it passes over the evaporator coil. The typical drop is 17F to 20°F.

If the house is VERY hot, the input air temp is 95°F+, as if the system has been turned off for a period of time at 100°F+ weather or whatever ... expecting 50°F to 60°F output temperature is not realistic. That'd be a difference of 35°F to 45°F.

Mark40511, if your thermostat is set at 73°F and your system is maintaining that temperature and providing an output temp of 55°F, then your difference is 18°F, roughly.
73°F input - 55°F output = 18°F. You're not getting 55°F output air because that's what it's *supposed* to be, but rather because that's the normal difference between input and output in your scenario. If your input was 90°F, the output would NOT be 55°F.

The proper method for taking the temp difference is to measure the input and output at the evaporator coil in the blower unit ... the input air on one side, the output air on the other side. Checking the temps at the return air grill and at a supply register gives a general picture of the situation, but isn't 100% accurate due to losses/gains as the airflow passes through the ducting.

I checked mine a few mins ago. Output of 59°F at a register near the air handler (short duct run). Input of 79°F at the return grill on one side of the house, 75°F at the return on the other end of the house. The thermostat is located near the higher-temp return, and is set on 80°F.

An attic ventilator set at 95 is first too low and secondly - it can cause a negative pressure system in the attic drawing cold air into the attic. A 100 degree attic may have been 105 but it was drawing cold air into it.

Don't for a second think that your attic ventilators aren't drawing cold air out of your house just becuase the attic is hot. Hot is relative and 110 and 120 are both just hot...

95 is too low for an attic fan because it will always run - at least during the day. There is no question that a negative pressure system in the attic is bad. An attic ventilator causes that. Now - on balance, it might be helpful but only if the attic is really hot - not just 95.

Sorry for the *blanket statement*

It's just that everyone I have asked to take the temp coming out of their registers (not when a system has just been turned on or not when the house is hot). I'm talking during normal operations.....A house that has been cooling and in cooling mode for several hours. All I have asked reported output temps in the 50's so I just assumed that was the typical output of a normal operating A/C.

If you have a home closed up and the A/C has been turned off and the house is extremely hot inside; you turn on the A/C to cool the house (since the house is (say 85 degrees) inside, then the output would NOT be in the 50's. But for a normally operating A/C with the t stat set in the mid 70's, an indoor current air temp of 75 and running for a few hours, I would think the output should be in the 50's.

Turn the attic ventilators off. They depressurize the attic, which sucks conditioned air right up out of the house. Make up air for the missing conditioned air comes in through infiltration.

One attic ventilator is bad. Two is insane. Unless your attic is thoroughly sealed against air movement from below, which is highly unlikely, you will have conditioned air move from the inside of the house to the attic. It will be made up by hot outside air leaking into the house through every crack and crevice it can find. There are a lot to find in the average house.

If your attic has proper soffit and ridge or gable end vents, you don't need power vents at all.