Originally Posted By: away This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Was out on a ride along yesterday and came across something I have never seen or heard of.
Two condensers outside, one made in 93 and the other in 96 both 3 tons. But there was only one t-stat and only one furnace/air handler.
Has anyone else seen something like this? We called a couple other inspectors to see if they had, but no luck. So we are kind of left to guessing if there are any ramifications of this type of setup.
If no evidence of prior service is found or known, I typically include getting both halves of the HVAC system serviced, inspected, cleaned etc. I was thinking about including a comment about the unusualness of the setup so the client would be aware and to get any special concerns addressed by the HVAC person.
Here are some particulars if it helps formulate replies.
The house is almost 3k square feet, built in 76
Original single pane aluminum frame windows (lots of them)
Two sliding glass doors
Only about 5-8 inches of blown insulation not uniform in coverage or depth
One huge skylight with no unsulation around the skylight well
13 or 14 eave vents (going off the top of my head)
Three turbine vents, no chutes/baffles installed for the eave vents but looking around the attic I could see light coming from around the eaves.
Originally Posted By: away This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Erby,
I knew I was missing one detail, sorry about that. Yes both linesets went into the single furnace/air handler in the attic (slab foundation).
We couldn't find the magic door hiding somewhere. But being magic we wouldn't see it in any case.
Hmmm, if that is the case could this verbiage be added to the report.
"Magic door leading to second furnace/air handler was not readily visible. No access to this area could be obtained due to magic spell blocking access. Recommend contacting a qualified elf, wizard or other professional for further evaluation." 
Originally Posted By: ecrofutt This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Dear dear Andrew,
It is very obvious to me that you are just not going to make it in this business if you are unable to get the right staff behind you. Preferably one held by a wizard that can guide you to and thru those magic doors.
I'd allow mine to sub out to you, but the short cycling time travel to get to my inspection, back a few seconds to yours, back a few seconds to mine would just wear him out well before his design life and it would just be to hard to replace him.
Originally Posted By: away This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Jae,
Thanks for that nugget of information. I didn’t pull the t-stat cover off so I don’t know if two bulbs existed. Now I know to look. About the ‘A’ coil, when they are joined is that something readily apparent? Or do they look like a normal ‘A’ coil.
Since no evidence of regular servicing by an HVAC techinician was found, I just put in the report to have the whole system fully evaluated etc. There were also some ducting issues, temp split issues, possible balancing problems, and a few other minor things. So I felt a full evaluation of the whole thing is something that should be done. I just noted the atypical setup and to make sure the HVAC person paid special attention to it.
Erby,
When I read the first sentence in your post, my heart really sank. Here I thought I was doing a fairly good job. Then I continued reading. Whew!!! I looked all through Inspector Tools, Professional Equipment, etc. for magic staffs or magic door spell breaking reference books but no luck. I guess Ebay may be my next option. I thought of going back to the house with someone from the local coven but it really wasn't my inspection, I was just tagging along.
Thanks for all the help. I now have something else in my bag of tricks.