Originally Posted By: dandersen
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| Below is my letter to the vice chair of the Texas Real Estate Commission (back in April of this year) regarding heating & air conditioning inspections. I believe City Inspectors and Home Inspectors can provide a real benefit to the consumer if some changes are made. Currently a home owner puts complete trust in the inspector as if he were the expert. A passing report on their hvac system can give them a false sense of security. A problem reported does not give the professional the freedom to find and correct other problems that the inspector didn't find. Home sellers only want corrected what was in the inspectors report. See a hvac contractor is hired by the seller and not by the interested party. City officials DO NOT CHECK for performance. Home inspectors only check for performance to a minor and inaccurate degree. Merely checking a temperature split is NOT checking for performance (see further discussion below).
Right now I am having a problem with home inspectors writing in their reports to have the system "serviced" by a professional. They then go on to point out certain specifics in the report. If the inspectors would say to have the system "evaluated" instead of serviced then we would have the freedom to point other issues. In short it would be sending a message to the home seller/buyer that the inspector is NOT a professional hvac inspector & doesn't really have any business reporting about the hvac system but in many states they are required to do so. Mrs. Louise Hull, Thank you for being available and taking the time to listen to my concerns regarding Home Inspectors as they relate to HVAC inspections. In my 14 years experience of working in the air conditioning business I have found great reward in making people comfortable. The latter part of my career has been devoted to the PR end of dealing with the customer because dealing with people is an important part of that comfort. I am proud to be the respected licensed professional that the general public can rely on to produce the right answer to their particular problem. Lately I feel like this pride has been stripped away from me by Home Inspectors that are regulated by TREC. In both the home seller and the home buyer's eyes it seems as if the inspector is the ultimate authority and I am merely the grunt worker just doing what he is told. I can tell the home seller that I disagree with the report but it doesn't matter to them. Correcting the issues listed in the report is what they need done to sell the house. My input to them is meaningless and often times offensive when I report problems above and beyond what the inspector found. As a licensed professional it is my duty to check the air conditioning system for proper performance and of course safety (safety for the occupants, safety for the building contents and safety for the equipment). The Home Inspector is NOT required to do any performance testing such as refrigerant charge, air flow, heat transfer, Carbon Monoxide Combustion Analysis etc.. It is for these reasons the Home Inspectors report can give the home buyer a false sense of security. For example, one of the main things the Home Inspectors check is the difference in temperature of the supply and return air. Zero temperature difference means the equipment is not doing anything at all. But the big misconception here is a great temperature difference doesn't necessarily mean everything is working ok. I always hear the inspectors have reported to the customer that they are looking for a 17?F - 20?F difference. Some say 15-20 etc... But where are they getting these numbers? Moving heat is all about the temperature PLUS THE VOLUME of air moved. Home Inspectors are only measuring temperature! I can make an air conditioning system blow colder by lowering the fan speed. I can make a heating system warmer by lowering the fan speed. An automobile is a perfect example of this. At our finger tips we can select the fan speed we desire. Use a thermometer to test the air temp at low fan speed and then at high fan speed. You will see quite a difference. There is no exact right or wrong speed and there is no right or wrong temperature. A lower fan speed will help in allowing the air & indoor coil to be colder so it "sweats" more thus removing more water from the air. This lowering of humidity makes it feel more comfortable in the space. In cooling mode a higher fan speed increases the air temperature but can also increase system efficiency (to a point). We might have a contractor in El Paso that wants a higher fan speed and one in Houston that needs a lower one to help control humidity. According to a well known hvac equipment testing engineer, "If it is particularly humid, there will be more heat absorbed by the changing of the moisture vapor to a liquid. The heat absorption involved in doing this is latent heat and therefore will not be measurable in the overall temperature drop of the air across the coil. Lets say that 12,000 Btu's of heat are being absorbed by the coil at a consistent rate. Lets also assume that at that rate with no humidity there is a 25? temperature drop created. Now, lets add enough humidity that 2,000 Btu's of heat energy are absorbed by the water vapor changing it into liquid condensate. That 2,000 Btu's of heat energy is not going to be able to be measured in the temperature drop across the coil because its heat energy is draining out of the system via the condensate drain rather then being carried in the air stream across the coil. This will lower the temperature differential across the coil even though the same amount of heat is being absorbed." We as licensed professionals need this freedom of a range of temperature differences without the fear of a Home Inspector alarming the buyer about an issue that may not be a problem at all. Example #1: I had an instructor call me from Baylor University where I have many customers. She told me she got my name as a referral from one of her co-workers. These are the most excellent networks to build and I have been working on doing just that for a long time so naturally I was excited to help her out. She wanted a price to have her coils cleaned and her system serviced. I arrived and read the Home Inspectors report and it stated just that. I asked her if she knew if the inspector meant the indoor coils or the outdoor coils, she wasn't sure. She wanted a total system service anyway so I began checking her system. Yep I found dirty coils alright, indoor and outdoor. I also found the following: 1)dirty blower wheel, 2)refrigerant leak @ indoor coil (non-repairable), 3) Bad run capacitor serving the compressor, 4) system low on refrigerant charge. To properly clean this indoor coil it needed to be removed. A leaking coil cannot be properly re-installed because it can't be pressure tested and evacuated without introducing moisture in the system. So my three options at this point were: 1)Attempt to clean the coil in place, this would only create a muddy mess and clog up the drain line 2)remove the coil, wash it with coil cleaner and reinstall it without evacuation, this could ruin the compressor 3) replace the indoor coil with a new one, this would be the best option but the most expensive. I gave her my findings & recommendations and she hit the ceiling mad. All she wanted was a price she said and my price was way more than she thought she should be paying for a cleaning & service. She refused to pay me for my service and escorted me out of her home. Granted I only lost a service call fee but I lost much more than that by making a customer angry especially given the place she worked. During her service I was doing my 110% best trying not to leave any stone unturned to protect her and her realtor from the buyer coming back with a lawsuit/report from their hvac expert. My training, years of experience, and hard work in building a referral network were instantly crushed by this Home Inspectors report. It wasn't his fault because he was merely reporting what was required of him. It was the systems fault for putting us all in a bad position. Example #2: I recently received a call from a friend of the family who was selling his home. He wanted me to correct a flexible duct per Home Inspectors report. This duct was tapped off of the master bedroom and fed an enclosed garage. The air flow was never very good according to the home seller. The inspector wrote on the report, "wrap flexible duct with plastic" due to failing vapor barrier. Best industry practices are: 1) disintegrated flex duct needs to be replaced, not repaired. 2) Fixing the duct won't solve the comfort issues in the enclosed garage. 3) plastic wrap will disintegrate with heat & sunlight worse than the old duct. 4) Inspector did more than just state it was "in need of repair". 5) a large portion of the duct was inaccessible (very tight attic space). I offered a solution of capping off the poorly installed duct and adding a window unit to the enclosed garage but it wasn't what the seller wanted to hear. He had already signed a contract stating he would have the duct repaired. He was stuck and so was I. I left the job with my friend insisting on finding someone that would do what the report said needed to be done. As a professional I shouldn't have to be put in this position because of something written on an inspectors report....an inspector with LESS CREDENTIALS than me. My licensing exam has a "design component" his does not - that is the difference! Example #3: New customer called for service of two systems on their large home. When I arrived I saw the realtors sign in the yard and knew why I was called. The Home Inspector's report said the systems needed to be "serviced". I began checking one heat pump system and found dirty indoor coils, dirty blower wheel, two of four heating elements not functioning, thermostat miswired so the Em.Heat function didn't work, refrigerant leak and large oily stain @ indoor coil and the worst of all the outdoor unit was so grown up with thorny hedges that I couldn't get to it for service. Cutting the hedges was not allowed because that would make it "look like hell" according to the husband. I informed him I wouldn't be putting myself at electrical shock danger by trying to squeeze in between the 6" clearance and work in that tight of a space. He was infuriated by my findings, price to repair, and refusal to check his outdoor unit until the hedges were cut. You see he couldn't sell the house until my invoice stated that I serviced the system. He also didn't like the fact that I found many more serious problems than the inspector found. I only charged him $48 for the evaluation of the one system and he didn't want me to check the other one. He told me, "so I guess I have just wasted $48" then escorted me out the door. I am not in business to be escorted out by mad customers. I am put in a terrible no win position by the way these TREC regulated hvac inspections are done. There must be a better solution. The TREC inspector could have helped the situation by informing the homeowner that an "evaluation" by a licensed professional may uncover other more expensive problems. I need that communicated by the real estate broker. Please. My recommended solution: Let the inspector check the obvious things that are already listed in the rules but REQUIRE this statement regarding hvac on his inspection report, "I recommend having your hvac system evaluated by a licensed professional. Your professional will be testing and checking things above and beyond the scope of my report at which time further deficiencies may be found". It is very important that this NOT be called a service. It needs to be called an evaluation. No system can be serviced without being evaluated first. The hvac system can be an extremely expensive part of the home. It is NOT an appliance that you can run down to Sears and pick up a new one for a few hundred bucks. It is a whole home system that must be custom designed and field installed. Each system is different with very dynamic & unique properties. Each part of the system relies on the other parts to work together as a whole. When one part is damaged so are the others effected. Air flow, refrigerant flow/heat transfer moisture control & electricity are all complex in themselves and when they are all put together in one operating comfort system it really does take a true professional to evaluate. Thanks again for your time in addressing this matter. Feel free to call me anytime if I can further clarify my points or help with other concerns you may have. Sincerely, Steve Wiggins Quality Air Care 124 Thiele Rd. Lorena, TX Unique ID: 4D52-36-98A40B |
Thought I'd post your point here as it appears relevant.
Thanks Steve.