Common Sense Answers to Typical Initial Questions

This comment focuses specifically on "primary and secondary duct design". All Forced Air HVAC Systems can be designed to a "minimum standard". This may reduce the cost initially. LSO Design will assist you to "properly design systems" to a "better standard".

Changing global temperatures are a fact. Do you want to design "just enough efficiency and comfort" into your project for now. HVAC is a component of the project cost but it is an extremely important cost.

If your clients are not comfortable, will they be happy with their decision? The right design will be comfortable, efficient and provide a healthy environment considering what changes may occur over the next twenty years. LSO Design recommends a higher standard than "minimum". Your clients will appreciate the results.

A properly designed system will have the combination of capacity, lower operating and lower service costs over the next twenty years. "Just enough" or "minimum design" will work the equipment harder, more often and will shorten its operating life. This increases the service costs over the equipments lifetime. The savings achieved in "minimum design" will be lost in efficiency, operating costs, service costs and comfort within the first 10 years or less. Ultimately, "minimum design" is more costly.

During "Installation" all forced air HVAC Systems and their components must be tightly sealed and insulated well enough to prevent "Condensation". This is our next subject.

Yes, they occur in all forced air HVAC systems. The laws of physics demand that anytime you have higher humidity warm air contacting cooler surfaces you can get condensation. If you have a continuous condition creating a constant source of condensation (water) in a sensitive location then you can have a problem. In some cases a serious one. This occurs almost always in cooling applications.

Look at videos of a cooling coil in operation to see lots of condensation being developed and removed safely through the drain system..

Under certain circumstances all forced air systems create a periodic and acceptable level of condensation. It generally appears, and dries out quickly, causing no long term ill effect. It is most commonly caused in an attempt by the homeowner to save operating costs.

Condensation can occur on supply grills within the home when you have turned off, or increased the temperature settings dramatically on, the forced air system to save cooling energy costs. The conditioned environment and all of its contents get warm. Warm air carries a higher level of humidity than cooler air. When you cool the metal parts of the forced air supply components quickly, aspiration or turbulence carries warm humid air to the cool metal surfaces and the humidity condenses on the cooler surfaces. As the temperature moderates and cools, the airflow evaporates the moisture because the air moving is cooler and dryer than the surrounding items. Usually there is no harm done.

You can also see this when you have a cooling supply grill near an open door to a Bathroom where a nice hot shower has been finished and the warm moist air flows suddenly out of the bathroom door. Or, you forget and leave an open window next to your cooling register on a hot, humid day.

You need to understand that water holds several thousand times the energy that the same volume of air can hold.

SDHV Systems are more efficient because they remove more humidity from the air flow when cooling and less humidity from the air flow when heating.

Cooling is the most expensive energy transfer. Conditioning dryer air is more efficient, and cheaper, than conditioning air laden with lots of moisture. There is less water therefore less energy required to be removed in the air.

During cooling season, if you turn off, or dramatically increase the temperature settings during the day, you are allowing all that work your system needs to do for you to build up and it must be done when you return. The system now has to condition the air and everything else in your home that has absorbed heat and energy during the time you were out. It is most stressful on the systems. It is more expensive.

The most comfortable and efficient way to operate a forced air HVAC System is to set the thermostat where you are comfortable and let it work. You can't control the weather therefore the amount of work your system must do. Leave the system fan "on" and it will condition only as needed, add or remove humidity (if designed to do so), and filter the air for you. It will also eliminate natural "convection and hot spots" within your home.

For the comfort you expect, you will achieve the lowest operating cost.

The topics above have a consideration in what follows.

LSO Design offers a unique system of design components that allows the finish of the interior surface to meet the edge of our component. This is the cleanest line to incorporate into your interior design. We have gone to great lengths to preserve the components design simplicity and ease of installation. This is why we have a “Patent Pending” on our system of components.

We have not seen wall or ceiling finish separation due to expansion and contraction of our components during the early installations. Some of our work has been modular construction. During hundreds of miles in over the road transportation at highway speeds we have seen no failures.

On site trade people come in all qualities and experiences. If your site finish company provides a successful visual finish to our product and a hairline separation develops during the first year, it should be initially addressed like any other settling crack and repaired as a normal course of the project. It is a hairline crack, nothing more. Standard practices will resolve it.

If however, you find greater levels of failure, it is probably due to insecure mounting of the components. LSO Design will first consider trade craftsmanship, and then provide the correct level of guidance possible to rectify the problem within our capacity. Installation Instructions are provided with every component. They must be followed