North Phoenix XV20i Air Conditioner Installation For Home Remodeling Project

May 12, 2016

SMW Refrigeration and Heating recently finished work on a property in north Phoenix. This was a pretty complicated project and involved completely rebuilding the entire HVAC system in the home.

Expanding The Home, Insulating It And Determining Tonnage

Originally the home had a single 5 Ton Split Gas AC System on it. The duct-work connected to an underground return duct, and a supply trunk in the hallway soffit. The home was purchased and the interior was completely gutted. Plans were then drawn up, expanding the area of the home from 2200 square feet to 3100 square feet. New energy efficient windows were installed, and the walls and attic were insulated with spray foam. These changes to the shell of the building made performing a load calculation necessary to determine the size of equipment needed. The relevant data was collected, and the home was modeled in Wrightsoft load calculation software. The results of the load calculation revealed that the size of air conditioner needed for the home was going to be a 4-ton unit for the east side and a 3-ton unit for the west side. Wrightsoft also sized the duct system for the home.

Insulation Specifications

Part Of The Home

Insulation

Walls (Existing)

4″ Brick and 4″ Block and Spray Foamed With 2″ Fired Out On North Side For Electrical

Walls (New)

2″x6″ Wood Frame With 6″ Of Spray Foam In Attic

Attic

Encapsulated With 6″ Of Spray Foam

Windows

Dual Pane Simonton SHGC 0.23/Value 0.29

Foundation

Existing Concrete Slab

Zoned XV20i AC System & Accessories For The Project Install

The customer opted for two variable speed Trane XV20i heat pumps paired with communicating Trane Hyperion Air handlers, one 4-ton and one 3-ton, each controlled with its own XL950 7″ touchscreen thermostat. The previous air conditioner used gas heat but the owner went with heat pumps because it doesn’t get that cold in Phoenix.

The 4-ton system was divided into two zones using Trane’s Comfortlink zoning system. The master bedroom suite was placed on its own zone, and the rest of the west side was placed on the other zone.
The 3-ton System was designed to cool the expanded great room and the kitchen area but was not zoned.

Both systems were connected to an R-8 flex duct system that was sized according to ACCA Manual D procedures. Installed into the supply plenums of each unit was Activtek Induct 2000 UV lights to help clean and disinfect the air in the home. SMW also installed super quiet 80 cfm Delta Breeze Greenbuilder exhaust fans in all the bathrooms and laundry room, and a special Panasonic 110cfm Whisper Warm Fan with a built-in 1400 watt heater in the master bath. The roof venting for the dryer and rangehood were also provided by us.

Air Conditioning Equipment

Part

Equipment Model

Condensing Unit

4 Ton and 3 Ton Trane XV20i Heatpump

Air Handlers

Trane TAM8 Hyperion

Thermostat

XL950 with Comfortlink II Zoning

Air Cleaner

Activetek Induct 2000

Ductwork

R-8 Flex

Grilles

Bar Type Return OBD Supply

Exhaust Fans

Panasonic Whisperwarm/Delta Breeze Greenbuilder

Stages Of Installing The Equipment

Mechanical Plans were drawn up then submitted to the city of Phoenix for a building permit, meanwhile, SMW waited for the call to start the work and made plans to do the installation in 3 Stages.

First, the air handlers, linesets, ductwork, register cans, and exhaust fans were installed in the home.
The second stage consisted of installing the condensing units, and all the grills for the ductwork and filters.
Lastly, the thermostats were done, the new AC units were fired up for the first time, and the refrigerant charge was set.

However, once the install was complete two more things needed to be done.

SMW completed an air balance on the home, testing the airflow to each room to make sure that the air conditioner met all the values from the load calculation.
Finally, blower door testing was performed on the home, to test the air tightness of the home and ductwork.

Starting with patient planning and then getting proper permission from the city, we successfully installed the new AC units and saw that they performed to desired specifications.

March 2017 Update

Below is the customer’s electrical usage since the installation was done.

Bill Date

Billing Days

Total Usage (kWh)

Average (kWh)

2/24/17

543

1/27/17

616

12/29/16

606

11/29/16

573

10/28/16

784

9/28/16

1067

8/29/16

1453

7/28/16

1416

6/28/16

1352

5/27/16

803

The homeowner is very satisfied with the quality of work done. If you have a similar project, give us a call, email us the plans, and we can quote your project.

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