Ac ceiling vents... Motorized ?

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ritelec

ritelec

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Jersey
My neighbor has two systems. Air conditioning and forced hot air.
She closes the Ac ceiling vents manually each winter so the heat doesn't go up into them. She asked if they make them motorized. Searching I see motorized louvers and motorized dampers
Anyone ever see motorized Ac vents.

May be in wrong topic ....

Thank you.
 
Thank you, appreciate it.

OK, Me thinks Mary Lou will continue to pull out her ladder and open/close it manually..... :- )
 
Jraef said:
Hey, she already over paid for a system that uses two separate ducts for heating / AC, so she might be willing to pay for the motorized VAV boxes...
Click to expand...

The AC could be through-the-wall split units.
 
She has a VERY old large home with forced hot air OIL heat.. registers in floor old victorian.. she added an addition and wanted the OIL heat extended and AC separate which they added at that time...
registers in ceiling..... personally I think they did a good job... (early 80's)
 
ritelec said:
she is.... I don't think it's worth it...
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There used to be some battery operated retrofit ones that I saw a year ago or so that took 2 C batteries, but I couldn't find them again, company may have gone bust... If I can remember the name, I'll post it. I think they were around $150 each, but no wire or wiring. She would still have to change the batteries, probably once every other year or so depending on how often she uses it.

Found it actually, One Zone.
http://onezoneusa.com/about-onezone-single/
 
ritelec said:
She has a VERY old large home with forced hot air OIL heat.. registers in floor old victorian.. she added an addition and wanted the OIL heat extended and AC separate which they added at that time.
registers in ceiling
she is willing to pay for the motorized VAV box

I don't think it's worth it.
Click to expand...
Where do the air-conditioning ducts go once they're on the other side of the ceiling? If the ducts are inside the insulated building envelope, I can't imaging any value to closing them. If the air conditioner fan isn't running, they're just a dead end. And if they're on the indoor side of the insulation, there's no heat escaping to the outdoors through them.

If the air-conditioning ducts are in an uninsulated attic, insulating the attic might be a better approach than installing electric dampers.

What's her motivation for launching this project?

This question might be better posed to HVACR people than to electrical people.
 
Thank you for finding that Jraef.....

what's the motivation.... ? The ceiling ducts go to the attic air handlers ( I think two as there are two condensers outside and I know of the one in one attic area)... she feels it is a waste of heated air going up into those ducts in the winter..
I guess she has a point.

she's been opening/closing these ducts for almost 3 decades... in time I'll do it for her... not a biggy...
she was asking if they make them because if they didn't I could come up with something to make alot of $$$.....lol

that's right next to her wanted me to come up with something that turns the water off to a water heater when they leak as not to flood...$$$ lol

I did research that and I believe they do make a valve that turns off, although they are not too expensive, people don't have them installed as the cost of water heaters have been going up in the last few years...

Thank you for the feed back.
 
ritelec said:
that's right next to her wanted me to come up with something that turns the water off to a water heater when they leak as not to flood...$$$ lol

I did research that and I believe they do make a valve that turns off, although they are not too expensive, people don't have them installed as the cost of water heaters have been going up in the last few years...

Thank you for the feed back.
Click to expand...
Also, for not much money, they make a leak alarm like a smoke detector that has a probe you put under the water heater. 9 volt battery lasts years.
 
gadfly56 said:
The AC could be through-the-wall split units.
Click to expand...
There would be no ceiling registers to close off during heating season if that were the case.

ritelec said:
She has a VERY old large home with forced hot air OIL heat.. registers in floor old victorian.. she added an addition and wanted the OIL heat extended and AC separate which they added at that time...
registers in ceiling..... personally I think they did a good job... (early 80's)
Click to expand...
Oil burning furnaces are about extinct around here, other than waste oil furnaces in shop buildings maybe, but probably aren't in some parts of the country. Don't know why they didn't find a way to put the AC evaporator into the existing duct system and use the blower on the original heating unit though, that would have been typical around here.

Where I have run into two completely separate systems is typically a boiler system for heat and a ducted system for cooling.

Mini split units - if using those why not get one with heat pump controls and/or even resistance aux heating units?
 
If you can get to the backside of the vents, you could install a spring close, power open damper in each, and have a relay tied into the air handlers to power the dampers whenever the blower came on. The springs would shut the damper when the power dropped. Would probably need an extra transformer as most of those dampers are 24v.
 
Stebs said:
If you can get to the backside of the vents, you could install a spring close, power open damper in each, and have a relay tied into the air handlers to power the dampers whenever the blower came on. The springs would shut the damper when the power dropped. Would probably need an extra transformer as most of those dampers are 24v.
Click to expand...

Yes, same dampers typically used for zoning purposes, though those normally aren't installed at the outlet end of the ducts, so there is chance you need more of them and bigger power supply or multiple power supplies to handle all of them.
 
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