Depends on the unit and whether it was over sized or under sized for the space, but restricting 60℅ air flow is a lot.
Thanks for your response! I appreciate it. Do you know how I can investigate this further? I would like to figure out if I’m over-stressing my unit because I’ve been doing that for the past ~2 years.
Another thing to consider is that if you later want to heat up the entire house, the unit has to work harder. Sometimes it can be more efficient to just keep the house close to your target temp.
Heating up the house happens so rarely that I can’t remember the last time I did that. It may have been ~2 years.
I’m not an HVAC technician so I wouldn’t know exactly, but I think there’s two things to consider: static pressure and duty cycle. Static pressure is the fan working hard to spin which causes wear on bearings. Duty cycle is how long the machine runs. If your duty cycle is too low then the machine is turning on and off quickly which is bad.
You could look at the size of the unit and there’s some rules of thumb that translate size, climate, and square footage and there are online calculators you can use. I think the only way to know for sure is to measure the pressure drop across the intake and outflow and see what the fan motor is rated for.
chaospatterns@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Depends on the unit and whether it was over sized or under sized for the space, but restricting 60℅ air flow is a lot.
BackOnMyBS@lemmy.autism.place 2 weeks ago
Thanks for your response! I appreciate it. Do you know how I can investigate this further? I would like to figure out if I’m over-stressing my unit because I’ve been doing that for the past ~2 years.
Heating up the house happens so rarely that I can’t remember the last time I did that. It may have been ~2 years.
AA5B@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Wait until your furnace dies and see if it was closer to ten years or to 25 years?
chaospatterns@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’m not an HVAC technician so I wouldn’t know exactly, but I think there’s two things to consider: static pressure and duty cycle. Static pressure is the fan working hard to spin which causes wear on bearings. Duty cycle is how long the machine runs. If your duty cycle is too low then the machine is turning on and off quickly which is bad.
You could look at the size of the unit and there’s some rules of thumb that translate size, climate, and square footage and there are online calculators you can use. I think the only way to know for sure is to measure the pressure drop across the intake and outflow and see what the fan motor is rated for.
BackOnMyBS@lemmy.autism.place 2 weeks ago
This is a good starting point! Thank you very much