Had a good experience with ACoolerHouse.com

[Tim]

We grew tired of our high electric bills and our brand new 4 ton a/c struggling to keep our house cool. And just generally feeling uncomfortable in our master bedroom due to it being a couple of degrees warmer than the rest of the house. I also suspected a problem with my air filters turning black after about a month of use. Therefore, I called Texas-New Mexico Power to find out who the contractor is for the Oncor Standard Offer rebate programs. They sent out an auditor and he confirmed everything that I already suspected about the house.

Our house is a 1994 home built by Richmond American Homes of Texas. Do NOT ever buy a home from this builder! My attic was below code even for 1994 requirements. It was in need of a complete retrofit. There were some places in my attic that had a few inches of insulation. There were sections of our bathroom that had no insulation and was just wall board. The insulation was also pink, which is the poorest R value of all the fiberglass insulations. My air handler/coil was leaking in over a half dozen places around the casing. The ducts were leaking where they connectd to the coil. The return was leaking around the ring and 2x4s. The supply vents in the house were also leaking around the rings.

List of problems found by the auditor:

- Insulation levels were deplorable. Barely qualified to R21 values with some spots having only 3" - 4".
- The garage was not insulated at all. Just wall board.
- The air handler/coil was leaking all around the case
- Ducts were leaking
- Main return in the living room was leaking around the ring and there was too much plenum volume
- The passive/static vents in attics were not exchanging any air making the attic really hot
- The existing eave soffits were covered with insulation and not breathing
- No soffits on the back end of the house
- The house failed the leak down test
- Recorded attic temps of 132 - 135 degrees

What they did to fix the problems:

- Installed a 850cfm solar attic fan w/thermostat. Pulls hot air out of attic space and blows it into the atmosphere
- Brought the R21 insulation levels up to R38 spec. (14" depth) with white gaurdian fiberglass (best R value).
- Insulated the entire garage
- Built two air hocks in the garage to make the garage space breathe
- Sealed all the leaks in the coil and duct work
- Sealed the leaks in the main return and decrease the volume by building up the plenum space and sealing it. The large plenum space was absorbing heat through the walls and making the return inefficient.
- Installed 3 soffit vents on the eave on backside of the house
- House passed the leak efficiency test

Final real world results:

Before: 135 degree attic temp @ 100 degree ambient / 96 degree garage temp @ 100 degree ambient

After: 109 degree attic temp @ 96 degree ambient / 85 degree garage temp @ 96 degree ambient

Our a/c now blows cold and doesn't cycle as often. It stays running for a less amount of time. You actually want a blanket sitting in the living room at night. And perhaps the biggest effect of all, we actually are able to sleep under the covers now. It was so hot we always slept above the covers regardless of what you put the thermostat on. The a/c would never blow cold air before even being brand new and fully charged.

We got a $200 rebate towards the final bill as a result of the Oncor SOP program. I would recommend ACoolerHouse based on my experience. They did good work and were friendly.

[38Special]

Cool... no pun intended

I need to give them a call. Let us know how this affects your electric bill also.

Nice write up.

[ReeseZ71]

that is good to hear. I bet you save a decent amount on your elec. bill too!

[budroux2w]

Nice! they would probably tell me to just burn my house down and rebuild....

[Tim]

Originally Posted by bad pony

I need to give them a call. Let us know how this affects your electric bill also.

Nice write up.

Definitely. I will let you guys know what my bill is after the next full billing cycle. I can easily look up what my bill was this time last year and compare.

Our electric bills prior to the work was averaging around $250 - $300 (summer months) monthly for just a small single story 3 bed room house. Around $135 - $150 in the winter months.

My auditor immediately asked me who the home builder was after conducting the attic. When we had the house inspected as part of the sale process he didn't mention any problems with the attic in our inspection report. Our house was below building code from the day it was built.

[SCARY 4.6]

Originally Posted by 38Special

Cool... no pun intended

^^LOL^^


That's awesome Tim, it sucks that the initial builders did such a poor job but glad to hear everything is all fixed up for you guys now. ACoolerHouse sounds like a great company that cares about customer service and satisfaction.

[Chelsea]

Great write up, cant wait to see what your electric bill is!

[Tim]

Originally Posted by Chelsea

Great write up, cant wait to see what your electric bill is!

Update:

Got our electric bill yesterday. Almost a full billing cycle after the retrofit by ACoolerHouse. Our bill was $100+ less than last months bill. However, some of that is attributed to the cooler ambient temps the last couple of weeks.

Therefore, I dug around and found out what we paid this same time last year. Our current bill is roughly $40 less than what we paid last year.

I'm relieved. It cost a lot of money to get this done and I was going to be extremely unhappy to not see a tangible result. You can turn the a/c down in here and hang meat if you like. So, I know something is working. It's just nice to see it validated on paper.

I use to go in my attic and see 135 degree temps before the retrofit. Now the attic space stays about 10 degrees above ambient. That solar attic fan works and is whisper quiet. The air hocks in the garage have made it pleasant to spend time working in the garage. Money well spent.

[MS02Mustang GT]

awesome.

[Karen]

I think it's awesome b/c it's so much cooler in here!

[Ambicat3781]

Awesome!!!

[budroux2w]

i noticed a big difference. you could actually tell when the ac was running. i actually got a little cold.

[Tim]

Yep, I'm really pleased.

[Chelsea]

That's great news! Thank you for sharing your experience with us!!

[Tim]

3 bedroom house with 12' ceilings

You must be logged in to view this content.

[Tim]

Still continuing to be impressed with each subsequent bill.

For the approximate billing period this time last year our bill was $102

You must be logged in to view this content.

[Fox Chic]

Wow! That's a great savings!!