Howdy all,
so the upstairs got a little too hot this summer while we weren't up there much and some mold started growing on the kids nasty baseball caps and leather belts. I have cleaned it up, scrubbed things down, but now I see a little bit in the attic with the A/C units. Anyone know of someone that helps trouble shoot that kind of thing in B/CS? Not sure exactly what to do other than run a dehumidifier all the time (which needs dumping about twice a day).
Recommendations?
Thanks, Bev

Not sure who could diagnose, but some humidifiers can be set up with a drain hose, if that helps any.

I would assume you need better ventilation. Do you know your attic temperature?

Attic temp? Hot. Real hot. But with a vent in the gable (correct terminology?) of the attic so there should be airflow. Maybe my airflow is the prob? Or lack of airflow?

I know it being cold in your house and this hot and humid outside will cause your problem. I ask because it really shouldn't be any hotter than 130ish. If it's not being vented correctly and gets to hot it can cause a lot of damage to your attic. Typically your options are better ventilation or a dehumidifier.

Well so the electricity must have gone out while we were gone because we have the type of A/C that is on a schedule. I think I put the kids area to hold on 78 or 79 but obviously the attic was hotter than that. The places were it grew were in the closets, which I think were closed accidentally (on black items, dry cleaned items and items with little boy sweat) and then in the bedrooms on the oldest stuffed animals. Then in the attic on one area of silver ducting areas. I am not understanding why if I have never had a problem in the attic before, why did I start now, while at the same time have a problem in the air conditioned area? If the air conditioned area just got to hot and didn't have enough ventilation, I can understand that. But did the increase of temp in that area also cause the attic to be that much hotter causing a problem in there too?

we don't have those but it is a pretty small house and has gabled vents at each end of the crawl space (I am referring to attic as the area we can actually walk into that has the A/C system as opposed to the crawl space which is vented with the gables)... it may have just been the perfect storm of humidity, A/C shutting off because of electricity going out and being gone longer than we anticipated due to a family emergency

We leave our AC on 78-79 all the time. It seems that it was off completely while you were gone?

I thought you were only having mold in the attic. You definitely have a humidity problem in the house that you need remedied asap.

I wonder if you have a air conditioning vent leaking in your attic. I'm stumped on this one.

I have been looking ALL over for water...haven't seen any...

We noticed in the spring when we would go upstairs that we would hit the halfway landing (where the A/C return is btw) and we could feel a change in humidity level (upstairs was higher). We are running one unit with two different climate controls - up and down.

oh and i don't think it was completely off because when electricity has gone out before I recall it just stays at a moderate level. So it shouldn't have been off completely. But I wasn't the first one up there, my son was and I doubt he noticed anything other than, wow, its hot, turn it down!

As a property insurance adjuster I see this fairly often. The most common cause is a malfunctioning evaporator
coil in your a/c. I would start there.

Ooooo thanks!!

The high humidity could be from an air leak in the HVAC system or from untreated outside air leaking into your home. Please check the condensate drain on the unit.

Is your air conditioner sized correctly for your house? If you have an AC that is far larger than necessary, it will not cycle often enough to purge out the humidity in the house and your house will feel cool but still damp.

I had that probably many years ago where the builder thought he was doing me a favor and put an AC in that was about a ton and a half larger than it should have been. The house cooled well but we felt like we were sitting in a damp cave. One day I had a guy from church came over for a chuch event who was an AC specialist and when I mentioned the problem he said he knew exactly what my problem probably was. And sure enough it was exactly that the AC was way too large for the house.

I know there are many factors involved, but I believe here you need about 1 ton of AC per 500 SF of typical home. http://asm-air.com/airconditioning/what-size-central-air-conditioner-for-my-house/
.

any recommendations of a/c people in this town?

I have used Clint Jones of Jones AC a number of times and very happy with his service.

and thanks for all the ideas...I will bring all this up when i get someone out here and whomever picked the correct problem I will send you a cap or a coozie or something! ha ha! (go enter yourself on the contest we have going right now on the outdoor page, look for the title "where in the world do you like to hunt")

wow there are two clint jones in this town then because he is our computer guy!

We started using Marco with Aire Cool based on TexAgs recommendations. He's fantastic!

Marco.
Many many on this site recommend and use him. I just had him do a project for me and he was great. Prices VERY competitive

Marco 979-777-2520

If all you have is ridge vents (no whirlybirds or powered fan), make sure you check the soffit vents all around your house. I looked at mine one year and all the little ridges in the soffit vents were push upwards (essentially closed), and/or the wire mesh in the vents were completely blocked with dust/dirt/etc.

here's what a soffit vent looks like under the gables of your house:



It may not be related to your high humidity, but it's not something people with ridge vents on the house may understand/know about.

One other possibility to think about.

Is your clothes dryer vented directly out an exterior wall?

I have seen them vented up and through the roof. If the vent gets clogged near the top it will force hot moist air up into your attic area and into the house.

you know what, that is a really good thought...yes, ours goes up and that has alway bothered me. I do a lot of dirty, dusty laundry being out in the woods and you should see the amount of pillows I could stuff with lint...

quote:

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you know what, that is a really good thought...yes, ours goes up and that has alway bothered me. I do a lot of dirty, dusty laundry being out in the woods and you should see the amount of pillows I could stuff with lint...

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Disconnect and blow it out with a compressor.

We have a 1 story, but our dryer vent goes straight up to the peak of an A frame roof. It was totally clogged when we bought the house.

FYI, hubby had to unscrew the top off of the vent stack to blow out the lint.

Having mold on the AC ducts and air handler in your attic is perfectly normal. The only solution to that is very heavy insulation. Ducts should always be suspended, and not laying on the attic floor. Unless the duct or the AC system has internal or external insulation that is in very good condition, its going to sweat. ITs like putting a glass of ice water up there and expecting it to not sweat. Anything that has 40 degree air running through it stuffed in an environment with 80% humidity in Texas is going to sweat.

Your other issue is a problem. You should not have mold in your rooms or clothes. AC systems should be designed around a target. In this area, the target is 75 degrees inside while 95 outside. That means that if the outside temp is above 95 degrees and your AC is not running continuously, its very likely oversized. If its 100 degrees outside, and you can set your thermostat to 75, and it will reach that set point quickly, its DEFINITELY oversized. This time of year, an AC system should be running pretty much continuously during the day. Thats what its supposed to do and how you remove humidity.

The way you can attempt to deal with it is simply set the thermostat lower. You need to monitor your humidity with a gauge. See if you set the AC to 70 if the humidity drops to 50% or less after a day or so. Thats really where I like mine to be.


Without knowing your exact AC system, thats about all I can offer. Sometimes a VS blower on newer units can be adjusted to put out less air.....which means more dehumidification. But that all has to be carefully adjusted by a pro....

Appreciate all your input. My son told me that when he went upstairs when we first arrived home he thought it said 85 upstairs. So when the electricity went out it messed up the programming. I am hoping that this is the main reason but I am armed with much more knowledge thanks to all of you!

So you all might find this interesting. Clint Jones came out and right off he said he didn't like A/C's that were split into zones. He showed me how the air will sit in the duct work and the damper shuts for the one floor while it may be open for the other. The closed off duct work creates some condensation in the heat of the attic which obviously can cause mold. He opened two different places, one area that feeds the upstairs and one that feeds the downstairs. The upstairs one has some mold growing in, not much, but a little. Ultimately he says that the dampers start to have problems because of the humidity and condensation and will eventually stick and need to be replaced. He said he never recommends a two zone A/C system because he says after a few years, this has happened to all the ones he has seen. Mine is TWO YEARS OLD!! He does not install two zone systems for any of his customers.

Ultimately there is nothing specifically wrong but he agrees that the problem probably started when the A/C shut off for too long upstairs. The lack of air movement combined with hotter temps up there and the condensation that had already been building in the second zone created the problem. To fix it, I need to try to keep the temperatures from up and down pretty close so the dampers stay open at the same time (a challenge since hot air rises to second floor anyway, which is also a problem with upstairs vs downstairs zones) and the air continues to move through both ducting. The mold wasn't very bad so we cleaned it up and are keeping an eye on it.

My translation isn't great but you get the general idea. Clint was professional and his bill was completely appropriate for the service he provided. Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I threw all of them out there for him to mull over. He probably wondered how in the world I came up with so many solutions!

I appreciate your post. I will be watching for this in my own place.