michaelwoodcoc
Automotive
- Jun 29, 2017
- 172
At my moms place, the unit was recently serviced and we were told, and shown it had mold inside. Not sure if it was mold or mildew. It was cleaned from the unit and shortly after the whole house started to smell of mold and mildew. Hard to say if it's mold or mildew since there's so many types of mold, but it smells more like mildew. Doen't smell wet, it smells so stinky.
Causes are probably this:
1. drain was backed up from unit, mildly overflowing in unit, small puddle in bottom of unit.
2. High humidity this time of year
3. I measured indoor relative humidity and it's frequently over 50%, sometimes by a good margin.
Possibly:
stack effect drawing in moist air (two story house, has attic hatch, some leaky door seals, has crawl space, although there's 2-3" spray foam in there, should be a good seal)
We are having the duct work cleaned shortly, hopefully this week, hopefully monday
improvements done or about to do:
1. slowing down fan in air handler to remove more moisture (Status: done)
2. setting thermostat lower
3. replacing filters upstairs and down with merv 13 filters to starve mold & mildew of food (they need food, right? upstairs filter is clogged, it's always overlooked by service guys)(status: Filters ordered)
the said filters have to be very thick to ensure that the fan doesn't have to work very hard
Considerations:
1. Testing and balancing to ensure a good consistent temp thru house, I think just replacing upstairs filter will help since upstairs was always hot, that air wasn't being sucked downatairs (status: Not done, 3d printing things to help test flow, getting multiple temp sensors)
2. checking vacuum before blower fan, 3d printing meter for this. I don't want to overwork the blower motor, although with 4" deep filters the flow should be sufficient
3. reducing sources of moisture (didn't have this problem any year before, house hasn't changed in years, maybe just door seals)
Anything I could be leaving out?
I just switched the blower speed, I'll report back on new humidity levels.
Engineering student. Electrical or mechanical, I can't decide!
Minoring in psychology
Causes are probably this:
1. drain was backed up from unit, mildly overflowing in unit, small puddle in bottom of unit.
2. High humidity this time of year
3. I measured indoor relative humidity and it's frequently over 50%, sometimes by a good margin.
Possibly:
stack effect drawing in moist air (two story house, has attic hatch, some leaky door seals, has crawl space, although there's 2-3" spray foam in there, should be a good seal)
We are having the duct work cleaned shortly, hopefully this week, hopefully monday
improvements done or about to do:
1. slowing down fan in air handler to remove more moisture (Status: done)
2. setting thermostat lower
3. replacing filters upstairs and down with merv 13 filters to starve mold & mildew of food (they need food, right? upstairs filter is clogged, it's always overlooked by service guys)(status: Filters ordered)
the said filters have to be very thick to ensure that the fan doesn't have to work very hard
Considerations:
1. Testing and balancing to ensure a good consistent temp thru house, I think just replacing upstairs filter will help since upstairs was always hot, that air wasn't being sucked downatairs (status: Not done, 3d printing things to help test flow, getting multiple temp sensors)
2. checking vacuum before blower fan, 3d printing meter for this. I don't want to overwork the blower motor, although with 4" deep filters the flow should be sufficient
3. reducing sources of moisture (didn't have this problem any year before, house hasn't changed in years, maybe just door seals)
Anything I could be leaving out?
I just switched the blower speed, I'll report back on new humidity levels.
Engineering student. Electrical or mechanical, I can't decide!
Minoring in psychology
