guo9001

I didn't want to spend a fortune on outdoor lighting, and I found these really nice lights on eBay. I bought 7 for $150 including shipping. Similar lights in Lowes would have been over $50 each. Home Depot was even more expensize. They are good size, like 19 inches high. I put one on each side of my front door, one above each garage door, and one on each side of the back door. What do you think?

More photos here

Hallowell Acadia stuck in stage 1 only

2010-Dec-10

Something is wrong.

The second floor system is working great. The 1st floor one is fubar. The heat always blows out cool. Ok I don't know the temp, but it seems like the 1st state heat. When you put the thermostat up a few degrees, and it goes to stage 2, or stage 2 blinking, the air temp is the same. Emergency heat mode, same thing. Seems like it is stuck on stage 1. So with outside temps 35 high and 10 low right now, it's tough to stay warm. The upstairs unit does compensate, but that is not the answer.

My installer went out of business, but i know the guy, he went to work for someone else. I called him, he says Hallowell has not returned his call(s). Connecting that with recent speculative comments in posts about Hallowell layoffs/buyout/etc.

Also a friend of mine had the same thing happen to him at the same time. He build a 5000 sq ft house at the same time i build my house, and has 2 4-ton units and 1 3-ton unit. One of his is doing the same thing.

Anyone have any idea or advice?

Does anyone know a good Hallowell Acadia install/service guy in the Mahopac NY area (50 miles north of NYC)? I dont want to call random guy.


2010-Dec-14 update

OK I think it is fixed now.

A guy from Mt Kisco Mechanical came out to the house and looked at it this morning. First thing I asked him, was how many Hallowell Acadia's he had worked on before. None, he said, but we all went through the training. That made me a little nervous. Anyway I explained the situation, he checked out the thermostat, air handler, and heat pump. Asked me for the manuals to check some more stuff. He said the heat pump unit had a blinking error #6, he would have to call Hallowell. Also, he showed me a jumper on the air handler (just like on a computer motherboard) which was set to "no heat" instead of "heat". So that was why the emergency heat mode on the thermostat did not work. So I guess in the past year, when my thermostat showed 1+2 blinking, I was not getting any heat from those heat strips.

He called the Hallowell number on the front of the manual, got passed to voicemail, and left them a message. Not even 2 minutes later his phone rang, it was a Hallowell technician. The error #6 was some sort of internal compressor lockout. So I think he just had to pull the disconnect, wait like 15 seconds, and put the disconnect back in, to clear it. The Hallowell guy said that the compressor tripped because it got too hot, it was working too hard. Usually 2 reasons for this would be, (1) not enough air flow, (2) problem in the coolant system.

The filters were fine, air flow seemed ok. The Hallowell guy said something like 20 degrees subcooling. The service tech checked the R-410A coolant, it was low. He said there is likely a slow leak somewhere, probably since original installation, and I should get it checked out in the Spring. He topped off the 2nd floor unit which he said was ok, but on the low end. So he added 14 lbs. He checked out both units, dip switches, wiring etc. The attic unit also had the strip heaters off, he changed both to on.

I'm thinking I might go back and disable them to save money/prevent them from going on. Might this cause any problems with the units/compresors/etc?

Here is what the service tech wrote up

So the rumors about Hallowell getting bought out / going out of business may or may not be accurate. They were super responsive for me today, and they helped the service tech over the phone to get my problem diagnosed/fixed. And it does not appear to be a Hallowell equipment problem.

So hopefully everything is fine now. I'll see how it goes in the next few days. Any comments would be appreciated.


UPDATE: PLEASE READ MY OTHER POSTS ABOUT THE HALLOWELL ACADIA. I'm having compressor problems like many other Hallowell Acadia Owners...

Also if you deal/install/own a Hallowell Acadia, please join the Hallowell Acadia Google Group.
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New York Electrical Inspection Services

OK, I need to get my final electrical inspection soon. Some electrical contractors that I've talked to, tell you their total price for the job. Other tell you a price, plus a separate amount for inspection fees.

So wanting to know everything, I got real curious about these electrical fees. Can someone tell me what the fee is? Or fees? Not really.

One contractor said "a couple hundred dollars". Another one said "I don't know, 0.30 cents per outlet, 10 cents a switch, something like that." No one woud give me a straight answer. So I called the electrical inspection agency. I guess there are a bunch of companies that conduct electrical inspections in New York, and New York Electrical Inspection Services seems to be the most well known or most used around my area. So I called them directly and asked them what their fees are. Point blank, they would not tell me. They said they did not want to be rude, but they deal only with electrical contractors, and do NOT deal directly with homeowners at all. They charge a fee to the contractor, then the contractor bills the homeowner. What a great ploy that is!

What is going on here? Talk about transparency, this organization never heard of it. Maybe I am stupid, but I thought that the whole point of an inspection, is to protect homeowners from substandard work by contractors. But yet these same inspection agencies will NOT even talk to a homeowner, but have a great buddy-buddy relationship with contractors.

As a homeowner, that scares me. Like they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.