Moved offices and this one blows 115 f from 6 am to 8 pm, and I’m usually in the office 12 of those hours. This is the only vent that does it. This used to be the maintenance foreman’s office but he wanted to move to a bigger one (bc he’s here 1-2 hours a day and needed it apparently, though I think I know the real reason why now) so I volunteered to swap bc I don’t care. They won’t let me manually turn it off with a wrench and they won’t fix it so here we are. Works pretty well so far.
UPDATE: It worked. Boss got mad and blew his top after standing in front of the duct for a minute and sweating, but not at me. Now I am allowed to get the hvac vendor involved when there are issues despite not being in maintenance anymore (which is a decades long story). They showed me how to turn off by zone in the software, so it is off. My office is sitting at 72 degrees, which is the setpoint for the whole office, just from air coming in the door from the hallway. Perfect solution imo because I rather now have air blowing on me anyways.
wonder how long that stays up before they conveniently get around to fixing it
Realistically I could see them just removing his engineering masterpiece and doing nothing
I’m thinking this is permanent
Could not reproduce issue
Quick closes ticket
As my Russian friend once told me
There is nothing so permanent as something temporary
It was the maintenance formans office previously and it didn’t get fixed. Do you think it’s happening now??
I didn’t include in the post but half the reason I did it was so the big boss gets mad enough it will get fixed. He’s instructed the foreman to get it fixed multiple times already. The other reason is bc it’s working. Dropped from 80 when I finished to 74 and stayed there. It would usually peak 84-85 around 3 or 4 and hold there until 8 pm. This is with the outdoors in the 40-55ish range. I only moved a month or so ago, must have been brutal in summer.
The issue was asking if you could turn it off with a wrench. Start giving it a quarter twist a day until everyone forgets.
“It is better to ask for forgiveness than permission.”
Maybe. But this fixed it immediately and if I got caught with the wrench I’d be the one getting in trouble.
[deleted]
Unfortunately OSHA has no temp standard that's enforceable. It's only a recommendation of 68°-76°f, so there is no violation here. It's very dumb and widely overlooked in their scope. They don't even require employers to provide heat or AC for work spaces.
I see no problems here, only solutions ;)
This is how Apollo 13 was saved.
yup, plastic bags and duct tape saved the day back in '70
Can you cap it and install a new ceiling tile?
If I try the noise is really bad. I have magnetic covers on there that I tried covering the whole vent. Had to leave a 4x6 opening or it sounded like a hurricane. I don’t think I’m allowed to remove the actual vent and cap the duct in the ceiling.
Damn. Is there enough room to elbow it to the hallway and swap the ceiling tiles and outlet cover?
Again that's not really his call to reengineer the duct system 😂
That's the expected thing to do but sometimes building management can't figure that out.
theres def gotta be a balance louver up in the ceiling
There is. I’m explicitly not allowed to mess with it. The real issue though isn’t just balance. The rest of the office will cycle on and off depending on temp. Mine is always on. 6 am to 8 pm it never stops. So the actuator for the flapper (or whatever it uses to turn individual ones off and on) is the issue.
put in a maintenance request to the previous tenant
It’s resolved now. Big boss rolled through, blew his stack but at the foreman bc he said he’d dealt with it, now I have authority to deal with hvac here (yay more work for me) so I got the vendor to explain how to turn it off in the interface.
This is fucking awesome 😂 well done!
All of your CFM's that are up there are going to be down here real fast now. See that big hole, plenty of room for air to run around faster now.
(Edit-Folks-My comment wasn't serious. It was tongue in cheek sarcasm, that obviously missed.)
OP-I'm all about your redirect ducting. I've rigged even jankier solutions to move air (Automotive maufacturing paint shops)
He's diverting the heat out of his office because the vent blows directly down on him. It'll work fine, even if there is a bit of leakage...
I “sealed” the gaps with duct tape. Not perfect but good enough until I get some silver tape. The rest is blocked with magnetic covers. The thing is a fucking heat gun blowing into the hallway. The rest of the office is 70-72 degrees. I’ll put a fan in the hallway tomorrow if the heat comes back in the door. It’s now down to 74 degrees from 80 when I finished the install. I don’t care if the hallway gets hot.
Rate of flow is defined by the area of greatest restriction.
The previous occupant, the maintenance foreman, did he have all the heat ducted into his office?
It seems that way, but he was rarely in the office. Maybe 30 min at a time a couple times a day. TBH half the reason I did this is so that he gets in trouble for not fixing it when the big boss rolls through and sees it. He’s aware of the situation and has instructed the foreman to fix it multiple times. Foreman claims it has been or can’t be fixed each time.
The heat in the rest of the office is fine. It hovers 70-72 which is the set point.
I was going to say just put a fan but I assumed the office was empty
I don't understand why you don't just cap it off 12 in below the ceiling and then install your own 4-inch adjustable damper in the end cap. Just get a piece of sheet metal and cut out a circle 1.5 in bigger than the duct. Cut tabs all along the perimeter and fold them over. Use wire or tape to connect it to the duct hanging.
Because this took 5 minutes and $15 in supplies and it stopped the problem and is so ugly that hopefully it will get them to do a real fix.
got it...depending on the office it could also turn you into the laughing stock of the crew, I'm sure you have a handle on that though lol. Kind of looks like a graphical depiction of legionaires disease spreading through ductwork.
This is straight out of a Terry Gilliam movie. Maybe you could get Robert De Niro to do some unlicensed repairs.
How about just take the ducting loose from the vent in the drop ceiling?
You mean cap out inside? I tried testing by sealing the vent and it got super noisy. I assumed capping it just above the vent would do the same.
In the ceiling air supply line, detach it from vent outlet. Then you can move the supply line wherever you want. If your handy, move the vent and all to another location. it’s easy in drop ceilings