Recent searches
Search options
As a Midwesterner, it is absolutely bonkers to me how common it appears to be for HVAC systems to get installed in attics.
Don't do that. Stop doing that! WTF?
That's bad enough, but then you go and run the ducts up there, too?
Y'all.
If you keep the system and the ducts within the space you're trying to heat and cool, you don't have to account for any losses, now, do ya?
Put the air handler in a utility closet. Run ducts /below/ the ceiling. Enclose with soffiting if you must.
The end.
This is a test rant for a future video that may or may not happen.
But seriously, I cannot fathom how HVAC stuff in attics (or crawlspaces!) got normalized. Especially in new construction.
You virtually never see that around here (the most common application is old homes with radiators for heat who want to add central air) and for good reason!
@TechConnectify have you seen Matt Risinger’s discussion of this on https://buildshownetwork.com ? He’s a big proponent of extending the conditioned envelope of the home to include the attic to, among other things, remediate this issue.
@StarTracker I haven't seen that video, no, but see to me that perspective can only come from somebody who is used to air handlers already going up there.
That's just not a thing we /ever/ do here except in weird circumstances. The attic is strictly structural and hardly anyone ever goes up there period.
@TechConnectify as someone whose air handler is in a basement and ducts in soffits, I agree it is strange. I wonder what the numbers are on how much efficiency is lost by placing an (insulated) unit and duct work in what is ostensibly a super-hot Texas attic
@StarTracker I can't speak to Texas, but around San Diego (where my brother is) after the A/C's been off for a while, you notice a blast of hot air when it comes back on.
I haven't been up into his attic to check the ducting situation, but I have no doubt they're insulated. It's just that anything sitting in a hot attic for an hour is gonna get, well, hot.