A furnace can suffer from a drop in energy efficiency if it s in an unconditioned space such as an attic.
Builder sprayed insulation all over furnace in attic.
Yesterday i was at a home we completed unfortunately i was only the ac contractor on this home over a year ago.
Sprayed foam insulation ac loads calculated by energywisestructures.
Actually has better than 15 months of operation.
A furnace in the attic is a design that works for all homes.
The rigid insulation was saturated from condensation.
You might not receive the same air movement benefits if the unit is in a garage either.
A while back i wrote about the incompatibility of putting an atmospheric combustion furnace in a sealed attic.
Of course spray foam is very expensive so i am not sure i want to spring for it in the larger attic which could be addressed with traditional insulation.
A lot of builders and homeowners are going with spray foam insulation because of the airtightness benefits but then the questioner mentioned that the spray foam contractor had intentionally left big holes to the outside by not sealing the gable vents.
Most of the issues that furnace might experience in an attic are due to extremely cold weather in this poorly insulated space.
In cases where there has been a furnace in the attic i have put a grill in the pull down stairs to insure there is enough air getting into the house.
Unvented attic sealed furnace and gas water heater.
We mean that literally by the way.
I found instead a vintage 3 ton ac unit with 1 rigid insulation taped all over it and insulated flex duct snaking all over the poorly insulated attic.
If we insulate to r60 that attic is going to be mighty cold in the in winter and hot in the summer.
The concern with a furnace in an unvented attic is to be sure there is enough combustion air so the furnace has adequate air for combustion and drafts properly.
If you don t have a crawl space or a basement then it can be a challenge to place a furnace on the ground floor of the structure.
She asked me to go into the attic to find the roof leaks or where the snow is blowing in through the soffits.
Nothing unusual about that.
What do you all think.
Should i worry about the furnace in the attic.
Attics with spray foam insulation are so cool.
When you insulate the top of your attic with spray foam you re bringing your attic into your home s envelope as a result you can reduce the temperature in your attic by a lot anywhere from 120 degrees to around 95 during peak summer.
The good news is that some installers understand this problem and seek to address.
