Central Air In The Attic

An outdoor unit which houses the fan condenser and compressor and an indoor unit which holds the evaporator and fan.

Central air in the attic. Most updated central air conditioned homes have a new air conditioner split system meaning the ac is broken up into parts. The 20 to 30 foot long pipes that carry the refrigerant are disguised to look like a downspout. If you have a horizontal furnace in an attic the evaporator coil will sit on one end of the furnace instead of on top. Intake vents located at the lowest part of the roof under.

Central air in the attic not sure about the access size but the place to start which should have been done by your contractor before this unit was installed is to determine the correct size. Put it in an attic full of blown insulation and you re forcing. Cool air in hot air out attic ventilation works on the principle that heated air naturally rises primarily utilizing two types of vents. Typically this indoor unit gets placed in a cabinet or closet somewhere inside.

If you place the furnace in the attic then you must install the infrastructure in the building to force the warm air to the bottom floor. Throw duct leakage into the mix and the problems are even worse. That means you have higher energy costs and less efficiency since you re blowing the air down instead of allowing it to rise naturally. With hundreds of square feet of ductwork surface area in the attic and a δt of 75 f the air coming out of the vents in your home will be significantly higher than 55 f.

The condenser in your air conditioner works hard to get rid of heat and pressurize refrigerant for the return trip through your house. An attic can get up to about 130 f in the summer and the conditioned air entering the ducts is about 55 f or so. The total drop in efficiency can be up to 35. So why put an hvac system up in the attic at all.

Well mainly it s a way to save space. It s contained in a metal box called a plenum and sits on top of your furnace.