Insulation Between Ac Ducts In The Attic

2 duct leakage must be no higher than 1 5 cfm25 per 100 square feet of conditioned floor area.

Insulation between ac ducts in the attic.

Attic hvac systems save space. Other times insulation may be on the outside. The duct work is insulated to keep the condensate from forming on the outside of the pipes and dripping off from the temperature differences in the attic in the summertime with ac running. The effective r value of a buried duct installation depends on the size of the ducts the r value of the duct insulation and the depth of the loose fill insulation.

Put it in an attic full of blown insulation and you re. So why put an hvac system up in the attic at all. In more cases than not a 3 ton ac with the ducts in the attic has a ton or so of load that s just from the location of the ducts in the attic and the associated duct gains leakage etc. Why is this a problem.

But our erv ducts stand alone system not tied in w heat pump and 2 jumper ducts for pressure balancing from bedrooms are suspended above the insulation in our vented attic. 1 the air handler must be inside conditioned space. Well mainly it s a way to save space. And 3 the sum of the ceiling insulation above the duct and the duct insulation must equal the prescriptive r value for ceiling insulation.

The second question gets a yes if the buried ducts meet even more stringent requirements. First water dripping off of your ducts and onto your insulation can cause the insulation to compress which decreases it s r value or ability to insulate. Because the moving air is in the ductwork for only a short period of time it does not need the insulation r value the attic floor requires. Flexible ductwork comes with different insulation r values.

When water condenses and drips into your attic or home it can cause a some serious secondary problems. So more would help. What would be bad is if the duct work is flex duct and gets mashed under the weight of the added insulation on top of it. Most updated central air conditioned homes have a new air conditioner split system meaning the ac is broken up into parts.

The remaining 2 tons of capacity is at least 1 5x oversized for the actual 1 load. Why is condensation on ductwork a problem. So water is condensing on your ac ducts. The condenser in your air conditioner works hard to get rid of heat and pressurize refrigerant for the return trip through your house.

Table 1 shows effective r values for 8 inch round ducts at three attic insulation levels and three duct insulation levels r 4 2 r 6 and r 8. Sometimes the insulation is inside the ductwork.