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.

Builder sprayed insulation all over furnace in attic.

Most of the issues that furnace might experience in an attic are due to extremely cold weather in this poorly insulated space. Attics with spray foam insulation are so cool. 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. A furnace can suffer from a drop in energy efficiency if it s in an unconditioned space such as an attic.

Actually has better than 15 months of operation. Nothing unusual about that. She asked me to go into the attic to find the roof leaks or where the snow is blowing in through the soffits. 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 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. We mean that literally by the way. 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 rigid insulation was saturated from condensation.

Sprayed foam insulation ac loads calculated by energywisestructures. A furnace in the attic is a design that works for all homes. The good news is that some installers understand this problem and seek to address. You might not receive the same air movement benefits if the unit is in a garage either.

If we insulate to r60 that attic is going to be mighty cold in the in winter and hot in the summer. 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. Most often the attic is sealed by installing spray foam insulation at the roofline thus bringing the attic inside the building enclosure and turning it into conditioned space directly or indirectly. Earlier this year i got a question about a home that had spray foam insulation in the attic.

What do you all think. Unvented attic sealed furnace and gas water heater. High efficiency furnaces aren t usually recommended for an attic. 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.