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Posted by Longtime Lurker on March 29, 2007, 5:12 pm
Hey gang, I'll try to make it brief.
I'm building a new 2 1/2 story house. I would like to put the HVAC
equipment in closets on the 1st and 2nd floors, but our designer is
pushing us to just stick 'em in the attic.
My rationale is that the attic installations tend to take up a lot of
floorspace that I'd rather use for storage or something useful on the
3rd floor. Also, there might be some gain in efficiency with shorter
duct runs and having the equipment operating inside the conditioned
space.
So, what do you all think? Would you rather install/maintain equipment
in a dedicated closet, or a hot attic? How big a closet would you like
to see for this? I'd like to make it as easy as possible to work on.
Any other words of wisdom? :-)
Thanks for sharing your opinions.
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Posted by Noon-Air on March 29, 2007, 6:53 pm
>
> Hey gang, I'll try to make it brief.
>
> I'm building a new 2 1/2 story house. I would like to put the HVAC
> equipment in closets on the 1st and 2nd floors, but our designer is
> pushing us to just stick 'em in the attic.
Tell the designers that they can put them in the closets or they can look
for another job. If they persist with their ignorance, drag them up into a
hot attic and make them knee crawl, through all the fiberglass insulation,
to the other side of the house where the air handler got put, then ask them
if they are going to do a complete service on the unit?? and are they going
to be willing to crawl up in the attic when its 100 degrees outside, on the
4th of July to replace a transformer, because the homeowner cut and shorted
out the condenser control wire with a weed wacker.
> My rationale is that the attic installations tend to take up a lot of
> floorspace that I'd rather use for storage or something useful on the
> 3rd floor. Also, there might be some gain in efficiency with shorter
> duct runs and having the equipment operating inside the conditioned
> space.
think accessability for service, maintenance, and repairs.
> So, what do you all think? Would you rather install/maintain equipment
> in a dedicated closet, or a hot attic? How big a closet would you like
> to see for this? I'd like to make it as easy as possible to work on.
> Any other words of wisdom? :-)
Put the air handlers in closets, make them big enough so that you have a
*MINIMUM* of 6 inches clearance on both sides, 1 inch on the back and 8-12
inches on the front behind the door if its all electric, and 12 - 16 inches
on the front if its a gas furnace. Do check your local codes and the
manufacturers instructions for the exact *MINIMUM* requirements. Ita always
a real good idea to leave a little extra room, and make the access door
frame a couple of inches wider than the unit to allow for replacement down
the road.
> Thanks for sharing your opinions.
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Posted by Longtime Lurker on March 30, 2007, 12:48 am
>>
>> I'm building a new 2 1/2 story house. I would like to put the HVAC
>> equipment in closets on the 1st and 2nd floors, but our designer is
>> pushing us to just stick 'em in the attic.
>
>Put the air handlers in closets, make them big enough so that you have a
>*MINIMUM* of 6 inches clearance on both sides, 1 inch on the back and 8-12
>inches on the front behind the door if its all electric, and 12 - 16 inches
>on the front if its a gas furnace. ...
Thank you for your comments. They are quite helpful, and I agree 100%.
I haven't spec'd equipment yet, so don't know the exact sizes, but was
looking at doing a 4x5 foot closet, which should provide at least as
much clearance as above.
There are three issues brought up by our designer for why he prefers
the attic:
1. Lost floorspace in the living area - I can live with that.
2. Noise - I think I can live with that.
3. Zone dampers. Where to put them.? In a closet installation, all the
ductwork will be concealed in soffits and ceilings, so where do you
put the zone dampers where they will be accessible. I don't quite know
how to address this one.
In addition, since all the ductwork will be inaccessible, I'm pushing
for all metal ductwork instead of flex. I think this may also be
causing our designer some heartburn, as he has to be a bit more
careful to leave space to route it.
Thanks much!
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Posted by Noon-Air on March 30, 2007, 1:18 am
>>>
>>> I'm building a new 2 1/2 story house. I would like to put the HVAC
>>> equipment in closets on the 1st and 2nd floors, but our designer is
>>> pushing us to just stick 'em in the attic.
>>
>>Put the air handlers in closets, make them big enough so that you have a
>>*MINIMUM* of 6 inches clearance on both sides, 1 inch on the back and 8-12
>>inches on the front behind the door if its all electric, and 12 - 16
>>inches
>>on the front if its a gas furnace. ...
>
> Thank you for your comments. They are quite helpful, and I agree 100%.
> I haven't spec'd equipment yet, so don't know the exact sizes, but was
> looking at doing a 4x5 foot closet, which should provide at least as
> much clearance as above.
OK... that works... however 4x5ft is a bit of overkill
> There are three issues brought up by our designer for why he prefers
> the attic:
>
> 1. Lost floorspace in the living area - I can live with that.
He's getting paid by the sqft.....it cuts into his bottom line
> 2. Noise - I think I can live with that.
If the system is correctly designed and sized, it should be almost virtualy
silent
> 3. Zone dampers. Where to put them.? In a closet installation, all the
> ductwork will be concealed in soffits and ceilings, so where do you
> put the zone dampers where they will be accessible. I don't quite know
> how to address this one.
Each system will be its own zone... unless you have less than about 800
sqft, or more than about 2500 sqft or so per floor, zone dampers shouldn't
be an issue.
> In addition, since all the ductwork will be inaccessible, I'm pushing
> for all metal ductwork instead of flex. I think this may also be
> causing our designer some heartburn, as he has to be a bit more
> careful to leave space to route it.
Get the correctly designed and sized tin ductwork....when done right, it
will last the life of the house and is a 1 time expense, where flex *WILL*
have to be replaced repeatedly over the life of the house.
> Thanks much!
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Posted by Longtime Lurker on March 30, 2007, 12:11 pm
>OK... that works... however 4x5ft is a bit of overkill
That's good to know. I won't push to make them any bigger than that,
which should make our designer happy.
>> 3. Zone dampers. Where to put them.?
>
>Each system will be its own zone... unless you have less than about 800
>sqft, or more than about 2500 sqft or so per floor, zone dampers shouldn't
>be an issue.
Our floors will be, I think, in the 2000-2500 sqft range. So, you're
saying that, at that size, there's not much benefit in zoning within a
given floor? I can see that, I suppose. I was thinking that some
zoning might be nice for convenience/comfort, though. So, for example,
the kitchen could get extra air when it's hot in there, without
freezing the rest of the floor. (A problem we have now.) Is that worth
doing, and if so, back to the original question...where to put the
dampers?
> Get the correctly designed and sized tin ductwork....when done right, it
> will last the life of the house and is a 1 time expense, where flex *WILL*
> have to be replaced repeatedly over the life of the house.
I'm going to push for that. Finding a company willing to do it that
way may be a challenge around here (Houston), these days, sad to say.
Thanks!
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