I have a fifty yr old cape that has an old furnace. We need central air, being a vacation home central air wil be on all the time. I intend to replace the whole unit gas furnace to a split system with high effic gas htr and condensor outside.
The old furnace is in a utility room on the first floor and The supply ductwork in place is in crawl space uninsulated, under first floor. The house is small 4 rooms first floor with full bath and 2nd floor has 2 bedrms and shower bath with shed roof. nice attic. able to stand up in attic.
Do I put the new airhandler and furnace in the attic with all new ductwork and since there is not much winter usage put the supply high on the wall with returns along the inside walls ? I’m sure there is much heat in attic during summer but will add a roof vent.
Thanks, hedrick
Replies
how are you going to get the ductwork from attic to first floor? i have this same sitition with the main floor service by 1 unit and the second floor service by a air/furnace in the attic.i knowit sounds like a lot of money ,but ripping out ductwork and replacing with new isn't cheap either. my upstairs unit is a 50btu furnace w/ a 2 ton air. biggest problem is it's to big for the 800 sf upstairs. larry
hand me the chainsaw, i need to trim the casing just a hair.
I'm not sure how to rout all the ductwork down to first floor. You would keep same ductwork in place and just insulate it ? Thanks for your input.
that was my problem with getting up to the 2nd floor without tearing out ceiling in almost all of the first floor. if the unit you have now distbutes air well i'd stick with what you have and just work at sealing and insulating the ducts.around here in ks the ducts in the crawl space get insulated but if there is a little heat lose in the crawl space it can help keep pipes from freezing up.[it's 60 today so not much worry!]putting a seperate unit for the upstairs has worked out well for our house,lets you control the different areas a little better and the cost was about 2k for heat/air and duct. the duct work was very simple to get to the 3 rooms. larryhand me the chainsaw, i need to trim the casing just a hair.