Townhouse Air Conditioner Attic Above Garage Gets Too Hot
Install electric ventilators and attic fans which remove hot air from an attic.
Townhouse air conditioner attic above garage gets too hot. As a certified licensed home inspector it is not correct to say too much ventilation is bad for an attic unless rain moisture is getting in. An outdoor unit which houses the fan condenser and compressor and an indoor unit which holds the evaporator and fan. A hot attic is bad for several reasons. When your ac unit starts pumping cool air into your townhouse warmer air in the space is going to quickly try to make it s way to the highest point it can find.
Excessive heat deteriorates items you store in the attic and can cause moisture. The temperature in the garage has reached 110 degrees at times this summer. Well mainly it s a way to save space. Yes that bedroom above your garage really can be comfortable.
And when it s hot outside they prevent more hot air from entering. Most updated central air conditioned homes have a new air conditioner split system meaning the ac is broken up into parts. That way hot air in summer and cold air in winter can t enter the room as easily. Thus hot attic air is moving through this space heating the floor of the room and rendering the insulation useless.
The garage attached to my townhome gets the full afternoon sun. They have thermostats that turn the fan on at a recommended preset temperature of 100 110 degrees. One of the cheapest garage cooling solutions you can use that s still effective is a simple oscillating household fan. Using air conditioning in the garage might also be too cost prohibitive for your liking.
Low cfm similar to a bathroom vent 300cfm and only in the hot spots basically by adding an inline ducting fan to the return ducts for the hotspot rooms. The natural rise of heated air. My idea is to vent the build up of hot air that has risen to the ceiling in the hotspot rooms into the attic so that air from cooler parts of the house can move in. It wants to move.
Do not use mechanical means electric attic fans. There s some attic space above the front half of the garage and two bedrooms over the rear half of the garage both of which get very warm during the summer. Pedestal fans box fans or even better a higher powered shop fan will get the air in your garage moving. So why put an hvac system up in the attic at all.
It s a thermodynamic principle that hot air will rise in order to try and escape an enclosed space like your home. When it s cold outside these treatments keep more warm air inside the room. Venting a homes attic is a very important best building practices will say 50 at the ridge and 50 at the soffits unobstructed. This can happen in the ceiling areas too with the insulation against the underside of the roof decking but leaving an air gap to the back side of the dry wall of the ceiling of the bonus room.