Success At Last

I can say with confidence that the attic insulation was a successful project. We had three days of progressively hotter days and each day it only got slightly warmer in the house. We still have not turned on the a/c and it has not gotten above 73 downstairs and about 75 upstairs. That’s far better than I could have expected.

On a day when it is 90+ degrees outside the upstairs would usually be about 80, which is very uncomfortable. It was 73 when it was 91 on Thursday. Not bad IMHO. Once summer hits out a/c should not have as much trouble keeping up with the task of cooling the whole house. Next up is doing minor work to improve the return ductwork.

The return ductwork consists of floor joists panned over with a piece of metal. This makes for a very leaky return and to be honest the house smells more like the basement than the house when the a/c is running. I took a closer look at the returns and there are holes cut into the joists and huge gaps where air from the basement gets sucked in instead of air from the house. This is leading to smelly, dusty basement air being distributed around the house instead of the warm house air.

I already started sealing up some of the gaps with foam, but have more to go. I’ll attack that when I seal the waste joists in the basement. Sealing gaps is the least I can do without fully replacing the return ducts with proper ductwork.


One Response to “Success At Last”

  1. Dad Says:
    May 26th, 2009 at 6:16 am

    If you use foil tape on the pipe joints and along the edge of the pan and joist it should help. That stuff sticks well and if the area is not covered in dust it will stay attached forever.
    Also look for more dampers on the supply side that may be closed. Adjusting them is trial and error without a meter. Also tape the lever on the dampers (after setting) top and bottom where it penetrates the duct.
    One more thing you could try is to insulate the supply duct or replace with flex duct.
    Hope this helps.
    Dad.