DUCTS IN THE ATTIC???

DUCTS IN THE ATTIC???

I was reading an article titled "Ducts in the Attic? What Were They Thinking?", and it caused me to think about the merits and shortcomings of this practice.

The article was presented at a conference about common building practices and air conditioners and much of it is technical and way too detailed for anyone outside of an engineer, builder, or air conditioner contactor.  That being said, there are definitely strong arguments to made for not having ducts in the attic. 

The article explored the impact duct location has on cooling load,  peak demand, and energy cost in hot climates. They studied climates in Houston, Phoenix, and Las Vegas.

Tampa, FL is probably similar to Houston in humidity and temperature. For an average new home in these climates, they concluded that locating ducts in the attics increased the cooling load significantly, which increases cooling costs and ultimately demand.  Which means bigger carbon footprint.

My house is already built and my ducts are in the attic! What do you expect me to do?  Rip my house apart? Have ugly ducts hanging from my ceiling where I can see them? I won't live long enough (even if I live to be 100) to recoup the costs of refitting my central air conditioner ducts running through my hot as death valley attic!

The perfect time to change this practice is when the house is being planned and built. But for most of us, that ship has sailed.  Let's explore options for the home that is already built and lived in.

All ducts are leaky  We do not want heat exchange in the attic, that is we don't want the cold conditioned air in the ducts to be leaking into the hot, unconditioned attic. One way to reduce the heat in the attic is to use isynene spray foam. It is sprayed onto the underside of the roof.  It is like a layer of insulation on the ceiling of the attic.

If you are really concerned with not losing any conditioned air in the attic and you do not want to have exposed ducts in your air conditioned living space and lowering your ceilings and generally retrofitting your home is out of the question you may  want to consider ductless systems, also known as mini-splits.

Mini-splits have no big, dirty, leaky ducts to deal with. Because of the absence of ducts they are extremely efficient and cost effective to operate.

 A mini-split system could be the perfect solution for those of us in homes with difficult to change ducts in the  attic.

Integrity Air Conditioning would love to discuss your needs and concerns regarding cooling choices.

Call Jay at (813) 932-2665

A Few Tips on Energy Conservation from Jay Hoover

Manufactured Homes

Most manufactured homes are set up with flex ducts from a package unit outside. Those flex ducts can be easily damaged by critters. mostly rats and cats ( they like air conditioning where they live too).  A good thing about the package units are that their tops can be easily removed to clean the indoor coil.

Indoor Airflow

If a room is pressurized from air coming in but has no easy path back to be recirculated the pressurized room will blow air out any leaks in the envelope. Air will be made up through other leaks nearer the return.  The solution is to open interior doors or pay for duct upgrade.

When a house is unoccupied and air conditioned the interior doors should be left open. This is irrelevant if there is a return duct in every room. These are not common though required by code for new construcion for about 5 years.

Ceiling Fans & Recessed Lights

Ceiling fans are okay if they are turned off when one leaves the room. I have been called by more than one customer to check the central air (who have been advised by an energy expert from the power company to turn off the ceiling fans when they leave the room) and they are on in all those unoccupied rooms. I hear that it uses $5 ea per month to run them constantly.   Also, the air circulating by an uninsulated surface like a window can add heat gain in summer.  Recessed lights can be leaky.

Clothes Dryers

Clothes dryers exhaust about 150 cfm of air...more than most bathroom or kitchen exhausts. If installed in a conditioned space that is a lot of conditioned air leaving the house. A solution includes opening a window in the laundry room if available. This lets outdoor air get pulled into the dryer and exhausted outdoors. Without opening the window the comfortable house air will be exhausted. The slight vacuum created will cause outdoor air to leak in the house, unfiltered and create a load on the air conditioning. If the dryer vent on the outside is near the outdoor unit of a/c the lint from the dryer will restrict airflow at the a/c inlet raising elec use of the a/c.

Tree

A tree to shade the outdoor unit can be good for energy savings. Leaves may need to be cleaned out from inside the outdoor unit and raked away from the coil inlet. bushes can inhibit inlet air if not cut back.

Florida Energy Star Residential HVAC Rebate Program

The program starts Monday and lasts till the end of the year or the money runs out.  A local TV station has a report here.

There are a lot of hoops you need to jump through in order to qualify, most of those answers can be found here.

Summer tips for air conditioning care.

One of our local TV stations gives some advice on caring for your system.

Tips to save money with your central air system

From the Tampa Tribune.

The two tips I would start with is to invest in quality filters and change them every 30 days, and to have Integrity Air give your system a checkup before it gets too hot.

New Tax Credits for Energy Efficiency

The stimulus bill that the president signed on February 17, 2009 provides for tax credits for various home improvements that make your residence more energy efficient. Those home inprovements could be new windows and doors, roofs, and air conditioning.

The tax credit is 30% of the cost of the home improvement with a limit of $1500 for all home improvements. You can find complete information at the Energy Star website.

The minimum SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio; like miles-per-gallon for your air conditioner) that qualifies is:

Straight Cool Split System 16 SEER

Straight Cool Package 14 SEER

Heat Pump Split System 15 SEER/8.5 HSPF

Heat Pump Package 14 SEER/8 HSPF

Must be “placed in service” from January 1, 2009 through December 31, 2010 must be for taxpayers principal residence

Maximum amount is $1,500 in 2009 & 2010 for most home improvements. $1,500 is the total deduction for all home improvements.

Must have a Manufacturer Certification Statement to qualify. The ARI Certificate may qualify as a Manufacturer Certification Statement

For record keeping, save your receipts and the Manufacturer Certification Statement improvements made in 2009 will be claimed on your 2009 taxes (filed by April 15, 2010) — use IRS Tax Form 5695 (2009 version) — it will be available late 2009 or early 2010

Please check with your tax accountant to see if you qualify.

Keeping your home comfortable in the fall

Now that the weather is starting to cool, the Tampa Tribune has published some tips on keeping your home comfortable when you are staring to open windows and let air in.

You can read the entire article here, but here are some highlights:

The article says not only to open windows but to use fans for comfort. Jay Hoover, president of Integrity Air, recommends that you be sure to turn off fans when you leave the room to save energy.

The article says that doing laundry at night when it is cooler helps as well as replacing standard incandescent lightbulbs with the new compact flourescent bulbs, which give off much less heat. Compact flourescent bulbs are more energy efficient, give off less hest and last longer. However, they contain mercury, and must be disposed of with care and time of replacement.

Also running the bathroom exhaust fan for 10-20 minutes after a shower will help lower indoor humidity.

The Benefits of Routine Maintenance

I received a phone call from a customer who wanted to know the age of the central air system we in installed in her home.

"This will be easy", I thought. "I'll just pull the invoice from our file."

The invoice wasn't there. Our current customer files only go back to 2000, and it seemed that our customer's system was older than that. So I climbed up into our attic and found the pre-2000 invoices in a box.

Our customer's system was installed in December 1998. The average life expectancy of a central air system is 12-15 years, and this one was nearly 10 years old and remarkably, had never broken down and shows no sign of doing so. I can look at two reasons for this fortune:

1) The customer invested in quality filters and changed them regularly. This is the air conditioning equivalent of brushing and flossing each day. Good filters will help keep your indoor coil clean which helps with indoor air quality and efficiency.

2) This system had regular tune-ups and inspections under our Top Performance Program. We see this system twice a year, so any minor issues get resolved before they become major ones.

Doing this may not guaranty a long life for your system, but the money invested in a regular maintenance program will help your air conditioner run at Top Performance for a long time.

Cooling an enclosed porch or addition.

If you are planning to enclosed a porch or add a room to your home, one of the challenges you face is how to cool the new space.

You could run duct to the new space from your home air conditioning system, but in most cases your home system isn’t large enough to cool the new space.

You could use a window unit, but window units can be noisy and use a lot of electricity, and may not be able to suitably cool a large porch or room.

The answer to the question of how to cool an addition or an enclosed porch is the minisplit or ductless system.

A minisplit is a central air system (either straight cool or heat pump), and can have a capacity as large as 3 tons and an efficiency as high as 18 SEER, so it can cool a very large room or enclosed porch while saving electricity and money.

Most minisplits also have a remote controller which not only serves as a thermostat, but can adjust fan speed and direction to your comfort.

Integrity Air would be happy to answer any of your questions about how a minisplit can meet your comfort needs

Tips on saving energy and money with your central air conditioning

1. When receiving quotes for new central air, ask your contractor about a high efficiency system. Your old system was probably 10 SEER when new and less efficient now in its old age. The industry minimum for new systems is now 13 SEER, but 14-16 SEER and higher efficiencies are available. The initial investment may be higher, but over the average 15 year life of a central air system you will gain a return on that investment through lower electric bills.

2. Have your system inspected at least once a year. And a good time to have this done is in the spring before it gets hot. This may also head off problems which may shut your system down in the heat of summer.

3. Have your ducts checked for leaks. Remember when you left the door open in the winter and Mom said, “are you heating the outdoors”? Having your ducts checked for leaks and those leaks sealed will help you to keep from cooling your attic. And while the air conditioning service tech is in your attic he can….

4. See if you have enough attic insulation. One of our customers converted a garage into air conditioned living space without realizing that the attic above had no insulation. Correcting that problem allowed us to install a system one half ton smaller than his existing one. And last but not least,

5. Buy quality air filters and change them regularly. This is the brushing and flossing of maintenance, the easiest thing you can do not only to improve efficiency of your central air but also improves indoor air quality.

Hopefully these tips are helpful in gaining some savings in your energy bill. If you have any questions or if there is anyway we can meet your comfort needs please call Integrity Air @ 813-932-2665

Energy Savings Tips from TECO

The local electric company (in Tampa it's called TECO) is the only industry I know of which advises customers on how to use less of their product.

You can see TECO's energy savings tips here. In Tampa, there are still a few homes which have old gas furnaces. When we have a service call for a broken-down furnace, we usually recommend that it be replaced with a conventional air handler and electric heat. This will improve airflow and remove safety concerns (like carbon monoxide and fire) inherent with furnaces. The new electric heat will provide enough heat for what they call here in Tampa "winter".

TECO also has a rebate program to encourage customers to purchase high efficiency systems. a customer can get $275 if he replaces his old straight cool system with a new 14 SEER or higher heat pump. Replacing an old heat pump will get you $125.

Your local electric company may have a similar program.