Hvac Is Venting Into The Attic

Venting a homes attic is a very important best building practices will say 50 at the ridge and 50 at the soffits unobstructed.

Hvac is venting into the attic.

No you shouldn t use a towel or other absorbing material. Insulating the duct may also help. A furnace in the attic is a design that works for all homes. A lot of people opt for a whole house dehumidifierafter spray foaming their attic.

Ridge vents these vents are installed at the top of a sloped roof and are commonly used on shingled homes. Fresh combustion air for the furnace is coming from the soffit vents from both roofs. The furnace has a stack which penetrates the flat roof and is about 3 4 above the roof plane. For good attic insulation one square foot of ventilation is recommended per every 300 cubic feet of space within the attic.

Exhausting air into the attic will create a negative pressure situation you will be bringing in a lot of outside air to make up what is being exhausted into the attic this could raise your heating costs and lower the relative humidity also if there is a window in the room open it slightly while the fan is running so all of the outside make up air will come directly into the room instead. There are two basic types of attic fans. Roof vents allow for natural attic ventilation but mechanical solutions are also available. The high humid air doesn t vent out of the house before it condensates in the duct and then runs back into the house causing damage.

Or you may have a distance issue. Gable vents these vents are designed to be visible and act as architectural touches. Box or dome vents these static vents are installed directly into holes cut into the attic roof. 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.

To better manage the higher humidity resulting from shorter ac run cycles the whole house dehumidifier removes moisture from the home until it satisfies a humidistat setting typically something between 45 and 55 relative humidity rh. However the furnace is in an attic space which has no venting for warm humid air from house from soffits from hot roof etc to escape. A 1 1 ratio of intake and exhaust vents is needed to ensure proper airflow through your attic. You may have a bad boot around the roof vent that is leaking into the attic.

But you can install attic fans which will continuously replace the stagnant air with fresh outdoor air preventing your attic from turning into an oven. Unless you have a slab where the equipment would likely be in the garage venting can go directly through the roof instead of routing through an exterior wall making it much easier to install the duct work along the upper floor. Rooftop fans and gable fans.