HVAC in the attic?

[riptides]

Bird,

Just finished a renovation on a farm building. We put it in the attic. Space savings are tremendous. Love it so far. Quiet too,

-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[slowrev]

John,
I have heard both good and bad about the geothermal systems. A friend down the road had one installed in his new home about 7 years ago. Last fall he ripped it out and went with a standard heat pump. Had a lot of trouble with it, and said having everything in the basement was noisy, likes the heatpump better and says the electric bill is about the same.
He is the only person I have known with a geo system though.
Ben

 

[NewToy]

I suppose there is a chance of getting a lemon with anything. Also, seven years ago they were in their infancy and probably had some bugs to work out. As far as noise goes, you can't even hear it down there. The only difference from a heat pump is that it is extracting heat/cool from the 2400' of pipe buried 7' deep in the yard, and that 50 something degree water is passing over the condenser as opposed to 90 something degree air in the summer or 10 degree air in the winter. My brother in-law had one installed around 3 years ago and my unit is quite different, Smaller and quieter. Another plus was that the electric co-op here gives you a $600 check for installing one. With the energy costs going North at record pace I wanted the most efficient heating/cooling system available and right now thats a Geo-thermal.
John

 

[techman]

I agree with you. I am in the final stages of replacing my air-air heat pump with 2 geothermal units (2 zones). Same basic setup, 2000' of pipe 7' deep. All of the research says it is the way to go if you can foot the upfront cost. My predicted savings are 30-40% over the current system.

You are also correct that the last few years has brought many improvements in the units with regard to efficiency, noise and reliability. The advent of the scroll compressor makes them hard to hear, when properly installed. Also most reliability issues today are related to well or pond fed open loop systems. They can have issues with dirt, scale and water chemisty, all of which can cause failures and shorten life.

paul

 

[thcri]

Bird,

Haven't been around for a while but if I can still give advice I will. We install about 50 in the attic per year. But we have learned that it is best to put a separate drain pan underneath the unit. We hang the unit from the rafters which helps in noise and then hang a drain pan underneath the whole unit with it's own drain line.

murph

 

[Bird]

Thanks, Murph. Probably sometime next week, I'll get a chance to get in that attic and see what's up there. The realtor tells me the common thing is to plumb the condensation drain into the house's sewer plumbing, and then to have an overflow drain going outside, and that if you see anything dripping from that overflow, that means the other one is stopped up and needs service. I did notice what I assume is that overflow drain under the eaves on the front of the house, and it was dry. I've seen a lot of houses where the condensation drain simply runs outside the house on the ground, which the way most of these mobile homes are in this park. But our houses in town had it plumbed into the sewer plumbing and when we had a doublewide in the country, and an aerobic sewer system, I had my condensation drain plumbed to the final (clean water) tank.

 

[PineRidge]

Bird air handlers installed in the attic areas normally cool much better because they are supplying the cooler air at the ceiling which is the warmest area of your home. Likewise the return air grills are also pulling in the warmer ceiling air which keeps the evaporator loaded so that it is less likely to freeze as outside ambient air temperatures drop.

We used to install a secondary condensate pan under the air handler. The footprint of the pan was large enough to cover the complete air handler. Then we would run a drain (condensate) line from the evaporator and a separate line from the emergency condensate pan outside the home to an area easily seen. We always instructed homeowners which drain line should normally be discharging condensate and in the unlikely event that the other drain line started to flow it was an immediate indication of a blockage. Also used to install a device in the secondary pan that sounded like a smoke detector if it came in contact with water. Never lost a ceiling due to water using these methods.

 

[techman]

You definitely do NOT want to plumb the condensate drain into the house sewer line. Since the coil usually operates at a slight negative air pressure (due to the fan), if the trap dried up, as it sometimes does in winter, you would be pulling directly from the sewer line into the air ducts.

Better to run the condensate drain to a separate drain, such as the gutter drains.

paul

 

[FL_Cracker]

Here in Florida they are almost all in the attic. At least in the new construction cases.

They now install a drain pan with 2 drains. One that drains to the ground and a second drain a little higher that drains onver the front door, or garage door. This way if the first drain clogs the water level rises and starts draining in the secondary location. When you come home and see water dripping at your front door or garage door you know you have a problem.

 

[Bird]

Mike, the location of the return air filter is something I've wondered about. I guess when I get over there sometime next week I'll find it. Where do you run the primary condensation drain? And Paul (techman), I'm not sure of exactly what you mean by "gutter" drain.

We signed a contract making the guy an offer on the house today and our realtor just called to say he's already come back with a counter offer that we've agreed to accept, so we're supposed to finalize a contract tomorrow. Now I've just go to sell this little mobile home we're currently in. Of course, the contract gives me 10 days to back out if I find anything amiss in the inspection that he doesn't want to fix.