attic /in house temp difference meaningful ?

[gregtwojeeps]

How much temperature spread should be between inside of the house and the attic ? Can these readings help determine the status of the ceiling insulation using temperature values.... or are the numbers below useless ?

On Edit : New reading at night time taken. Presently at my house.... 5:33 am est 11/21/2015 So I see by the replies below my readings are close to being good ?

Outside temp = 37.6 deg. f.
Inside temp = 68.4 deg. f.
Attic temp = 35.6 deg. f.

The attic has 10 in. of blown fiberglas in it presently.

When I inspected it late yesterday I noted there is some of it where PO/workers being in the attic...have stomped down a trail right down the center of the attic and the top of the joists are showing in about a 24 " wide path x 20 ft. long....

I don't want to rent a blower just to reburbish the small trodden down part of the insulation job. . Do they make a bagged " loose fill" pink fiberglas I could dump on the stomped down parts ? .

 

[Dick in Wisconsin]

Without anymore information ... I would say you have a problem.

But ...

When did you take the measurement? During a sunny day? If you have a dark roof and its sunny out, I would expect the temp in the attic to be higher.

Take the measurement at night. After the sun has gone down for an hour or so.

 

[gregtwojeeps]

Good tip, will do so.

 

[Bondo]

How much temperature spread should be between inside of the house and the attic ?
Can these readings help determine the status of the ceiling insulation using temperature values....

Ayuh,.... While maybe not the whole equation, yer numbers seem reasonable,...

Inside the house, conditioned space should be at the temp the T-stat is set at,....

The attic, isn't in the conditioned space, 'n is usually vented to the outdoors, so it's temp should be close to that of outdoors,...

That'll give an idea of how yer insulation/ thermal break at the ceilin' height is performin',...

 

[Showkey]

The test would have more value at night .......so solar gain is not in play.
Better if there is greater temp difference between the inside and outside temp durin the evaluation.

Best insulation and situation is the attic temp and outside temps close to each other.

Really the best evaluation is just measure the R value for the insulation present and look for gaps or air leaks in that insulation blanket.

Many utilities will do a free energy audit and evaluate the whole house.

 

[terry603]

the goal is to have the attic temp the same as the outside temp

 

[volaredon]

the goal is to have the attic temp the same as the outside temp

it appears he is really close to that by his readings.

 

[DC73]

I don't want to rent a blower just to reburbish the small trodden down part of the insulation job. . Do they make a bagged " loose fill" pink fiberglas I could dump on the stomped down parts ? .

They used to but all I can find now is the compressed bags. Not unusable but kind of a pain to break apart and distribute manually. You might just take a rake into the attic and fluff up the insulation where it was compacted.

DC