It's warm in my garage attic

[GirlnAgarage]

Like comfortably warm in this chilly weather, I'd live there if I was a family of raccoons.

Garage is not insulated, attached (off the kitchen of the house), single story, . I have a duct leak in the attic don't I When I removed the garage attic access panel, I could feel when the heating unit come on as it blew warm air through when the pressure changed.

 

[Raisedonadeere]

Along with that, your cold air returns, unless they are leaking an equal amount in the attic, are creating a depressurization or vacuum in the house, thus pulling outside air into the house through all the little openings around windows, electrical boxes, plumbing access holes, under drywall etc. Your actual mileage of course depends on where the hvac system is etc.
Consider that now you have a great opportunity to slash your heat bill.

 

[Raisedonadeere]

Attic will be warm regardless on sunny day and you could have an inrush of warm air caused by certain wind conditions. Have a look first thing in morning before sun

 

[GirlnAgarage]

Hmm Ok, Ive got some things to think about. I definitely want to get the electric bill tighter if I can. Right now it's not high, but obviously I'll take lower if I can My average for the year is about $100/mth. But I do observed the 78* summer/68* winter rule and I chop the tstat when I leave for work, usually up to 80* summer/65* winter. And my place is not that big. So there's definitely room for improvement.


This past summer my roofer installed two vents in the garage attic to relieve the hot air. He told me he use to leave the access panel open and crack the garage door because it stayed cooler in there (garage is west facing). My roofer actually owned the house before I bought it from him. When I was up there yesterday I could feel the cold air dropping in to the attic but the heat got rid of that air so quickly, it didn't get cold, it stayed warm.

A big air leak in my living room is my fireplace. I can feel a drastic temp change around the fireplace unit as it sits in the brick facade. Outside air comes in, but not sure exactly where. I plan to get that unit replaced in the summer and have a chimney guy go through all of it top to bottom.

The rest of the house I use those foam insulators on the outlets and switch covers. And my windows are the originals to the house that I know I have some lose through. Thise will need to be replaced all together.

Do you see anything that I'm missing or not considering that you think I should have a look at?

 

[DC73]

This past summer my roofer installed two vents in the garage attic to relieve the hot air.

A big air leak in my living room is my fireplace. I can feel a drastic temp change around the fireplace unit as it sits in the brick facade. Outside air comes in, but not sure exactly where.

The rest of the house I use those foam insulators on the outlets and switch covers. And my windows are the originals to the house that I know I have some lose through. These will need to be replaced all together.

Here in Texas, if you have a vented roof, you need plenty of roof vents and soffit vents. The soffit vents bring the air in and the roof vents exhaust the air. There are formulas you can find online by searching for how much ventilation your attic needs based on the size of the house. Roughly, the soffit vent net free area needs to at least equal the roof vent net free area but it can be more. Vents are rated by net free area which is basically how much open space there is in a vent that is not taken up by insect screens, louvers, etc. Manufacturers generally publish the net free area of their vents.

If your house doesn't have soffits or if it is a gable roof, you have other options for venting. Stay away from electrically powered fans as they tend to consume more energy than they save.

If the brick facade protrudes through the ceiling into the attic, that is a usually a place that gets missed when air sealing because the trim somewhat hides the gap. A can of spray foam can make quick work of the gap if there is one but you might have to pull the trim or make a trip into the attic.

DC

 

[SALIV8]

Regarding your fireplace, there are usually intake and exhaust vents as far as I know. I would double check to be sure these are both closed when youre not using the fireplace.

 

[MoonRise]

Hey M,

If you feel warm air blowing into your attic when the forced hot air system comes on and you have duct work in that attic, then yes, you have duct leak(s).

Or a completely disconnected duct line. (does that count as just a leak? )

About the only way to tell is to get up there and put eyes and hands on the pieces and check to make sure that all duct work is connected 'properly' and sealed together (and no, "duct tape" is not used to seal or tape ducts together. You have to use the foil HVAC tape to do that.)

A lot of utility companies will do a (low cost or no cost, usually) "home energy audit" . Might be worthwhile to check and see if your utility has something like that.

 

[GirlnAgarage]

Oh I have foil hvac tape lol Feels like there's a leak up there. I recall my inspector mentioning seeing a little something up there when I did my pre-purchase inspection. Have a feeling maybe that's grown into the issue. I'll have to get up and look.

The hard part is moving around in the attic, it's very short so I'll have to do a lot of crawling. And only a small area near the access panel has some ply on the joists, it doesn't go all the way across the house. Perhaps I should lay pieces to create a walkway of sorts as I go and just leave them tack nailed down? I've ever done any kind of work in an attic before so I don't know how to do it. Probably best I don't put my foot or fall through the ceiling lol An Idea I read about was wrapping the ducts with that foil bubble wrap to help insulate them from the temp extremes and transferring that temp to the air as it moves through. I read that when I wrapped my water heater with that stuff. Good idea? Bad? Indifferent?

Good info on the venting. My roof is the kind where it has the vented shingles on the ridges and it has soffits under the overhangs around the house. I'm not sire on the math of in vs out. I'll have to do a little homework to find out that information.

 

[DC73]

An Idea I read about was wrapping the ducts with that foil bubble wrap to help insulate them from the temp extremes and transferring that temp to the air as it moves through. I read that when I wrapped my water heater with that stuff. Good idea? Bad? Indifferent?

Bubble wrap is a waste of time and money for the very very minimal r-value you'll get from it. If your ducts are currently not insulated, get regular duct insulation.

DC