Central Heat And AC In Older Home
Here's something that I found interesting.
I have an older 2 story home with a finished attic in the Pittsburgh area that had Central heat and air installed before we bought it. One of the previous owners did some creative DIY ductwork additions later. So we have a problem with the home cooling evenly. The system isn't balanced. Anyway, we had a AC guy come out and look at it. He obviously saw the issues with the expanded ductwork. But this is the interesting part.
In these older homes we have two layers of brick on the outside and no insulation in the exterior walls unless it's been rehabbed. So in the case where they have no insulation in the outer walls they will use the space between the studs as the duct. In the basement they will cut a hole in the foot of the wall and run a duct to it. On the second floor they will cut a hole in the top of the wall in between the same studs and attach the vent to it.
Voila! Instant ductwork.
I thought that this was a really cool method for implementing Central Heat and AC in these older homes. Now I am wondering if using some of the interior walls to do the same thing would work OK.
Be carefull about heat and wood( wall framing) ducts. The inspectors think its a fire hazard.
If the furance burns
That's interesting, although a bit paranoid. Considering it a fire hazard is a bit extreme, don't you think?
If the hot air from the furnace could set a wall on fire then most houses would already be burned down because of furniture sitting next to ducts. Not to mention a lot of people would be scalded from the air coming out of the vents.
Since you have changed the ductwork to carry the heat you also must make sure that your cold air return is also large enough. If not your furnace wont last.
Hope this helps,
Benny
[addsig]
Haven't actually done it yet. But will be using another 'space' for the returns
I found out the hard way. We had a new furnace installed and new ductwork a while back and the heat never reached the second floor real good. When I took a look the cold air returns were actually way to small for the furnace. Needless to say I had to run new ****Must Reach Senior Investor status before posting URL's***he heat blows so hard now on the second level the ceiling fans spin when its on and my registers are on the floor..its kickin now..LOL
Benny
[addsig]
LOL... returns were something that we were told is needed. The guys that did this initial work really butchered up.
The town isn't concerned with warm air, they are concerned with pathways for open flame from the basement or throughout the www.house.I
I allways put battery smoke detectors in my resell property. Theinsurance company like to see them also.
If the house is on fire get out they go up in minuets with killer smoke.
I misunderstood your previous message. Now I understand what you are talking about.
here in NJ its done all the time on the return side of the funace. Just a couple of things to be aware of. Air contains moisture, at certain conditions this moisture come out of the air(condensation) do you really wanna risk the moisture in the walls. I say good idea bw sure to use a lining in the wall.
The method of using the stud space for moving air to the furnace was also suggested to me by an A/C contractor, but only for the cold air return, he implied that it wouldn't be a good idea trying to use the stud space for hot air.
There is probably a reason for those codes.
This is all very interesting. Things that I would not have considered.
I noticed something else yesterday that raised my eyebrows, especially after reading these responses. In the basement of my home and several others that I have looked at, the space between the rafters is being used as ductwork also. Sheetmetal nailed to the rafters creates the 'duct'. Now I don't know if it is lined or anything but I would bet that it is not.
Quote:
On 2003-10-10 12:58, thomasgsweat wrote:
This is all very interesting. Things that I would not have considered.
I noticed something else yesterday that raised my eyebrows, especially after reading these responses. In the basement of my home and several others that I have looked at, the space between the rafters is being used as ductwork also. Sheetmetal nailed to the rafters creates the 'duct'. Now I don't know if it is lined or anything but I would bet that it is not.
9 times out 10 they are not lined this is how its done residental instalations. It fine as the return duct but anything eles causes problems.
I need to go down and check it out. The rafters I believe are used for the return but I need to look.
I think that I really need to look at this thing closely and get a couple more guys out to bid it.
If you have sheet metal nailed across the rafters, this is your cold air return. Keep in mind that you may have more than one.As far as pushing heated air through the beams, personally I wouldnt you need to do it the right way. First reason being that your heat loss will be tremendous.
Benny
[addsig]