Including attic in conditioned space
My 1957, 1130 sq ft ranch style with a low slope roof (a little under 2 in 12) has open beam ceilings over about 3/4 of the area. The areas over the bathrooms and hallway, however, have a shallow attic. As the original roof is Homosote panels with an R of about 7, I had the roofs add a 2″ layer of rigid foam over the entire roof recently. There is no insulation between the attic and the living spaces.
I am now in the process of having cells blown into the walls and trying to tighten things up. My problem is that attic has two 1.5″x12″ openings under the eaves of the house – two on one side and one on the other. I can’t imagine that these openings do much and with the heating ducts in the attic and poorly insulated, I am interested in closing these off and incorporating the attic into the the conditioned space by plugging up the holes and putting louvers in the walls between the attic and the living space to allow air to circulate into the attic space. The attic would then be insulated by the roof insulation as is the rest of the house.
The fellow who came out to estimate the cost of doing the cells could not give me any advice on this. Does anyone see any problems with this approach. Any ideas on how big the louvered openings should be?
This is in the S.F. Bay Area and the coldest it has ever been in the 15 years I have owned the house is probably 31 degrees (the house water supply pipe comes up on the outside of the house). Attached (hopefully) are a couple of sketches of the house with the grid area in the plan view being the attic area.
Replies
Greetings C,
This post, in response to your question, will bump the thread through the 'recent discussion' listing again which will increase it's viewing.
Perhaps it will catch someone's attention that can help you with advice.
Cheers
"being human is a complicated proposition"-DavidxDoud
---Never show a fool a half finished job---Grampsy
I feel like a bunny in a hillbilly meadow at noon..........jjwalters
I'd plug them and see what happens.
Can't think of what you would gain by venting the attic into the living space, but you might check the temps from time to time and see what the difference is.
Joe H
I was told (by someone who probably didn't know any more about it than I did) that I needed some air circulation in the area, which was what I also thought. I guess if it was sealed up, it probably wouldn't be much different than now with the 1/3 sq ft of vent at the eaves.
I owned an almost identical house in Southern Cal.
2x6 rafters with zero insulation over the entire house except for the 2 bathrooms and hallway.
I guess when they built it heat was so cheap it didn't matter if the furnace ran 20 hours a day.
Joe H