INSTALLING CENTRAL AIR IN A HOT ATTIC! // Work Journal EP.020
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- Опубликовано: 20 авг 2024
- 🧰 In this episode, the team gets hot and toasty with a central air unit and ductwork install job in a client's attic! The temperatures during the day were between 70-80℉, turning the attic into an oven. 🥵
Neat installation; in our Houston Texas area the heat in the attic gets up to 130 degrees F. Installers start early in the morning and take breaks; experience crews can install one system in six to eight hours. Cross my fingers!
@@bobboscarato1313 it gets so hot in Florida up in an attic you can touch the trusses and they will burn your hands
@@pitbulllife4198 It's not better here in Houston, Texas!
@@bobboscarato1313 Florida I've seen to get up to 150 degrees in 628 hours to install a unit we do 2 heat pump a day it's not fun but pays great
@@pitbulllife4198 Money is OK; your health is more important; believe me, it'll catch up with you later!
its nice to be in an attic with a lot of head room
That’s a big attic ..I have to work of the ladder sometime there so tight
And changing the plenums/adding new collars in tight attics is a bitxh. Kudos to you my dude we have the roughest job. Do not accept hourly if you can change out quick do piece rate. 500-1500$ an install varies for installers and certain companies and states. Obviously if you run the business yourself AND install it you can make thousands for a single install in one day in under 10 hours :)
Ahahahah holy cow that's a nice attic I wouldn't care how hot it is that is A LOT of space to work with Fellow installer here. I can change a split system out of a tight attic with one other guy and started up and adjusted in around 3-6 hours.
id love to see photos, I don't doubt you can do it though. Just curious on how neat it looks
Nice work!!
@@blacksunshine489 PSU really never seen a whole bunch of ductwork jobs
Nice work !
Thank you!
ok, ok, so, I'm watching old video. I'm looking to see why hvac are installed in attics in southern US, since its usually around 120+ F in the attic. (Summer day of outside ambient air temp is 100F and direct sun on asphalt shingles) I'm guessing 80F is in the northern states.
Yes, good point to bring up. We're up in the Northeast US in Connecticut, so our attics don't get as hot as the southern US states (thankfully lol)
My understanding for attic hvac in southern states is because homes are built on concrete slab and don’t have basements
@@Xblackhawks19 Do have houses with the HVAC crammed in a closet but it appears that most (newer) are in the attic since the in / out ducting is shorter and its alot easier to service. I guess the units can handle working in the heat but wonder what it does to the electric bill.
@@servicestars Pretty much all AC ductwork in the attics in Florida, there isn’t any basement in which to run it.
@@darwinjina Trust me, it’s not friendly for the electric bill. I’m wondering why multiple split unit systems haven’t replaced the old central HVAC systems and their dust-caked iWeb of ductwork.
Yeah I know what you mean. You’re 118°. So about 150 & 160 in the attic. Especially on the older homes. We can only install for every 30 min to hr minutes Then we have to come back down.
It gets mid 130’s in attics where I work. Been trying to come up with something to combat the heat so I was wondering if you guys have ever tried anything like a portable ac unit. I was thinking hook up a hose to the condensate and run down into a 5 gal bucket and extend the 4” line that normally would go out a window just down into the house or window if close enough. It’s not real bad when we start so I was thinking if we got it set up right away it may take the edge off throughout the day but I also think it might not help much and probably burn the compressor up quick. Being about $500 I think I’m gonna try but was wondering if anyone else has done it and can’t find anyone
Hi Ben!
That would definitely be a nice thing to have for our techs. In theory, it sounds like the trade-offs of setup + effectiveness with varying home attic sizes for a cooler work environment would be a case-to-case scenario. We're located up in Connecticut though where extremely hot attic install days are seldom compared to the hotter states, so the A/C solution wouldn't be as effective for our use case. I can imagine the use case for you and your team though would be more than worth it.
Working in the 130's sounds insane! Stay safe, hydrated, and let us know how it goes if you try it out!
My buddy has a squirrel cage blower with a register box attached and runs flex with him into the attic
We tried a 1/2 ton portable a/c inside a pan and run a supply to attic; it worked but was too cumbersome. Fans usually help quite well.
If a had to spend time in the attic doing service or repairs a had worn vest that had room for ice packs. It could last up to 4 hours.
Question; is 95-108 degrees in an attic too hot for a air handler?
Outside temp is 95-98 degrees.
Carrier Ducted mini-split, also makes heat, horizontal fan condenser.
Air Handler > Carrier 40MBAAQ24XA3 (2-ton)
Outside unit > Carrier 38MARBQ24AA3 (2-ton)
Second floor is 900 SQFT I layed down R30 on attic floor.
Long supply trunk with flex coming off trunk, two supplies to each bedroom with one return in each bedroom and a return at the hallway ceiling.
The AC never gets below 80 degrees and that with the thermostat set to 72.
The AC contractor is now blaming the attic temp yet, he never said it was too hot in the attic when he installed the new system with all new duct work $$$$$
Good question! 95-108 degrees is not too hot for the air handler; it's common for air handlers to be in the attic, so they can handle that heat. Attics can get 10-20 degrees hotter than outdoor temperatures.
Assuming the system isn't performing or cooling to your satisfaction, it's very likely that there's a design flaw somewhere along the way, such as improper sizing of ductwork, BTU of system, or installation error. Even as far as the number of windows in the rooms can affect what the proper system should be installed. The specs of the system you provided seem to match the size of the areas it's installed, so I would partially rule that out.
Does it at least get close to 80 degrees or is the indoor temperature not cooling at all? And what part of the US are you located in?
Regardless of improper install or not, it sounds like you need a new A/C contractor if he's not taking responsibility for making things right. We're connected with other quality contractors across the nation, so we'd be happy to refer you to them if you aren't in our service area! 😄
You are great, good you didn’t
Question for anybody when your air conditioner units in the Attic it gets too hot does your blower stay on
No, unless you have the fan set to ON. However, in my situation, when the system is not running, the air inside the ducts gets extremely hot, so when the AC first comes out, it feels like the heat is on. Unfortunately, AC in the attic is problematic. The heat in the winter is no problem. I have 10 foot ceilings, and in a 1500 square foot house, and my electric bill in the summer ranges from $600-$900. And the thermostat struggles to get below 80 during the day. I have to have portable AC unit in my room.
Also, if you condenser pump ever fails, all the nasty overflow leaks and becomes absorbed into your ceiling. Even with a pan.
Diffently interesting video. But so funny.
Thanks for watching!! 😄
You look like the burn notice actor
It can reach 150+ degrees in an attic in the middle of a summer, doesn't that shorten the lifespan of a blower motor of the air handler operating all day/night in such a hot and humid environment?
Sorry for the late reply! RUclips notifications seem to suck for us.
Related to Darius's recent comment, we're located up in Connecticut, so our attics don't get as toasty as more hotter southern US states. I can see how an attic A/C can have problems in lifespan if you are dealing with those type of hot environments though!
Yes, don’t do it!
Awesome work.
Since the rafters are sloped, What fasteners/device do you use to hang the rods from the rafters? Has to be something to make them plumb.
Hi William! Sorry for getting back super late to this comment; not sure if you were still looking for an answer to this. I asked Jeremy and he said it's a 3/8th threaded rod anchor they use for mounting the ductwork to the rafters. With mounting the air handler, they add on vibration isolation hangers so the house doesn't shake and operation noise is reduced when on. Hope that helps! ⭐️
@@servicestars it does help thanks.
@@servicestars That's the right way to do it. Systems are super quiet that way.
Mine is also in the attic. Question? What is the part called where the cores are ? My is bad. Do ya have a video on how to change it out. Without changing the whole unit
Did you mean the coil on the furnace? If so, we currently don't have any DIY How-To's on that but it's a definitely good topic worth exploring for a video.
On our jobs where a client's furnace coil goes bad or has leaks, we replace the whole unit. At least in our area, the costs to diagnose and repair the leaks on the existing unit can get high enough where it's more cost-efficient to just replace the whole furnace unit with a new one.
Did you have to replace the breaker box?
Why was the guy wearing a respirator at 5:58 but no one else was?
It wasn't fully recorded on camera, but Jeremy (guy wearing respirator) was face-deep into the insulation & dust, so it was necessary. The other techs present weren't getting as deep in, so it was optional for them. While we highly recommend PPE to everyone for the sake of protecting their health, we leave the final decision to the technicians & their judgment unless it is high-risk & guaranteed to severely affect their health.
U guys take 3 days we take 14 hrs thats crazy
Normally an air handler & ductwork install is a one-day job for us too! But with how complex this job got, it definitely took longer we hoped for. We shot this video about 2 years ago now so I can't remember the exact details, but I do recall us having to order more parts than originally planned and our nearby supply houses being out of stock of those parts... We had to go almost an hour out-of-state to get it. A chaotic 3-day install for us for sure LOL.
Thankfully for the homeowner, we charge by the job and not by the hour, so it was the same price for them whether we took 1 day or 3 days.
@@servicestars It probably cost you some money; hopefully you may recup the loss by good referrals!
@@bobboscarato1313 You win some & you lose some; as long as the homeowner is 100% happy, they've only got good things about us to say to potential clients!
@@servicestars Absolutely; I'm retired now!
How much it will cost
How many installers see a problem with what they did with the flex
What they do wrong?
The flexes way to long too many restrictions I guarantee you if I ran out the duck and flexing their it'll be 10 times colder than what whoever put that stuff in I seen a lot of companies and that's like somebody who's never done it before that's what their work looks like it's like the first time ever run flex I don't know where y'all live I know in Florida in our county have to have a Panduit tape on the inside liner on the outside liner you have to have tape all the way around it that's fast on to fast on tape all the way around it and then you have to master it or pookie it however you prefer to say the word trust me I've been doing this for 25 years and all I am is an installer I don't own my own company but if y'all want me to come work for you I'll show you how it's done and I don't know how long that little bit and a little bit of ductwork I know me and my helper knock that out in a day half a day when they took us all night and all day you know it took probably you know starting of the day till about 3:30 best cutting and boots and all of it secondary we would have had that unit installed by at least by 10