That project is done

[Square Wheels]

Our upstairs is essentially an attic.  The prior owners had those small AC tubes run in the ceiling when they did a reno.  There is a very tiny space above the ceiling, no access.  I suspect they ran the tubes above the insulation - not good.  We have central AC only in the upstairs of the house, on hot days it cannot keep up.  There is a crawlspace in the front of the upstairs of the house, that is where the air handler is along with the main trunk that runs about 60 feet or so where all those little tubes connect to.

That crawlspace gets super hot.  I installed this in the end wall this morning.  Hopefully it helps bring the temp down a little.  Tomorrow I'll put some trim around the outside, for now I just wante4d to get it installed and running.  I sweat, a lot.  That was my exercise for today.

[Airehead]

Good thing you got it done early in the day

[Square Wheels]

3 minutes ago, Airehead said:

Good thing you got it done early in the day

No kidding.  I was still soaked, and my clothes were drenched.  That crawlspace area gets really hot, really fast.

[Airehead]

Just now, Square Wheels said:

No kidding.  I was still soaked, and my clothes were drenched.  That crawlspace area gets really hot, really fast.

hopefully it helps

 

How do you cook downstairs?

[Square Wheels]

14 minutes ago, Airehead said:

hopefully it helps

 

How do you cook downstairs?

We'll see.  Our electric bill goes up to around 500 a month in the summer.  This will add to it a little, but hopefully make the AC run less.

[Square Wheels]

15 minutes ago, Airehead said:

How do you cook downstairs?

Huh?  It's a two story house with a full basement.  Downstairs we have the kitchen, living room and a couple of bedrooms.  We have a gas stove in the kitchen.

[Airehead]

1 minute ago, Square Wheels said:

Huh?  It's a two story house with a full basement.  Downstairs we have the kitchen, living room and a couple of bedrooms.  We have a gas stove in the kitchen.

oops, I meant, how do you cool downstairs if you only have central ac upstairs.

[Square Wheels]

6 minutes ago, Airehead said:

oops, I meant, how do you cool downstairs if you only have central ac upstairs.

ahh, this.  It's an older house.  They wanted over 13k to put AC downstairs.  For now, this works.

 

[donkpow]

It sounds like the upstairs is a converted attic. I hope the roof deck is ventilated.

[Square Wheels]

Just now, donkpow said:

It sounds like the upstairs is a converted attic. I hope the roof deck is ventilated.

There is a ridge vent and soffit vents.  There are small gable vents too, but again, those are at least 60 feet apart.  Far from ideal.

[MickinMD ★]

Vents with a fan should help a lot.

When I was growing up, there were two bedrooms upstairs for my brother and I - with NO insulation between the roof and ceiling sheetrock.  We had vents on each side of the house above the ceiling but they didn't do much.

Our house didn't have air conditioning - not even window air. I put a fan in each window - one in my bedroom and one in my brother's, and we set one of the fans to blow air in and one to blow air out, reversing them if one room got hotter than the other.  That worked better than having then both blow in.

[Thaddeus Kosciuszko]

1 hour ago, Square Wheels said:

I installed this in the end wall this morning.

 

I'm a   fan   of this post.

 

Where'd you steal the power from?

 

Once the crawlspace cools down, you could help the operation of the AC by adding another layer of insulation around the ducts going in and out of the unit, and adding some insulation around the unit itself.  The HVAC unit has the capacity to drop the air temperature only so many degrees, and if the air heats up while going in and through the unit then it can only come down so far coming out.  Every degree you gain going in will be a degree lower you receive at the registers.

[Square Wheels]

1 hour ago, Thaddeus Kosciuszko said:

Where'd you steal the power from?

The people who installed the ac a few years ago were kind enough to put a plug and a light in the area.  The fan had a long cord with a plug on the end.

This was a very easy job, albeit, sweaty.

[Bikeguy]

4 hours ago, Square Wheels said:

Our electric bill goes up to around 500 a month in the summer

I just paid our electric bill.  It was $135 for the last 30 days.  It was HOT here for most of the month.   Last summer the highest bill we had was $115.    3600 sq ft and 2 A/C units, with the thermostats set at 71 for the first floor and 73 for the second floor. 

[Ralphie ★]

5 hours ago, Square Wheels said:

We'll see.  Our electric bill goes up to around 500 a month in the summer.  This will add to it a little, but hopefully make the AC run less.

Wow, I sure hope that brings it down substantially.