Attic Ductwork Layout

To promote balanced air circulation through the supply ducts home and return ducts the ductwork should be simple in layout accurately sized sealed insulated in unconditioned spaces and installed in the right places.

Attic ductwork layout.

Well in the comments dave roberts a senior engineer at the national renewable energy lab nrel wrote about a paper he co authored last year and included a link to it. Situate the air handler close to the center of the layout to minimize the length of ductwork spans. Ductwork design mistake 2. Install ductwork so that it is in direct contact with i e laying on the ceiling and or truss lower cords.

Make sure your hvac contractor follows these duct design best practices and principles using manual d. Make the layout as symmetrical as possible with branch ducts spaced evenly along the. Remember that article i wrote about ducts installed against the roof deck and how i said it was probably the absolute worst single location for installing ducts. This equal friction method of duct sizing should be adequate for normal residential furnace heating and air conditioning applications.

Up against the deck may be the worst place in the attic to. This involves return air unconditioned coming into the heating cooling system. But without proper support ducts can develops sags or kinks that reduce airflow 4a 4b. When the location of hvac equipment and duct system and not optimized in the planning phase the equipment may end up far away from the space to be cooled.

Then by heating cooling that air delivering the newly conditioned air to. Runs that are too long. When hvac ducts are installed in a vented attic in a dry climate bury the ducts in attic insulation to protect them from temperature extremes in the unconditioned attic space. Route ducts between joists in a basement if possible or over them if necessary.

Place ducts on top of joists in a ceiling or attic. The purpose of residential ductwork design is to properly distribute the airflow produced by your heating cooling system to your house. To prevent problems use saddles or straps to support at regular intervals 4c 4d follow the manufacturer s instructions but in case they get lost here is a list of best practices for. Sometimes the best route for a flexible duct run is up and over an obstruction.

That may require long runs of ductwork that make it hard for your hvac system to move conditioned air to certain areas within the space. The layout and installation of the duct system will incorporate these basic principles of good ductwork design.