Installing A Furnance In Your Attic

The trick to the installation of a gas furnace in an attic space is routing the condensate drain from the attic down through the core of the house to the basement.

Installing a furnance in your attic.

An outdoor unit which houses the fan condenser and compressor and an indoor unit which holds the evaporator and fan. To do that you need to buy a new sealed combustion furnace with a ducted source of combustion air. Attic furnace installation must comply with you local mechanical code or imc international mechanical code if such was adopted in your area. Attic furnace access passageway and platform.

The right thing to do is to enclose the attic install insulation along the roof plane and bring the furnace into the conditioned area of your home. Selecting a unit that fits your needs is half the battle. We re getting proposals to install a new central ac and gas furnace in the attic of our home. In flood prone areas instaling a furnace in the attic provides protection.

A furnace can suffer from a drop in energy efficiency if it s in an unconditioned space such as an attic. Most updated central air conditioned homes have a new air conditioner split system meaning the ac is broken up into parts. Well mainly it s a way to save space. Even when furnaces are put on the main floor floodwaters often overrun the first floor causing severe damage to the unit.

It s easier for technicians to service a closet furnace although the difference isn t too significant. There are rarely instances when we will advise against an attic installation. My plan was to get a high efficiency gas fired furnace in lieu of a heat pump or electric furnace. The following are attic furnace installation requirements based on 2009 irc and 2009 imc the codes refer to it as appliances in attics.

Attic furnace passageway and service area electrical requirement. Attic hvac systems save space. Ideally you will have room for your furnace in the attic but installation up there can be difficult to manage. The attic is a sealed space by polyurethane foam and will need a combustion air source.

So why put an hvac system up in the attic at all. Installing a furnace can be a difficult home improvement job to undertake. There is a common misconception that this is not possible for high efficiency furnaces. As long as the attic furnace is professionally installed you can expect a more even heating distribution through your house.

Just installing the furnace in the attic crawl way of a single story home gives protection from most flooding.