Teach me about attic insulation/heat barriers...

[Zippyman]

Originally Posted by Burning Madolf

You are right, found a spot where the return air connects to the air handler where someone tried to patch with liquid sealant that broke apart (ducts are flex, but this was aluminum where it meats the air handler, plenum?). Who knows how long it's been open and how many years of dust and insulation fibers are in the whole system (not to mention on my evap coil).

You can buy special duct-tape to repair minor damage @ the depot. it's made by a company called Nashua, and has the UL logo all over the tape.

It's required to have that logo so that when a home is inspected, the inspector can see that the correct tape was used.

FWIW, regular duct-tape won't work, it'll fall off because of the temperature changes in just a few days...

That liquid sealant works pretty well for sealing seams in sheetmetal, but I don't trust it on flex-duct, although many hvac guys splatter it everywhere.

If the plastic inside the ductwork is crunchy & brittle, you can buy a new section of ductwork & replace it, it's just held on with big zip-ties & duct tape... but they usually make you buy a big length & the big stuff is pricey - I had to buy a section of 18" duct and it was over a hundred bucks, might have been $150... ouch!...

The zip ties & tape are expensive too, but you have to just grit your teeth & realize an a/c guy would just double the price & add labor charges...

The depot sells the smaller ductwork - 6" to about 12", but to get the bigger stuff, you'll need to find a hvac supply house - here's the one I went to:


Air Cold Supply West Phoenix 6652 West Buckeye Road (623) 474-7200

Air Cold Supply Mesa 3457 East Main Street (480) 832-3438

Air Cold Supply Glendale 6864 North Grand Avenue (602) 246-6982

Air Cold Supply S. Phoenix 3402 East Roeser Road (602) 438-8945

Air Cold Supply N. Phoenix 2510 East Bell Road (602) 971-7506

[Burning Madolf]

Great stuff! Thanks for the help.

[Juram]

Go to Lowe's, rent an insulation blower, buy packages of cellulose, buy radiant barrier, spend about 5 hours with a buddy and $400-500, blow the insulation evenly throughout the attic being sure to cover up open ducts and vents, staple the radiant barrier around the underside of the attic leaving about 6 inches of space open from attic to eave and get back what an insulation/energy efficiency company would charge you $2500-3500 for. Its pretty simply, even if you don't know what you're doing, LOTS of how-to-guides online, just make sure you ALWAYS check out the machine before you leave the store with it, the hoses famously have holes in them and other issues and you want to have that taken care of before you leave.

[Juram]

Originally Posted by ReadyFreddy

But, up to $29/year? SRP seems to know their stuff. How could that possibly pay off? Isn't it an expensive project?

Of course, the power company is the most reliable sources for exact data on energy savings, just like your local neighborhood crack dealer is the best source on kicking a coke habit.




I can tell you from experience that SRP seems to apply the "20 years ago" rule when it comes to predicted savings....namely, what they're telling you will save with a given efficiency upgrade is what it would have been...20 years ago. They undershoot just about everything by quite a bit.

[ReadyFreddy]

Why would they do that? They're very pro-conservation, which is why they offer rebates on things like this.

[Zippyman]

Originally Posted by ReadyFreddy

Why would they do that? They're very pro-conservation, which is why they offer rebates on things like this.

Just for the record, they offer rebates because they are public utilities & the legislature requires it. Those rebates aren't funded with kindness, they're paid for by other ratepayers ... APS and SRP do a pretty good job IMO, but they arent an organization of missionaries who live on donations. They make a guaranteed profit every month using their monopoly. In the past, they haven't been at all bashful about asking for rate increases 2-3 times in the same year, and those increases get rubber-stamped 100% of the time.

I saw your post about their estimate of savings for adding insulation, and in my own real-world experience, it was off by a comical amount - so far off the mark in my case that I would have no choice but to question their motivations.