House Attic Ductwork Layout

From these trunk lines come branch ducts usually round that extend.

House 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. Situate the air handler close to the center of the layout to minimize the length of ductwork spans. Runs that are too long. Designing a duct system is important but there are a few critical steps that come first.

The 1 800 square foot brick ranch in climate zone 4 dates from the 1960s but the previous owner installed both a furnace and ductwork in the attic just four years ago. Make the layout as symmetrical as possible with branch ducts spaced evenly along the trunk duct and each branch of similar length. Number one is the heating and cooling load calculation using a protocol like acca s manual j or the ashrae handbook of fundamentals. You ve got to know how much heating and cooling you need for each room in btu hr.

Make sure your hvac contractor follows these duct design best practices and principles using manual d. Ted has more than a few cobwebs in his attic. Avoid any hot elements such as water heaters heater or stove. Up against the deck may be the worst place in the attic to.

Route ducts between joists in a basement if possible or over them if necessary. The most common design trunk line layout is provided in the illustration below. 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. Basic ductwork trunk line layout duct work information this type of system incorporates the use of a trunk line or series of rectangular ducts that act as a main supply channel throughout the house.

Place ducts on top of joists in a ceiling or attic. 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. The layout and installation of the duct system will incorporate these basic principles of good ductwork design. The 2nd duct is the return duct that attaches to the return air vents and draws the stale air out of the house through the filter and conditions it again to return to the house as conditioned air through the supply duct system.

This type of system incorporates the use of a trunk line or series of rectangular ducts that act as a main supply channel throughout the house. 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 unconditioned space also houses his hvac system.