Attic Furnace

An attic furnace may make sense if you love your home, but need to maximize space. One innovative method that many homeowners use is to relocate their furnace, and even sometimes they make other changes as well. Perhaps your kids are growing up fast, and taking up more space. If you have a basement, they may have already moved in downstairs, and are now begging for some more closet space downstairs as well. You may or may not be planning on remodeling your attic as well, especially if your home came with a finished basement.

One option that a whole host of homeowners have incorporated is the attic furnace. It may not seem right at first, and it may even just seem like an idea that is too foreign to you. If you give it a few minutes to sink it, it starts to feel better. The truth is that a furnace in an unfinished attic makes a lot of sense. If you are also wanting to save yourself the hassle of having a water tank taking up a lot of floor space as well, you may want to incorporate a tank-less water heater too. If you have a gas line supplying the spark for your water heater, this is a possible solution for you as well. If you have electric and only electric available, then you are out of luck.

Making It Worth Your Energy

If you are going to be relocating any appliances to the attic, it is important to make sure that you hold in heat and cool air. The fact is that the attic is one area of the home that can take on the cold and heat of the outside temperatures. Beyond that the attic tends to trap that air within the confines of its boundaries. If you have no insulation or roofing vents, and would like to add an attic furnace, it is time to make the investment of time and money. Get insulation, and make sure that you purchase plenty of it.

Caulk using masonry caulk to plug up any holes to the outside air, and even to the rest of the home. Be sure that the soffit vents are still able to function. These are in the underside of the roof, and help this area of your home to vent out a great deal of the heat in the hotter months. This venting provides a boost to your air conditioning and furnace, depending upon the time of year. This translates into lowered cooling costs.

The key to properly insulating the attic against exchanges is that this is one time when more is indeed better. You will want 12 inches of insulation to start. Wherever insulation is installed, a thicker blanket of it will insulate even more effectively. If you can place a limited amount of the duct work into this space, then your furnace will not have to work as hard. The reason that this is true is because duct work tends to have little to no insulation around it. This can allow a great deal of your heat or air conditioning efforts to be lost to the upstairs.

Spreading the Space

Thus, an attic furnace is definitely a great opportunity, especially if you are at a loss for space elsewhere in your home. You may find that if you are also adding a new furnace to your home, then you will perhaps be able to suit your upstairs more than you might with your old furnace. Many homeowners are able to save a lot of space and also improve energy efficiency when they purchase a new unit to serve as their attic furnace.

If you are actually going to be renovating the upstairs, then it may actually pay off for you to have the attic furnace, rather than a basement unit. And, you may conversely find that you may have a large home, and actually need multiple units to properly provide heating and cooling throughout your home. The attic furnace may help to make your upstairs more comfortable as well. There are many compelling reasons to include an attic furnace in your home.

It is an excellent idea that no matter how you decide to heat and cool your home, that you instead look for the most competitive prices. Find the best contractors who can provide an expert opinion and excellent work for less money. In addition, it is important that you even look at a handful of competitors as well. Beyond that, be sure to scope out a few different options before you settle on the product for your home. An attic furnace may be just the method that you need to make the most of the limited, or excessive space in your house.