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Hello all forum members! I am hoping some of you can maybe help me out. We have a bonus room that is surrounded by 3 crawl spaces and is above our garage. We can't cool it down in the summer. I have done a little internet research, and find that this is a common problem. I can't seem to find the fix though. I have read about attic fans, more insulation, etc. Has anyone had this issue and what actually worked that fixed it? Thanks!
We had an upstairs room with a large southwest facing window that really warmed up in the summer. If you set the central air conditioning low enough to cool it off, the rest of the house froze.
We bought a portable air conditioner similar to this:
Hello all forum members! I am hoping some of you can maybe help me out. We have a bonus room that is surrounded by 3 crawl spaces and is above our garage. We can't cool it down in the summer. I have done a little internet research, and find that this is a common problem. I can't seem to find the fix though. I have read about attic fans, more insulation, etc. Has anyone had this issue and what actually worked that fixed it? Thanks!
Have you tried a ceiling fan, more insulation in crawl spaces?
Thank you for the replies. We had 2 electricians come out today and they suggested an attic fan. I didn't know they had portable air conditioners-that is really cool and good to know! Until we get the attic fan we will continue the ceiling fan as well as the box fan and windows covered up. We live in the South and when it is humid and hot-it is unbearable up there. Hoping the attic fan will help!
We bought a portable air conditioner similar to this...
BAND-AID!
Quote:
Originally Posted by accufitgolf
Have you tried a ceiling fan...
BAND-AID!
Quote:
Originally Posted by kelled77
...they suggested an attic fan.
ANOTHER BAND-AID!
Another supply duct, an in-line supplemental booster fan- All BAND-AIDS!
The actual problem is lack of a proper "insulated envelope". Garage bonus rooms- or any other "type" of room over a garage that have heating and cooling problems are due to an inferior insulation install.
If you want it done correctly- rip out all the drywall in the room, and remove the drywall from the ceiling of the garage. Now we're at the starting point of making a correctly insulated space.
The rest I'll leave out; because once people hear what I just mentioned they see big dollar signs! The thing they don't realize is those big dollar signs are going out the roof, the floor, the walls every month.
A properly insulated space can actually save a lot of money- in the long run.
I could have written the same post as the OP. In our bonus room over the garage, we have a window air conditioner, and we had two attic fans installed right after we moved in. The bonus room can be made barely tolerable with the AC, but what K'ledge said is true. I think the lack of proper insulation is the main problem.
We do not use the office space up there much anymore, but if we did, we would have had to address the insulation issue in order to lessen the cost of keeping that space cool.
Use ICYNENE foam insulation. This insulates the roof, rather than the cieling. It works very well. Our carriage house office (once the hay loft) is insulated with ICYNENE and we can cool it with a cheapo portable AC unit form Lowes. We can heat it in the winter with one 8" ceramic disk heater. It takes a while to get it hot or cooled, but after about an hour, the space stays very comfortable without constantly running the heater or AC unit. It is a farily large space (18'x36')
I cannot say enough good about icynene insulation. Downsides are it must be professionally installed, it costs 3x fiberglass bat, it adheres to the roof sheathing so if the sheathing rots out, you will have to re-do your insulation. Otherwise it is the perfect solution to these kinds of problems.
BTW, for ICYNENE to work, you must remove or fill in your vents. Old school HVAC/insulation people get confused by this because they are taught the attic space MUST be vented. ICYNENE works differently, your attic space becomes conditioned space and you do not want it vented.
If you want to do overkill, you can also insulate the cieling, but it will not make enough of a difference to justify the costs.
Yes, I feel you.
Love that bonus room above that detached garage that is already a bonus to us.
Using it as storage... putting in a furnace for it for winter... but since we are very sheltered by trees, will only need to install a window fan & it will be as cool as cuk for summer.
The advice about PROPER insulation is KEY. I think over the years I have met / worked with about three dozen guys that do insulation. It is generally easy and low risk with little investment so probably all but 3 or 4 guys actually did any studying up of what works and what does not. The fact is that even with sprayed-in-place insulation in properly sized / configured eave space VENTILATION may be needed depending on the details of roof construction and climate.
Further, doing JUST insulation WITHOUT proper attention to weather sealing is HUGE mistake -- the builders that pay attention to the research from the DOE and the various building products manufacturers can build a home that uses SIGNFICANTLY less energy for heating and cooling simply the hot air and the cold air stay where they are supposed instead of "oozing " from the unconditioned space.
Retrofitting is ALWAYS harder than building from scratch. In some case you need to fur-out the ceilings , walls and even floors to provide for the proper amount of insulation. Once you get the right amount of insulation AND a proper air seal you will be money ahead in the long run. Thing about it -- you can go to WalMart and buy one of those large "fishing trip" ice chests that will keep ice frozen for 3+ days in 80+ degree heat. That thing has probably under 4" of medium grade foam, a nice tight seal and that's about it. The same level of air tightness inside your home would require an recovery ventilation system so that you did not breath in combustion products but otherwise you can achieve amount the same results with proper attention to detail...
Same issue as the OP. I insulated the eaves and the attic and that fixed about 80% of the problem. In the winter, the bonus room is about 2-3° cooler than the rest of the house, which is more than adequate. In the summer... it is about 4-5° warmer than the rest of the house. That is the 20% of the problem I'd like to fix. The only area that is not insulated is under the floor between the bonus room and the garage.
That I may fix with blown cellulose in the future. I'll make some holes in the garage ceiling and blow the fibers in between the beams. That will probably correct the problem.
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