Billbill84
Well-Known Member
Hi all. So like every DIY guy out there we all know every house is an animal in itself, meaning, you gotta learn how all the systems are setup, what makes it tick, and what not to mess with.
Here's some info: house built 2001. Fully finished 1300 sqft basement with sheet rock walls and ceilings. In summer basement is coldest place and winter, luckily it's the warmest by far. Furnace unit is also in basement.
My furnace struggles to get conditioned air hot or cool, all the way up to the 2nd floor upstairs. First main floor is always comfortable and in winter main floor is great and floors can fool you as being heated....keep this detail in mind for later.
So this past summer instead of messing with individual supply registers, my trunks off the air handler have dampers on each trunk. I slightly backed off the supply dampers to force more cool air up to 2nd floor. It worked good enough and all was good. Now the cold weather is coming and while I was in basement going to valve off the outside hose bibs, while peeking up in ceiling around rim joist I noticed a LOT of exposed rim joist with very little insulation and what's even there is yellow R13 I believe. I'm wondering how the heck these pipes never froze and burst?!? Then I got to thinking....while all the duct work is hidden up in the drywall ceiling, it's uninsulated ductwork which means there's probably a decent amount of leaks which would be heating the area ceiling cavity up to the rim joist area which would also explain why no pipes ever burst up there.
When i first moved in they had them dampers fully open which, if my theory is correct, would protect that ceiling cavity with warm air from leaks and if it's doing that then the rim joist and pipes would be benefiting from the warm air leakage and there's a lot of copper pipes in my rim areas!
Conclusion, It's been cooler out last few nights and was wanting the 2nd floor a little warmer again for the kids, but then thought with the outside temps dropping maybe I should open the trunk dampers fully (like they were when we moved in), to let that warm air concentrate around inside the basement ceiling/rim joist area to avoid disaster. Opening the dampers weakens the flow going up to the 2nd floor rooms obviously, remember it worked in summer for cool air but maybe not a good idea in winter?
For now after I shut off hose bibs I carefully stuffed some unfaced R30 on the backside of the water lines and valves against the rim. Is this ok?
Any thoughts on this are greatly appreciated guys please chime in. Thx. (Pics below & red circles are the dummy vents for outside winterize shut-offs and other pics are my furnace with directional arrows and dampers. Thx
Here's some info: house built 2001. Fully finished 1300 sqft basement with sheet rock walls and ceilings. In summer basement is coldest place and winter, luckily it's the warmest by far. Furnace unit is also in basement.
My furnace struggles to get conditioned air hot or cool, all the way up to the 2nd floor upstairs. First main floor is always comfortable and in winter main floor is great and floors can fool you as being heated....keep this detail in mind for later.
So this past summer instead of messing with individual supply registers, my trunks off the air handler have dampers on each trunk. I slightly backed off the supply dampers to force more cool air up to 2nd floor. It worked good enough and all was good. Now the cold weather is coming and while I was in basement going to valve off the outside hose bibs, while peeking up in ceiling around rim joist I noticed a LOT of exposed rim joist with very little insulation and what's even there is yellow R13 I believe. I'm wondering how the heck these pipes never froze and burst?!? Then I got to thinking....while all the duct work is hidden up in the drywall ceiling, it's uninsulated ductwork which means there's probably a decent amount of leaks which would be heating the area ceiling cavity up to the rim joist area which would also explain why no pipes ever burst up there.
When i first moved in they had them dampers fully open which, if my theory is correct, would protect that ceiling cavity with warm air from leaks and if it's doing that then the rim joist and pipes would be benefiting from the warm air leakage and there's a lot of copper pipes in my rim areas!
Conclusion, It's been cooler out last few nights and was wanting the 2nd floor a little warmer again for the kids, but then thought with the outside temps dropping maybe I should open the trunk dampers fully (like they were when we moved in), to let that warm air concentrate around inside the basement ceiling/rim joist area to avoid disaster. Opening the dampers weakens the flow going up to the 2nd floor rooms obviously, remember it worked in summer for cool air but maybe not a good idea in winter?
For now after I shut off hose bibs I carefully stuffed some unfaced R30 on the backside of the water lines and valves against the rim. Is this ok?
Any thoughts on this are greatly appreciated guys please chime in. Thx. (Pics below & red circles are the dummy vents for outside winterize shut-offs and other pics are my furnace with directional arrows and dampers. Thx
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