Air Return From Finished Attic

In essence the attic is part of the home s conditioned air space.

Air return from finished attic.

One of the most effective ways to convert your attic space into a spare bedroom is to remove the insulation from the floor and add insulation to the attic ceiling. If your home already has ducts running in the attic the simple solution is to keep using the old system to pump treated air into the newly finished attic room. To maximize headroom properly insulate your attic and ventilate the roof use a combination of dense batt insulation rigid foam sheeting and air chutes. The furnace or air handler ahu in the drawing below pulls air through the return ducts conditions that air and then sends it through the supply ducts back into the house.

Ideally it s a closed system with as little duct leakage as possible and the air that it s conditioning comes from inside the house. I also included a fresh air return with motorized damper to bring in outside air. It s much better to place it low to suck out the cold stratified air. If you re finishing your attic insulating it to the proper r value can cause a dramatic loss of headroom if you limit yourself to fiberglass batts.

Essentially you re bringing the attic into the rest of the house. It is close to the furnace and actually on an adjacent wall. Hot air exhaust vents located at the peak of the roof allow hot air to escape. Intake vents located at the lowest part of the roof under the eaves allow cool air to enter the attic.

This isolates the attic from the rest of the home which means the attic isn t part of the conditioned envelope. Flip the reverse switch in wintertime and it will push warmer air down to keep you cozy. Consider whether the old system is powerful enough to cover new areas without losing efficiency though. I finished our basement with a cold air return located near the floor.

This is lieu of having fresh air returns using duck work to the air handler. If you ve got headroom a fan will make a finished attic more comfortable in warmer months by giving you a cool breeze indoors. By putting the cold air return on the floor it will vacuum up the cold air on the floor and draw down the warm air from the ceiling.