Reply to Best way to insulate 100 year old unfinished attic ceiling?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I (OP here) really appreciate the discussion.  From what I saw in the article and read online, it is still very hard to know what to do.

We have an 18x10 space in a semi detached house.  100 years old.  No vents.  Typical DC semi detached - brick, front slope of roof covered in terracotta tile, rest of roof is flat with a 10 year old membrane on it.

We have a HVAC unit that provides AC to our upstairs located in the attic.  The attic is totally unfinished with no signs of moisture.  There is no insulation and two 27x38 inch windows facing south.

There is electrical for one light and the HVAC.  We don't have knob and tube up there.

ALSO:  When we redid our bathroom last year, the ceiling went up to the flat part of our roof where there is no crawlspace.  This was loaded with old insulation that looked to be like finely shredded paper.  There were a lot of moths in there and moth larvae on the exposed rafters. The contractor removed the insulation.  We think it might have been original to the house as there were generally very few updates throughout.

Is blown in cellulose the way to go?  Put it in the rafters, put the drywall over it and move on?  Or is this a disaster?
[/quote]

Having your HVAC equipment outside of the insulation, as you do now, is bad. You're essentially heating and cooling the outdoors. The equipment can get damaged by freezing as well. [/quote]

Many older houses have external packaged units containing the AC and furnace together. How would having the AC in the attic be any different that that in regards to your comments?

An AC in the attic is a poor choice obviously, due to condensation and leakage and accessibility, but curious how it would be different than a package unit with the evaporator coil outside in the box?[/quote]

A packaged unit is going to be constructed to be outdoors. The air handler in the attic is constructed to be inside conditioned space. A ventilated attic is unconditioned space.

For most of the 20th century most people in construction thought it was OK to have basements and attics that were sorta-kinda inside the conditioned space, and sorta-kinda outside. And it was sorta-kinda OK to put mechanicals in those spaces, and if they froze in the winter you dealt with it then.

There has been a real change in the past 20 years or so in terms of what is considered acceptable (and code) in residential construction. It's now expected that there be a clear demarcation between conditioned and unconditioned spaces and that there be a continuous layer of insulation between them. [/quote]

Thanks for the response. So outdoor package units are insulated around the evap coil I'm assuming then? [/quote]

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