Prepping a house for Central AC


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Old 08-24-12, 06:28 PM
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Prepping a house for Central AC

I live in a home built in the early 80s that doesn't have AC. Currently, I have a horizontal, forced air furnace in my crawlspace (also from the early 80s. All of my ducts feed floor vents on my two floors, and each floor has a single air return that's in a wall and close to the floor.

I'm currently in the process of residing my home and all of my exterior walls are being taken down to the studs. I have a spot picked out in my yard for a central AC unit, and I'm wondering what types of wiring and/or piping I should run while my walls are open.

1. Is it worth it/possible to terminate a 220V exterior wall plate near fed with 8/3 or 6/3 wire near the spot I'd like to place the unit? I really hate having conduit hanging off my walls.
2. I've seen conflicting information on what is required in terms of bringing pipes into the home. I've seen examples were pipes are run into the attic and others where pipes are run to the furnace. Are there any pipes I should run to either while the walls cavities are accessible?
3. Is it worth trying to add any ceiling vents? Keep in mind the ducts would have to run in exterior walls and would reduce the amount of insulation.

Thanks
 
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Old 08-25-12, 05:47 AM
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It's hard to say for sure without knowing your houses layout and where the electrical service is located. Generally I'd think the power and coolant lines would pass through the foundation wall and be run in the crawl space especially since your furnace is in the crawl space. So no matter where you located the outside unit there would be no conduit other than the little bit required for the disconnect next to the unit and no need for anything to run up to the attic.

As for which wire to run to the area, are you only adding AC? If there any thought of going to a heat pump? If considering a heat pump you may need two circuits, one for the compressor unit and another for the auxiliary heat strips. If only doing AC then one circuit is all that's needed. The size of wire will depend on the unit you're installing.
 
 

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