Quote:
Originally Posted by snbrafford
We had an enclosed lanai BUT it was "conditioned" by having two vents added to the existing AC duct work. I thought the electric bill was still fine. We even kept the doors to the main house open. We only had to close those main doors a few times during the year on very hot or very cold days. We moved from that house and have an enclosed lanai and would just add additional duct work if we needed it. However, we just leave the doors open to the main house and the lanai stays comfortable.
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We recently enclosed in our ~300 square foot lanai on a ~1900 square foot home. We definitely need to blow insultation above it, but I'm concerned that even with the ceiling insulated (a) the glass is single-pane (i.e. not insulated) and (b) we're adding over 15% conditioned space for our AC unit to cool. Regardless of whether or not we extended the two ducts from our living room and added vents in the lanai, we would be placing too heavy of a strain on our AC system.
Is that true? I'm curious as to what would cause more load on the AC: the added ducts or just leaving the doors to the lanai open? In either case, wouldn't the single-pane glass also be "leaking" cool air?
I'm struggling with this as the wife really wants "open living" (i.e. leaving the doors open) yet probably wouldn't like having a much higher electricity bill, our AC blowout, and/or lose years off the AC's normal serviceable life.