I live in Texas, and it get hotter than ^(&* in the summer. I have been thinking about building some sort of heavily insulated box or room to store long term storage items in the attic. Has anyone heard of this being done? Do you think it would be easy to create a room that would keep it at reasonable temps? I bet it gets 120-130 degrees up there easy. I remember I used to work at a plant nursery as a kid. They had the back end of a refrigerator truck there they used to store seed in. It would be 100+ in the summer and very comfortable in that refrigerator truck (fridge was shut off so it was basically just an insulated box). It was out in the open in the sun. If I could create something like that up there (obviously not metal) It think i would be OK... but I am concerned about cost and weight. Thoughts?
Build a box that looks like part of the structure and install a tap from your A/C system duct work into it, and back out to a new ceiling register, so it goes through/around the box and back into the living space. Make sure it spans over several joists to distribute the weight evenly. Lock it and throw some plastic wrapped insulation over it.
Yeah, without cool air running to it, I don't see how it can be kept below 70 degrees. You will also want to vent the attic to reduce the ambient air temp.
I understand the desire for less than 70 degrees, but my house doesn't even stay that cool in the summer. I let it get up to 78 degrees in the summer....which is still reasonable (for texas summer). anybody know the best kind of insulation. I figure what ever is in coolers is pretty good. It keeps the hot out and the cool in. One conern I would have about running a duct to it would be the heat in the winter. I don't think it would be needed. I guess I could shut that vent off in the winter though.
There's tons of stuff that you can store safely in high temp attic space ....... whatever you have in mind that needs cooler temps is better stored elsewhere ....... lots of creative cache ideas on the SHTF websites and internet ..........
I personally would forget attic storage. Anything that is perishable or degraded by temps above 70 degrees (MRE's) etc is a no go. Even photographs and magazines suffer amazing degradation in an attic over a few short years even here in Northern climates. Much better off with underground storage.
I wouldn't do it. I would rather figure a way to store stuff in a crawl space than the attic. Temps there are much better. Vermin are a problem with both.
