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Just bough a fixer upper in Central Florida. I am replacing my AC unit and am receiving conflicting advice/opinions from experts.

The guy who won the bid to put in my AC unit wants to keep the handler in the attic, which rests over the line between the kitchen/living room, however a wall that was there has been removed and will not be replaced.

Our demo guy, who has 30 years construction/contracting experience and is now semi-retired is adamant that the handler be relocated to our garage.

With the amount of work we are doing, now is the time to do the AC, the question I have is where to put the handler.

One concern is overflow of the condensation collection pan despite the overflow float. Also, will the heat of the attic diminish the handler's efficiency relative to the garage?

Is one better than the other and why?

Thank you in advance.

Every home is different, but the attic is usually a good place for it because it takes no space away from either a garage or closet, first let me say that I hang all furnaces and air handlers from the roof rafters to get rid of vibration, get it high enough to provide good fall to the drain line and always provide a secondary drain pan with a separate drain line for safety. As far as efficiency is concerned, you would not have any difference if in both cases the duct is in the attic.I hang these with 3/8 " althread and unistrut, very strong.

I would say your move would all depend on the distance from where the airhandler is now to the garage and the way the duct is ran.

I found it helps and works better when you keep the air handler closest to the center of the house that you can, it helps to make the air flow more even. Rather than having to blow air 45 feet to your longest supply run and your closest at 5 feet. Depends on how much retrofit you want to do.

I say keep it in the attic. Let the hvac guys do their things, and let the carpenters do theirs. A lot of general contractors don't know much about what actually goes into a heating and cooling design. This should be the ac contractors call, and if they are leaving it up to you, I would be on the ac contractors side when it comes to any thing ac related. Good luck and let us know what you decide and how things work out.

Just another point and I'm not a HVAC guy just someone who has lived in Fla for a long time. Keep in mind the fact that any unit in the garage will be subjected to the outdoor Florida air much more than one that would be located elsewhere.

Now it's not as bad in CFL but still. The humidity gets pretty intense during the middle of the summers here. And even with the protection that a garage offers it's not the same as something that is truly indoors.