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So my office has been quite an enigma since I bought my house. Originally, in 2002-2003 I noticed that it got really hot in the summer but was always a nice temp in the winter. Fortunately I had a roommate move in who I let use the office for his office. I then forgot about it for the good part of 7 years. He moved out about 16 months ago and I reclaimed the space for my office. I worked on it in early winter painting, changing blinds, fixing wiring issues and a host of other stuff that would preclude me from putting all of my computer/networking equipment in there. The winter resulted in a nice temp most of the time but the summer of 2011 was hot. I tried vent fans, verifying AC ventilation, and a small list of potential fixes. The summer passed and I never found a real fix but winter solved it naturally.

It’s hot again! So I installed a new fancy 30” fan/light with the guru guidance of my dad. It seemed to help quite a bit. Until earlier this week when it started to warm up even more. Then yesterday and today hit. It was 80+ yesterday and 90+ today and my office was a sweltering 85 today. That’s not a good temp for my computer equipment let alone my comfort working in there. I had the foresight to acquire a infrared heat camera and I was able to SEE the issue. It wasn’t the ventilation system, nor the windows or lack of wall insulation. It was the drop-down attic door!! In the 3 other upper corners of my office it was 83 on the day of testing and immediately under the door it was 89 with a few edges registering at 90+.

Today I fixed the issue (or so I hope) with a $15 Home Depot trip. I bought a 4x8 R5.0 (1”) styrofoam insulation board and built a second door into the drop-down door frame and duct taped the @#$& out of it. Now I just need to wait for the next hot day and do some more testing.

I might also tweak it a bit and build a latch system to create a better seal, however the fact that the frame extends about 6” above the floor it might not be an issue. We’ll see.