I have a heat pump that the air handler sits on a platform in the garage. It takes up the whole end of the garage and its a lot of wasted space. I decided to cut a hole in the drywall and see if I could use some of it for storage. Once cut out I see there is no insulation in the top or wall facing the garage just drywall. Should I get a 3.5 inch roll of batts and insulate the top and side wall? I will run a couple of doors on the two entry points and put foam board over them to insulate these points. Is this normal?

Hey all! Need to borrow some heads; basically on the soundness of the plan, and airflow needed for the purpose. The situation: I own a 2 story roughly 1400 sqft home with no Central heat or air. Currently the majority of the cooling is done with an old window unit built into the wall(18500btu I think, but don't know) on the 2nd story a top the landing which is a 9x10 foot room over looking a U shaped stair case (Which is basically a 8x8 hole to the 1st floor so lots of airflow) and heat is done with a 30000 BTU blue flame heater on the 1st floor, centrally located. The home is located in Arkansas, and actually does a good job keeping the house cool and warm as needed. Of course there is about a 6 degree difference in temps from upstairs and downstairs. Now I am doing some remodeling in the laundry room, and the upstairs bathroom(which is above the laundry room and off the landing) and my wife was talking to me about allergies and it dawned on my I maybe able to address that and take a chunk out of the 6 degree difference between floors. The thought is this: Build a forced air filter/vent. With the way the rooms are, I could run less then 20 feet of duct work, placing 1 outlet on the floor of the 1st story in the dining room, and an outlet above that bathroom into the landing on the 2nd story. Have filters on both outlets/inlets. Put a fan in there that can both push and pull air. In the summer, it'll take air off the 1st story floor, filter it and drop it basically at the 2nd story peak. The cold air will drop like a rock into the landing; then rush down the stairs, thru the living room, into the dining room and get sucked back up into the vent in the laundry room. This air movement and filtering should lower my wifes allergy issues and decrease the temp difference between floors. In the winter, reverse the fan and the hot air will be filtered and dumped out in the dining room, rush into the living room, up the stairs only to be sucked up and sent back to the dining room. The questions is, how well would this plan actually work? How many CFM would I need for the area in question? (the air volume of all rooms togather is about 8000 cubic feet if we include the 2 bedrooms upstairs. About 5000 Cubic feet if we close the doors) What size fan would be needed? What is the size of the ducting I would need? Do they even make a fan that can both push and pull air? Am I just crazy? Any input on this would greatly be appreciated. Thanks for you anyone who actually read this far