I'm Melting!
It's been pretty warm here the past few days, and I'm coming the realization that the HVAC system in my house just isn't up to snuff.
It's too cold on the second story in the Winter, and it's way too hot in the Summer. The first floor seems to maintain the set temperature reasonably well, and the basement is always basement temperatures, but the second floor is a horrible living experience. Even Lucy is hanging out in the basement and will only sit on my lap for a few minutes. And cats are from Africa! It's that hot.
For the past few days I've been able to get away with opening the windows and getting a reasonable amount of cooling, though not as much as I would like. However, now that outside temperatures are high nineties, and inside temperatures are high eighties, windows won't cut it.
Yesterday I closed down all but one of the first story vents and all but the two vents in my bedroom in an effort to get some cooling upstairs. That worked slightly. Basically the upstairs was as miserable as the downstairs. At this point, after checking for leaks around the heater (the humidifier is leaking a little air, but nothing much), I think I'm going to have to call a pro to come out there and tell me what's wrong.
I have plenty of attic vents. Do I need an attic fan? Do I need booster fans in the ducts? Do I need to recharge my AC? Probably not since the heat doesn't get up there either... Well, hopefully this won't be too expensive. Call me paranoid, but I'm not expecting an easy fix. Let's hope I'm wrong.
It's too cold on the second story in the Winter, and it's way too hot in the Summer. The first floor seems to maintain the set temperature reasonably well, and the basement is always basement temperatures, but the second floor is a horrible living experience. Even Lucy is hanging out in the basement and will only sit on my lap for a few minutes. And cats are from Africa! It's that hot.
For the past few days I've been able to get away with opening the windows and getting a reasonable amount of cooling, though not as much as I would like. However, now that outside temperatures are high nineties, and inside temperatures are high eighties, windows won't cut it.
Yesterday I closed down all but one of the first story vents and all but the two vents in my bedroom in an effort to get some cooling upstairs. That worked slightly. Basically the upstairs was as miserable as the downstairs. At this point, after checking for leaks around the heater (the humidifier is leaking a little air, but nothing much), I think I'm going to have to call a pro to come out there and tell me what's wrong.
I have plenty of attic vents. Do I need an attic fan? Do I need booster fans in the ducts? Do I need to recharge my AC? Probably not since the heat doesn't get up there either... Well, hopefully this won't be too expensive. Call me paranoid, but I'm not expecting an easy fix. Let's hope I'm wrong.
posted by Mark at 10:08 AM
4 Comments:
I'm pretty sure I have enough insulation. I've got about 18" up there (I was up there this winter to do some wiring). The problem with insulation is once it gets heat soaked, it doesn't help anymore and holds the heat in the house. I need to get cold air up to the second level before insulation to keep that cold in comes into play.
Maybe that reflective bubble wrap might help to keep heat from getting into the attic? Saw that at Menards the other day...
Yeah, it could be ducts that are too small, but that would be a design failure, and this home was built by a major home builder. I doubt that they made a mistake of that caliber. There certainly isn't a lot of air coming out, so there could be cogs. Who knows what gets in there during construction. But since air doesn't really come out of any of the ducts, it seems likely that the main fan just isn't up to snuff. Maybe I just need a fan to move air from the lower level to the upper? A stairway fan might help...
If you have reduced airflow through the ducts, they might actually need a good cleaning? You could also completely remove the air filter to see if that makes a difference. Old dirty air filter? I know, you probably checked that first.
While I was in the basement, I found cold air blowing on me and looked up to find a kinked duct that had a hole the size of a quarter. That duct goes up to the master bedroom. I taped the hole closed, though it doesn't seem to make any difference in the master bedroom, it certainly stopped that leak.
Post a Comment
<< Home