“My upstairs is always hotter than downstairs during the cooling season. What can I do to fix this issue?”
Sound familiar? Have you ever said something similar to your HVAC technician? Don’t worry, you’re not alone—we hear this complaint, more than any other, regarding home comfort. Here are a couple of suggestions on how to address this problem:
If it’s time to replace the entire hvac system in your home, we highly recommend choosing a furnace with a variable speed blower motor, which is designed to overcome static pressure or resistance within the HVAC system. A standard blower motor will lose a percentage of airflow capacity to resistance while a variable speed motor can adjust its rpm in order to deliver the best airflow possible. While we never sell this as a 100% fix for duct and airflow issues within the home, it is certainly the best “out of the box” option we offer.
In replacing an air conditioner, the most important thing is to size the new unit correctly. BIGGER IS NOT BETTER. An oversized air conditioner will actually make your house less comfortable. It will run shorter cycles and, in doing so, will not dehumidify the home correctly, nor deliver the cold air where you want it—upstairs. When you call us for a new air conditioner, we measure your home and run a cooling load calculation, which pinpoints the correctly sized unit for your home.
Outside of the HVAC system itself, a great way to make a dent in the temperature differential between the main floor and second floor is to have “active” attic venting. Most homes use soffit, ridge, and box style attic venting. This passive venting method allows your attic to heat up and stay hot all day. We’ve measured temperatures in passively vented attics on a hot summer day that have exceeded 160 degrees. This heat infiltrates into the second floor, making it difficult to cool your upstairs. We sell and install power attic fans to help reduce this infiltration and to keep your attic much closer to the outdoor ambient temperature. These power attic fans typically install for $1250-$1500 but can save you plenty on home cooling costs. Some of the new power attic fans also come equipped with high efficiency motors (ECM) which will cut electrical consumption on the fan by around 50%.
Perhaps you only have one room upstairs, such as a bonus room above a garage, that seems to have issues staying cool in the summer (and possibly also staying warm in the winter). Ductless mini-splits are available as cooling only or heating and cooling systems. The most common of these applications includes a wall-mounted indoor unit and an outdoor unit. There are also options available to have multiple indoor units connected to just one outdoor unit. Appel is a Mitsubishi Diamond Dealer, and we are able to offer the best mini-split systems on the market with the longest warranties of any mini-split manufacturers.
Lastly, if you’re looking for the ultimate in second floor comfort, a secondary system will provide you the indoor climate you’ve always wished you could have. These systems are also available in cooling only or heating and cooling. We typically install a complete secondary duct system in the attic with new supply registers and return air grilles, plus a new cooling unit and either a furnace or an air handler unit. With a secondary system, we can guarantee 100% comfort, 100% of the time, no matter what the conditions are.