Need advice- very uneven temps throughout our house...

lauren&matt

I needs some recs and/or advice. We live in South Texas... mild winters and scorching summers.... and we're entering the long scorching season... 

We live in a 22 year old custom built home in a very nice, established neighborhood. But I wonder just how "well-built" our home is, lol :rolleyes:

We have a 2-story home with 2 air-conditioning units. And it seems every room is a drastically different temp. Btw- the a/c units are brand new... bought then in 2010. 

Downstairs: Our family room has a 2-3 story, soaring ceiling. I call it the "basement" bc year round, it is a very cool room. (great for the summer but I have to use a space-heater in the winter.) The kitchen and dining room are comfortable. Thermostat is in the dining room.  Master bedroom is WARM.  Honestly, probably 6-7 degrees warmer than the family room. Not very comfortable at night, no matter how low we crank the thermostat. And we're frugal; we don't want to set it too low, especially bc the rest of the downstairs would be frigid. It's very unfortunate bc I love sleeping in a cool room with lots of covers and it's just not possible. Even in the winter, our master bedroom is the warmest room downstairs. 

Upstairs: We have 2 girls and their bedrooms are upstairs on the exterior corners; so they each have 2 exterior walls. And basically, whatever the temp is outside, is the temp of their rooms. So in the winter, their rooms are very cool, even with the thermostat set at 73*. (Thermostat is right outside their bedrooms, but they do sleep w/ the doors shut.) We have two additional rooms upstairs; a guest bedroom and a playroom/loft. Those rooms are very comfortable, year round. For example- the a/c is set to 75* upstairs. My dd's room will be 80* by this afternoon. Yuck. 

We are clueless as to how we can regulate the temp in our house...H is uber handy and has checked all the ducts to make sure there are no kinks... they're fine. We change filters very often.... and he even cleaned the fan of the HVAC (at least, I think that's where he cleaned the fan. I'm not so handy

Any advice? What can we do... or who should we call? A regular a/c repair man... or someone else? Thanks so much!

TheWop

I'm not an expert so I don't have any pro suggestions, but do you keep your blinds/curtains open in the warmer rooms?  Perhaps the way the sun shines in those rooms makes them warmer than rooms that do not get direct sunlight during the peak temps of the day.  Does that make sense?  Maybe getting some thermal, blackout curtains will help. 

Justinlove

I live in the south and understand the "fun" of summer heat.

In our last home, one room was significantly warmer in summer/colder in winter than the rest.  When we had the a/c repaired, the tech suggested we add a return in that room.  It made a HUGE difference.  It still wasn't the same temp as the rest of the house, but it was better.  Part of the problem came from it being over the garage so to really fix the problem, we would have needed to lift up the subfloor and insulate the area.  Oh, an attic fan (not a whole house fan, but one that vents the attic only) helped a lot too (just remembered we had that installed as well).

Our current home has a south/western exposure on the front so the front bedrooms are much warmer in the summer due to the sun.  We are looking into some options including different windows or film to help.  In the meantime, keeping the blinds closed and using drapes has helped.  Fans help too

Sisugal

I have no experience with homes in the south as I live in the extreme north.

However, - do look at your insulation, ventilation as well as windows (minimum of double pane) and your window treatments.  Then have a good HVAC person come and evaluate your A/C - heating system and give recommendations so you would be more comfortable.

lauren&matt

Thanks for the tips so far! I do keep blinds closed in the warmer rooms and it does not make much of a difference. 

We also installed attic fans...

I question the insulation of the exterior walls.... but not sure what can be done about that.

Thanks for your thoughts!! 

MommyLiberty5013

Have you checked the status of your insulation? That temp variation seems pretty significant.

october2004

We are having a Honeywell zoning system put in to correct a similar problem. Our house will be divided into 3 zones and our existing furnace and AC unit will be used. Contact a HVAC person.

neeps

Have an energy audit done on your house. They can tell you where/if the hot air is getting in and the cool air out. Then caulk, spray foam all the gaps they find. Once you're reasonably certain that you're air tight then make sure your attic insulation is deep enough - over the entire attic (guessing you probably did this). Also, planting trees that will shade the hot rooms and attic will help immensely.

Adding extra insulation tot the walls is possible, they cut holes in the Sheetrock between each stud - so every 16" there is a hole - then they blow in additional insulation. Then you patch and paint. However, the amount of insulation they can blow in is limited by your wall cavity. Unless your house was not insulated - at all - then this would be an extreme step to take for minimal return. 

Solar screens may help as well, if your windows are not very efficient and it's cheaper than buying new ones. Although it may be worth it to you to replace the ones in the hot rooms. 

  

Mrs Acorn Blue

We live in a Cape Cod and we need to run a window unit in our upstairs during the summer to keep it the same temperature as the downstairs.  It's a combination of the design of our house and the fact we have no insulation.  We're looking into getting blown-in insulation done in the future but for now the window unit it is.  I would look into an energy audit and check your insulation.  Ceiling fans also help keep the air circulating.  I know...we've tried it all .

Magdala9

When we moved into each house, we had an energy audit.  There are a number of companies that do this.  They used a series of tools to identify leakage in the insulation, absence of insulation in areas I couldn't see.  Areas that needed additional insulation etc.  In one house, one part of our attic had not been insulated so the room underneath that section of the attic was always cold.  In another house, they recommended a duct cleaning of the heating vents.  the vent cleaner found a nest.  The heat started flowing very easily once the nest was removed. For our current house, one of the windows had a blown seal so it was not insulating properly.   

In our state, energy auditors are not allowed to sell other services; so we used other service providers to install the insulation and clean the ducts.  If your state allows this, watch out for sales of add on services from the energy auditors. 

DomerJenC

ditto the cold air return.  you could look into installing dampers that you can opena nd close automatically in the ducts - it works so you can put more air/heat in the bedrooms at night, closing off the ducts to the living areas, and vice versa during hte day.

my neighbors had their insulation done where they cut the holes in the walls - she said she noticed a big difference this year.  our insulation is non existant (really, we don't have any) and our house is soooooo cold and drafty in the winter.

Pamela05

Do you close doors at night?  If so, how big is the gap under the door?  And where is the air return? It and the thermostat need to be in places that aren't "dead" spots regarding air flow.