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Now that the temp is starting to rise, what do you folks like to set the dial at?
We are having some temperature issues in our new place. We are on a slab with 9' ceiling on the first floor. So during the winter it seemed difficult to keep the downstairs living area warm since all the hot air seemd to funnel up our centraly located staircase to the second floor. We would end up with downstaris temps of like 65-68 and upstairs temps of 80. Now that the warmer weather is here, we are having the opposite problem. Downstaris is nice and cool but upstairs heats up fast.
Problem is, we are on a single zone AC system and the thermostat is downstairs. On a given day it will be 72 degrees on the first level when it is already up to 80 on the second floor. So I can't get the AC to kick on unless I it set it real low. I am in what most would consider a starter home so I guess the quality of insulation isn't top of the line and I am not really sure if there is anythign I can really do at this point. Anybody else having problems like this?
Ceiling Fans may help to some extent, I have the similar type issues in my home. Thats really all I can think of, that and keep sunlight to a minumum in areas where it heats u faster.
Ceiling Fans may help to some extent, I have the similar type issues in my home. Thats really all I can think of, that and keep sunlight to a minumum in areas where it heats u faster.
Funny you should say that, I just installed two ceiling fans in the past two weeks and plan on putting the last one in (master bedroom) sometime this weekend. It was surprisingly easy. Good luck keeping cool!
I also have a single zone cooling system in my townhome and I have mine set to 78 even though at some point I may program different temps for different times of the day. The place is only 3 years old but I'm having the same problem as you in that in the winter the downstairs area would be cooler than upstairs. So far I haven't seen that big of a difference between downstairs and upstairs for cooling. I also have my fans set to low and that helps the air to circulate better.
Have you ever tried adjusting your baffles to direct the air to the rooms that makes the most sense? Usually your heating and air people can show you how, it's simple. We have them adjusted when they come to do preventative maintenance twice a year.
I've been keeping the air conditioning off while I'm gone - but keeping a ceiling fan on for the little dog. When I get home, I set the air to 78 for a few hours just to cool things down - then shut it off again before sleep time. I do sleep with the fan on, though. So far so good - but I doubt it'll suffice when the temps reach their max this summer.
I can't help too much - I hate the heat. We have a dual-zone system and set the heat to 70 degrees on both systems. It does cost a quite a bit in the summer, but at l'm cool .
You may want to look into adding electronic damners to your system. With a single HVAC, you can have two or more zones in the house, each with its own thermostat. I haven't done it so I don't know what it would cost, but it would make you more comfortable and save a bunch in heating and cooling costs over the long run.
With ceiling fans, you can set them to 'reverse'-there should be a switch on the side-that makes the fan 'push' the air down. We ran one year-round in our old house, which was 2-story open catherdal style (this was not in NC). In summer we set it to run the regular way. It is gonna get hotter upstairs though, because heat rises-I've been in a ton of 2-story homes in my life, of all qualities...it's the heat rising.
So, running the fan on 'reverse' should push the heat down towards the floor.
Last edited by wanderintonc; 04-27-2007 at 06:59 PM..
Reason: to be clearer
we have this issue in our old home in chicago (60 years old). We have the heat that comes out of reister in the wall near the ceiling and they can be opened or closed. So since heat rises, I open the downstairs registers in the winter and keep the top floor ones closed. Then in the summer i reverse it and close the downstairs. No need to cool that floor when all the heat is going upstairs naturally. So i am just cooling the upstairs at that point. Hope that helps!
You people think that it actually get HOT in the Triangle? I think it's just a bit warm.
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Fans
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