Am I over-reacting

18 years ago

We have a 20 year old Trane Heat Pump w/Air. We just bough the home. My instinct was to just replace the unit right away. We had several folks out for estimates. Surprisingly they said most folks just waited for the old unit to die. They said mine appeared in good shape for its age. The prior owner was elderly, lived in this 2100 sq. foot coloinial alone and likely did not turn his heat real high or air real low. Perhaps the unit has some mileage on it...not sure.

All winter it ran fine. The thermostat is on the far end of the first floor. All rooms in the hous were within one degree of each other through the winter. Now we have the air on and I find the temp upstairs is 7 10 degress warmer than downstairs. Do I need dampers adjusted (I have closed off several vents downstairs and its still cold down there and hot up stairs. Do I need two zones? Can two zones rin off one unit? Is this a common problem?

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Comments (6)

bama_dude
18 years ago
Very common problem with one system trying to cool 2 story house.You will never get it balanced from one season to the other.Ther is too much load difference between the two.Once you get it comfortable for cooling it will be too much heat.If you system is not costing you a arm and leg to operate and you are comfortable, dont change it.Sounds like you are not confortable though.
garyg
18 years ago
"Am I over-reacting"
- Probably.

Run the system fan all the time. This will help even out the temp difference but won't eliminate it entirely. Use ceiling fans as much as you can. You need to move a lot of air to help keep cool in the summer time, especially if you are having large variations in temp between floors.
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bob_brown
18 years ago
Many better builders will use one unit per floor. This type of zoning is easier to balance, and works year round. Trying to balance between 2 floors is very difficult. I have seen people that have successfully done this, but not very often. Install ceiling fans upstairs.
daddo
18 years ago
Two story home really need two systems.
I have installed zoneing systems to two story homes with good results, but the expense in the ducting and the zoneing system is sometimes more than the homeowner wants to pay. Sometimes a particular home is not a good canidate for this anyway.
Pay attention to the humidity in the home should you run the "fan" in the "on" position continuosly- doing so can cause the home to become a damp haven, making it even more uncomfortable.
Why not let a HVAC company look at it to make sure there isn't at least something that can be done?
funnycide
18 years ago
I would recommend living in the house for a year and figuring out what the deficiencies are in the system. Then you can replace the system in the fall and hopefully solve most or all of the problems. 1 system in a 2 story house is a struggle. You can make it manageable. One key is to have enough high return on the 2nd floor. What do you have now? Having the tstat at one end of the 1st floor may also be an issue. A lot of houses have it in the center of the first floor. With a tstat anywhere on the 1st floor you are not sensing what is going on on the 2nd floor.
You also want to pay attention this summer on the hottest days how long the AC runs. With a properly sized unit you will get very long run cycles. If it short cycles then your unit is most likely over sized.
andrelaplume2
Original Author
18 years ago
ok, well we are in a neighborhood of 20 year old decently insulated coloinial homes. None of these homes have two units or two zones. All have the thermostat on the first floor. I have never been in a home with such a drastic temperature difference. Perhpas the reason the temperature was so constant upstairs/downstairs in the winter was that while little warm air was getting up there from the unit (just as little cool air appears to be getting there now) it was balanced off by the fact that the warm air from downstairs rose up. That is having a negatve affect now though. If I move the thermostat to the second floor, as is, it will cool the 2nd floor to say 73 degrees...BUT it will still be 64 on the first floor. The unit is old and I guess re-balancing things would be included in the price of a new unit but I am not ready to give up. I could ask about 2 zones but unless one unit and be used for 2 zones I doubt we can afford it.

I peeled back some insulation in the basement ceiling and had no trouble finding the ducts that run to all the first floor vents. On each was a little handle (damper) that I can turn and almost stop the amount of air going to any or all first floor vents. My thought was to cut the amount of air going to the first floor way back....thinking it would either force more air to the second floor or at least take longer to to cool the the first floor hopefully meaning the unit runs longer and better cools the second floor.. Of course the temperature outside just dropped to the low 70s outside so I really can not test this.

Also, for the life of me, I have not found the duct work that runs to the second floor. For all I know the dampers to the second floor are half way (or more) shut....maybe they just need to be opened. In fact the two bath vents upstairs only have air trickling out. Would the ducts to the second floor have dampers too...or just the first floor?

Can I hurt anything buy doing this?