Why Is This Room So Hot?
Here is my bold opening statement for today; a properly designed air distribution system for your home should never be seen, felt or heard. You should just walk in the house and all the rooms should be within a degree or so of the set point on the thermostat.
In this article I want to discuss why rooms are hotter or colder than others and look at some of the available solutions. Let’s begin with the most common complaint I hear which is one or more of the bedrooms in the home is just hot no matter what we do. The other common statement is that to get the bedroom to a comfortable level we have to freeze the rest of the house out. Is any of this sounding familiar? If so read on my friend because we can fix this problem!
The most common cause of hot bedrooms or any room for that matter is a lack of air intake or return air as we call it in the business. When you start breaking down the science behind air conditioning it will show you that you can have massive amounts of cold air being pumped into a room and that room will not cool correctly without having heat and humidity removed. If your home was built pre-2006 this is likely the biggest reason the bedroom on the far side of the house is hotter. The other thing that adds to the problem is many people sleep with the bedroom door closed and in this case the small amount of return air the room had is now gone. The solution here is to modify the duct system to add return air to the space in question and help balance out the house. Just to be clear, return air is not a cookie cutter solution for every home, however it is the most common.
Next up on the most common list of reasons areas can be hotter than others is leaky ducts. The typical duct system in an average 3/2 single family home will have somewhere in the vicinity of thirty connection points to get the air to all the spaces it is needed. If I go over the cliff right wing conservative and say that on average a 15-year old duct system will have 1% leakage at each of those connection points, that means almost 1/3 of the air you are paying to cool is getting lost to spaces that don’t need air such as attics and in between floors. If you think 30% doesn’t sound like much feel free to send me 30% of your pay check next week, I could use a vacation. We have several different tests to determine if your ducts are leaking and have several viable solutions to stop them from doing so.
There are many other factors than can contribute to hot rooms, such as very high ceilings, lots or windows especially if those windows face west, lack of attic insulation and under sized or old air conditioning equipment that is not performing well are just a few of the other causes. Sometimes it can be a combination of the above items that cause the discomfort in your humble abode. You may need insulation and/or need to seal your ducts and add return air to the bedrooms to get what you are looking for in terms of comfort.
Any way you cut it the bottom line is that you don’t have to throw your hands up in the air and say “that room is always hot, that’s just the way it is” with a little exploration, a little science and a little hard work we can give you the comfort you work so hard to deserve. Art Can Fix It!
Alright ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls and the two Golden Retrievers that just started following my blog (Thumper & Bumper), I have a mold issue in Ft. Lauderdale that is requiring my attention so until your path leads you back to this very page I’m a little sad… I went on a trip to Philly last week to see The Liberty Bell, turned out it wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be. House Whisperer out!!
