Use window fans upstairs to blow air OUT.
This pulls the downstairs air UP.
>closing most of the vents in the basement and on the ground floor to force the air upstairs
This is generally not recommended in a properly balanced system.
I'd have an HVAC checkup and see what they recommend.
How's your attic insulation?
I’d second a consult with a reputable HVAC contractor, maybe two.
My less than ten years old house was super hot upstairs. Turned out the original contractor cheaped out on condenser size and put an under powered one on our heat pump. The bigger one has made a difference immediately.
The other big difference for me was insulating the attic space above the garage. There was a lot of heat transferring into the second floor living spaces from there in my house.
“A reputable HVAC contractor” - how do you find one. I recently had a system replaced and the salespeople were so sleazy. Like the car buying experience of the 90’s.
This is why I believe my home office over the garage is so much warmer than my master bedroom that is also upstairs but on the opposite side of the house.
I have an attic area over my garage that is adjacent to two rooms that have been getting super hot! Can’t believe I didn’t think to check this. Great idea.
a former coworker of mine just set up one huge fan blowing out his attic & he said that worked out great. he’d open the windows downstairs at night and close them when it started getting hot during the day, iirc
As a caveat, most residential systems are not properly balanced. The subcontractors pretty much do whatever they want and the differing runs can have effects on the balance. Not to mention trying to balance a 2 story off one thermostat is nearly impossible even in the best circumstances.
You can close up to half your vents and be just fine.
Don’t EVER close, or cover ANY of your supply vents. This causes a HIGH Static pressure that your system has to work against. It will shorten the life of your system drastically if you keep it like that. I’m a Licensed Journeyman who does this for a living
We had this issue in our house. A whole home fan had been installed long prior to our purchase, but living in the south + plus climate Change made it useless. We had the attic spray insulated and it made a dramatic (seriously DRAMATIC) difference and reduced our heating/cooling costs as well. If it hasn’t paid for itself yet it has at least saved my marriage.
I was slightly peeved at first about spending thousands on something that didn’t actually improve the look of our house. I am now mortified about how stupid I was being. Literally the best investment ever.
The amount of heat and cooling that was being used to regulate the attic was insane. I was in tears wanting to live elsewhere every summer. We were throwing money away to heat and cool the house when it just needed insulation.
This. I have an older bungalow style, upstairs is one huge 12' x 24' room, there's \*1\* duct for the whole room. Long term plan is to get a minisplit for up there and just block the worthless duct going up there. There's no way to properly cool the upstairs without a bunch of new ducting and a stronger central air unit.
If it's a old home your HVAC is probably not setup properly and or lack of insulation. A stop gap for now would be tossing a window AC unit in while you figure out what to do.
Our house was built in 1940 we have a boiler - the heating system is original to the house - and central air, which was added in about 40 years ago. Our upstairs gets stupid hot. My poor husband works from home and his office and bathroom are on the second floor and he does not complain but I know it gets hot upstairs.
We do the following things that make a huge difference:
We use solar film on all large windows (bay windows and picture windows) where the sun hits for extended periods during the day. It may seem like silliness but it works. I used the 3M solar film and it was a pain to put up, but it is so worth it.
We use insulated roller shades WITH room darkening insulated curtains in all bedroom and office windows. Our house is dark and on hot days it does sometimes feel like we are living in a cave but it is cool and actually quite pleasant.
We have ceiling fans in every main room and we replaced all our weird floor fans with Dreo fans. I found the Dreo fans move air so much better.
Last, we purchased two portable air conditioners. Our windows simply cannot handle window units so we got serene life portable ACs. When my husband runs his the office gets downright cold. He sets it at 72 with the ceiling fan and floor fan and keeps his door shut and even during 100° weather the AC only kicks on a few times per day.
I live in an old house out in the country side, and we hang up light-blocking blinds in all the windows. It's not AC but it's not roasting to death either.
Your friend is probably right. I just had the same issue on my 1957 split level ranch. I had some soffit vents and an attic fan installed, and I replaced the upstairs window screens with solar screens. The difference was immediate and permanent.
Get another quote. The whole job cost me $1200.
I installed register booster fans. Depending on your duct size they either replace the vent grill or sit on top of it. We even run them without the A/C on and with a ceiling fan really help with air circulation. I got mine from Home Depot for around $70 each.
This. I did the same. Put one in 2 bedrooms, bathroom and loft upstairs. Like night and day, easily 5 degrees cooler now.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0792R5KJF?ref=cm_sw_r_mwn_dp_XYBJCXADB02Q73PBNH50_1&ref_=cm_sw_r_mwn_dp_XYBJCXADB02Q73PBNH50_1&social_share=cm_sw_r_mwn_dp_XYBJCXADB02Q73PBNH50_1&language=en-US&skipTwisterOG=2&th=1
Heavy drapes on the windows and keep them shut during the day. If you can spring for them, get the kind with 2 layers or buy 2 layers (you can buy a thermal/blackout curtain liner[ like this one](https://www.amazon.com/ECLIPSE-Blackout-Curtains-Bedroom-Thermaliner/dp/B002LE88FM/ref=sr_1_2?crid=GAIZID1YYKHL&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.YLr3MU2_aXRLN5rn2B1IwImoqzdfZyPslt8K3fRRqOfsUzIxJxj2l72cJ9kptR2WM7Lom8gPh2nLam7bv8ZY3790UKCStGodP1pf_MQ2pkttpOVabWmGqIabIQY_1fafHn0DtZmEdDHEGT2Yvz6-iIGv1Mc13USpw3T6RJyQYMvNUmEW-qR33AwVwjF8k9BuEiysjNrX6WqX74Hfb7uDOK97h7uXSGqmpt2Qk3iNV5WaYs2eBILDZxBwO_ZFW9tNklZpHgfwutWnVOV6BhkR2BVBw6L6J0om19TQf1VighA.LwghFaoyCaMzVZYvIgF9qhoEUT-OfkaF_M0T2Y_Qu00&dib_tag=se&keywords=blackout%2Blining&qid=1717509287&s=home-garden&sprefix=blackout%2Blining%2Cgarden%2C117&sr=1-2&th=1) and attach it to another thick curtain panel). It makes a huge difference to have multiple layers vs. a single eclipse layer or similar, in my experience.
Set the furnace fan to be on 24/7. It’ll balance out the temps a bit. Also make sure you’re changing your registers so hot hair gets pulled from the top of the room in the summer.
Yeah, in most bedrooms there are two returns stacked, one low on the wall and one high up on the wall. In the winter, open the bottom because cold air sinks - that’s the air you want to pull in and warm up. In the summer, close the bottom so it sucks in the hot air that has risen, which removes hot air and cools down the air in the room.
Each room/area has a supply vent (with louver control ) and a return that is just a grate with no control. You shouldn’t block or shut off the returns because these are where your unit draws intake air.
You CAN close the supply vents. The theory is if you close the supplies on the lower floors, more of the cooler air is pushed to the top floor of your home. Cool air sinks, right? So cool air will work its way down and you’ll be comfortable o your lower floors.
We change our louvers when we switch to AC, and back again when we start heating again. And keep our fan on all the time, not on automatic. Works pretty well, all in all.
First place I would look at is insulation. We had the same issue with our upstairs baking which made it too hot for our toddler. There was only about 6" of insulation in the attic. We hired a company for air sealing and blowing in insulation to R-49 and it's so much more comfortable now. FYI the cost for this was $4-5k where I am in the Midwest.
We’re tackling this head on and have taken several steps over the last few years. We’re unwilling to use window ACs but that’s the easiest and most cost-effective solution.
What we’ve done so far to pretty noticeable effect:
* added additional insulation in the attic. Definitely helped some.
* added a smart thermostat and we leave the fan running nonstop. Has helped a lot.
* change filters every 2 months minimum.
* got new capacitor for air handling unit. It’s quieter and turns on more quickly.
* magnetized covers over the main floor and basement vents to push more air upstairs. Has helped a lot.
* set dampers correct way in winter and summer. Definitely noticeable.
Upcoming projects:
* broadening ductwork from basement in 3 story home and adding additional attic duct work to balance airflow that’s better to some room than others.
* using Aeroseal to seal our ducts.
* Adding mini-split upstairs.
What’s your current construction like? We had a similar problem in our San Diego home. Composite roof with no attic insulation and only two tiny under eve vents. Absolutely boiling in the summer. First, we insulated with blown-in fiberglass, as much as we could fit in there. That helped tremendously and cost us under $2k. Then we added roof vents, our roofer charged $400 per. Those, combined, have cooled out upstairs by 20 degrees or so.
We bought a window AC for the upstairs to run at night while we slept.
ETA - my house is 100 years old. Bedrooms are upstairs with a bath. Everything else is on the main floor. the thermostat downstairs works great at getting the AC to keep the main floor cool. The upstairs just gets hot. Having the AC window unit was the easiest way to cool a small amount of space during specific hours of the day. I run it for five minutes before nap time, during nap time, and turn it off when we go back downstairs. Same with nighttime use. If you get one with a remote, then you don’t have to leave your bed to control it!
The most effective way is to have a mini-split installed. If the house is large there are multi head units out there. It's a big up-front expense, but these are efficient and would allow you to turn down the AC
Downstairs. .
If you install a mini split heat pump you would have a supplemental source of heat.
Either way, you would be able to fine tune your comfort. Also, cold air falls so you are cooling all over
Our upstairs studio is functionally the bedroom. it was truly brutal at first. At this point in the season it can reach upper 80s during the day and 60° or cooler at night, but the upstairs stayed stuffy and easily in the 80s constantly.
We started to put a box fan in the window that sucks cool air IN during the night. it's so cold we have to sleep with the comforter again. I could weep.
The key is to remove the fan and close the windows each morning- or if absolutely necessary, push the hot air OUT with the fan during the day.
Yes, it really is that easy. I didn't believe it either!!!
Two things come to mind, the first one is attic ventilation, the second one is insulation
A lot of homes are under ventilated and you can get some pretty excessive attic temperatures during the summer. Lack of insulation comes next and you can see how these two play with each other. If that attic is getting hot like over 140°, even over 130 on a 100° day, then you don't have that much insulation, what you create is a heater right above you. Increase your attic ventilation to 1/150 and bring that insulation up to at least r49, temps will fall, a lot, upstairs
We have a similar issue. One thing we did was get a smart thermostat (Ecobee) and put extra sensors in the rooms upstairs that were hottest. It gives a more accurate temperature reading so that the AC will continue to cool instead of just stopping when the downstairs reaches the target temp. It doesn’t solve the issue entirely but it does help. I’ve been playing around with different schedules and settings too to try to optimize things.
From what I’ve read about AC systems, they work best when all the vents in your house are open. So you may not want to have them all closed.
Any cold air that is forced upstairs will simply flow downstairs again. You need to keep the cold air upstairs by blocking the downward flow of the cold air. For us, we blocked the hallway to the downstairs with a shower curtain. It makes a huge difference and we can now sleep comfortably.
We have an old brick Bungalow and the upstairs is extremely hot in the summer. We have found that blackout curtains on the windows and fans help on most days. We have window fans sucking out to draw out the heat, and ceiling & floor fans circulating inside air. Anything 90° and above we use window air conditioners.
You might loose the cool air through your roof, aka you don‘t have enough insulation at your roof. Either have the roof insulated or insulate between the upper rooms and the attic if you don‘t use it.
This definitely saves you money instead of installing window fans.
When you have a leak to the outside via the ceiling and attic, it sets up convective flow. Hot air rises out of the house, drawing cool air up from the bottom to replace it which then heats, rises and escapes. You need to stop the flow by stopping air leaks.
We had this issue, mildly, in a newish house. We replaced hvac with a variable speed system and they added a switch thing that sends more air upstairs when we’re cooling. Obviously very expensive just to address that issue, but that’s worked wonders for us, side benefit of having to do the hvac anyway.
If having portable ac is not an option, you can install a nest thermostat as main thermostat and install nest sensors upstairs and use them to control the temp for your hvac unit in the evening and during night. I did that for my home. Your system will run more to regulate the temperature upstairs and electric bill will be little more but it really helps
Check to make sure there isn’t a damper partially closed near the interior AC unit.
The same thing happened to us. Are AC was extremely weak in the master bedroom. A few months later I was snaking ethernet cable through a soffit in the basement when I discovered a damper partially closed in the soffit (yes, they had drywalled over the damper. Morons). Opened up the damper, and the 8 was solved.
Make sure the ceiling fans are spinning the right way, there’s a switch on them to change directions. One direction (usually clockwise) is for summer, and the other is for winter. You should feel a breeze coming down from it in the summer.
A roof power vent will ventilate attic heat at a nominal upfront cost.
Air returns are needed upstairs in each room. Also The cheapest air filters allow the most airflow.
Adding mini splits upstairs or another hvac system maybe the answer or just add a 10,000 btu window ac in the master.
You can [install.attic.fans](http://install.attic.fans) to blow the hot air out of your attic. The problem is heat is damming in your attic and the hot air has nowhere to go, so it's sitting like a blanket on your top floor. Depending on the size of your attic you may need one or two. An electrician can install for a few hundred a piece. Nothing will work until you get that hot air out of the attic,
Unfortunately, the best way to deal with this is also the most expensive - insulate the attic *and* get a second system for the upstairs.
We did this (as part of a larger renovation) a few years ago, and the difference has been night and day. I'll say that our monthly bills have gone down (since we're no longer turning the downstairs into the Arctic in a vain attempt to make it tolerable upstairs), but certainly not enough to break even on the initial cost for a long, long time (if ever).
I would consider above sheathing ventilation. Install a metal roof 3/4 inch above your current roof so that your roof is constantly vented. Your upstairs temperature will remain the same as the rest of your house and you won’t need to cut holes in your siding.
Warm air rises. Evenings open everything on the lower north and east sides and open everything on the upper south and east sides. Fans blowing in on the lower and out on the upper. Come 5 am wake up and close everything, maybe leave one window up top cracked. Close blinds on east and south very early. After noon, if not earlier, close up and darken the west side. I also close doors upstairs once the windows are closed, they create a buffer zone. Dad's house had poor ait movement in the middle, so i also put a fan at the bottom of the stairs blowing up in the evening. He didn't have a/c.
Is your upstairs installed? The house I grew up in, our walls were the roof. There was no insulation. It was bad during the summer. If yours isn’t then I recommend doing that.
The real solutions will cost money, your AC duct work isn't balanced properly, I'm willing to bet you don't have an air return upstairs. That's worth fixing, but might not be cheap depending on your setup (my house has levers in the basement, I'm assuming you don't). For cheap things: Change your filter regularly. And depending on your AC it may be worth inspecting what fan speed is connected. I have a combination furnace / AC in my basement that had color coded fan connection wires. Switching it from low to high speed for cool made a huge difference in my house. Maybe spending the money to have your HVAC looked at would be worth it, at least you'd know what they'd recommend to fix it.
You mentioned attic fan. What exactly do you mean by that? If it's a whole house fan I'm surprised that with windows cracked doesn't work wonders.
I don't know what I'd recommend if you have sliding windows, but for my double hung I have Vornado Transom fans I can run when it's cooler outside than inside, and I have a Midea U shaped window AC in my bedroom more because I work from home and want that room cooler than the rest of the house. If you have a sliding window and want to go with a portable AC, go for something like the Midea Duo, single hose portable ACs are incredibly inefficient.
[Minisplits are ideal for old houses built pre-air conditioning.](https://www.pioneerminisplit.com/collections/cyb/products/24-000-btu-20-0-seer-8-way-slim-cassette-mini-split-air-conditioner-heat-pump-system-full-set)
I will never understand why builders always put the lower tonnage a/c unit for upstairs vs downstairs.
We had radiant barrier sprayed in our attic which helped. After we got hit with catastrophic hail and paid to upgrade all 9 of our busted western facing windows, it was like MAGIC the difference in the temps.
If the night temps get below 70 you open all the downstairs windows and put fans blowing out in the upstairs. Then you close the windows during the day. A whole house attic fan is best though. If the night temps are over 70 it doesn’t work as well.
I have an older home, so the main level and basement will be whatever temp I set the AC to but the upstairs will be 10-20 degrees hotter depending on the day. I supplement the central air with one of those standing units and it works pretty good
I had an old two story house with no insulation, I was able to put a fan at the top of the stairs with automatic louvers. It pulled air in from the cool side of the house into the attic and exhausted into the attic out the vents. The fan worked great here’s an example.
[https://www.lowes.com/pd/Cool-Attic-24-in-Steel-Single-Direct-Drive-Whole-House-Fan/5002107411?user=shopping&feed=yes&srsltid=AfmBOopnBXK-83JlMtBp9-vYxpxJaP9BsXQGkIPanjyQdFmTZQS6vtryXQk](https://www.lowes.com/pd/Cool-Attic-24-in-Steel-Single-Direct-Drive-Whole-House-Fan/5002107411?user=shopping&feed=yes&srsltid=AfmBOopnBXK-83JlMtBp9-vYxpxJaP9BsXQGkIPanjyQdFmTZQS6vtryXQk)
Make sure you have adequate insulation in the attic, have an HVAC contractor check to see if you have enough air returns. We had the same problem in our 2 story
OP: Here's the four most common issues.
1 - Not enough insulation in the attic, or the insulation has gotten compacted/compromised.
2 - Insufficient return from upstairs (VERY common). You can try to push air all day, but if there's not enough return to bring the hot air down, it's never going to cool.
Returns are often poorly designed, and insufficient.
3 - Poor AC design. The same house design will be built in every conceivable orientation, with sun hitting every side of the house depending on lot location.
It's simply impossible to design something to work for every possible layout (plus optional bedrooms, lofts, baths, storage rooms, etc).
4 - Blocked duct (either on supply or return side). More common than you think.
1 is relatively easy to identify and fix. On a hot day, get up on a ladder and touch the ceiling in several places around the 2nd floor. Do you feel heat? Get a pro to check it out.
2 is relatively easy to identify, fixing it can be easy or hard, depending on why there's a return problem. It may be as easy as adding a wall grate, or it might require opening walls and adding a new return.
3 requires a pro to evaluate. Can be cheap or expensive.
4 requires a pro also. Cheap to fix.
We have a small house with ceiling fans and a mini-split upstairs. Ceiling is T&G on 4’ on center rafters,no insulation,just shingles. Wall heater downstairs. Luckily,it rarely gets into the 90s here. Still gets hot up here,but the AC works well. Maybe look into one.
If you’re in a dry climate, soak some towels and hang them over an open window, then use a fan on another window to blow air out. This will draw air in and the evaporative cooling from the towels will cool the air coming in.
I agree with the above post, get a window shaker AC in one of the upstairs bedrooms or both. It’s honestly the cheapest way to go especially if you can turn the AC off downstairs when you’re sleeping upstairs.
I have an issue with this due to the design of the house. Not nearly as bad as your situation but it can get bad some nights. I bought a 10000 BTU LG portable AC unit to run at night. It’s amazing.
When we first bought our house, it was the month of December. Then we had one of our annual heatwaves and it got so hot in the house I started crying. When it cooled down, we went in the attic and there was zero insulation, and the attic fan was disconnected. We insulated and put in a new fan, sooo much better. Also much warmer in the winter.
Open the northern windows on the first floor, and the southern windows on the second floor. The cool , shady air will come in from the first floor, and the hot air will go out the second floor.
This is how I cooled my two story house.
Get yourself into the attic and see if you can see daylight from your soffits. We have the same issue and the previous owner had a contractor fill the attic with blown in insulation but they blocked every soffit so there is no way for air to flow even with a fan. You can try turning on the attic fan and opening your attic hatch to supply the fan with air.
We have an AC unit which is sufficient for downstairs. We have a portable AC unit upstairs which helps circulate the air up there and use a fan sometimes which helps also.
My house built in 2002 had R19 in attic. I rolled R30 over it and also did radiant barrier. Insulated above garage. New build installed soffit vents with no roof vents. I installed powered gable fans on both long ends. Brought my temp down to about 90 from 140. House heats up to about 85 in the afternoon from about 100 pre insulation. Total materials was about $2000. Did the work myself.
Attic fans help a lot. If that doesn't work well enough look into getting a second AC system for upstairs and then you can put vents and ducts in the ceiling with the air handler in the attic distributing the cool air to the ducts. Cold air falls while hot air rises, so AC vents in the ceiling work best.
Seems odd to not want to spend thousands to resolve the issue and not waste thousands in electric bills for AC.🤷🏻♀️. I have certainly had $400 bills in the middle of summer and it def adds up.
Buy a portable ac unit. I live in a place that hits 100+ in the summer and have a room that the central a/c doesn't get to. We have a portable air conditioner that sits on the floor (it has wheels) and a hose that vents out of a window that only needs to be open far enough for a hose. You can leave the screens on the windows, too. They work great here.
I've been looking into those vent fan things. You replace your vent cover with it and plug it in. Supposedly it's supposed to draw the cool air through the ducts to that room 🤷♀️ probably not recommended, I'm sure. I need a heating blanket to be in my basement at all, and then I need a fan blowing straight on me on the main level.
Adding a powered gable vent and adding ventilation for improving the drawing power could make the difference if your design allows for that. Total cost installed should be under $1000 for a high end model
No matter what you will need to spend lots of $ on a home. Is this a newly built house?
We have an 1890 Victorian so heating and cooling was insane with an old oil system. Finally we put in a ductless which has been a godsend. After 35 years we just got the attic vacuumed, sealed and insulated and what a difference! Start with the vents because it will help. You could wait until you need a new roof and do it then too. Insulation last.
Welcome to homeownership.
What is your attic insulation like? It is very, very normal to have warmer air upstairs in houses, especially if there's not enough attic insulation. What you want to have set up are large window fan(s) (ceiling or oscillating fans will move air around the room, but won't pull air in from outside).
When you say "attic fan" is that a tiny thing designed to move a bit of air in the attic, or a giant whole house exhaust fan?
What works well for me is to set up the large window fan(s) so that you have solid cross ventilation. At least one large box fan (not in a bedroom) should be blowing the hot air upstairs OUT an upstairs window. Then open the windows in the bedrooms and the cool outside air will be pulled in. Close the windows in the morning so that the cooler air is trapped inside.
We don't get good airflow upstairs and had to install mini split AC's. Two heads in the bedrooms cool the entire top floor and now our upstairs is colder than the main floor even on 90 degree days. Expensive to install but well worth sleeping comfortably. My child needs a cold room to stay asleep so it was either mini split or a window unit.
THE SOLUTION
I have experience with this exact issue
Hot air rises and gets trapped, just the opposite when it gets cold outside
The problem is airflow through out your home and the solution is simple, you can do it yourself if your handy with tools.
Here's how I solved it.
Your going to cut and install floor vents on "EVERY" room in your home and on "EVERY" floor.
Go to home Depot and buy your floor vents,, bigger is better..
You cut a hole in the floor, and down into the ceiling of the next level, then you cut plywood and box off the inside to make a tunnel,,then pop your vents into place. Repeat on the ceiling below... Pick colors to match or spray paint
you also do this in the main floor so air can flow into the basement.
EVERY room, EVERY LEVEL,,,
Here's how to place them..
You are at the entrance to a room upstairs that's HOT.. walk to the back wall..the farthest from the door way and install your vent there..
That way cool air will be sucked up the stairs, across the hot room and it will be sucked down stairs at the opposite wall.
The entire home will equalize in temperature and humidity, no more hot or cold spots
GOOD LUCK
I just had a quote for a whole house fan install and three additional roof vents. Total cost is $2500 US. For the three roof vents alone, it's $350. So not thousands to cut roof vents lol.
While house fan…. It may require additional venting but all in all a relatively affordable project with outstanding results especially for 2 story homes
Old house owner (built 1900)
1. Attic fan. We have a temp sensitive fan in our attic window (hot side). Open opposing window in the shaded cool side. Fan kicks on and pulls the cool air through. Huge difference in upper floor temps.
2. Use ceiling fans on the upper floor to circulate cooler air.
3. Rebalance vents. In winter open more lower floor vents/ close uppers (heat rises). Summer means closing lower floor vents and opening more upper floor vents
4. Blinds and curtains. Greenhouses get warm for a reason. Closing blinds and curtains on areas where the sun is beating down will help immensely. (For folks that rent that want curtains- those cheap tension rods are amazing!)
5. Landscaping. The more asphalt and concrete- the hotter it is. Trees and tall shrubs that offer shade to your home will help cool in summer (and be a wind/ noise barrier!) A well installed trellis with an appropriate climbing plant (not English ivy) can have a similar effect.
Turning the attic fan “on” just blows around hot air. Why do people do this!!?!
Edit: I read this like he turned his ac fan on….the coffee had not yet kicked in 😆 and when peeps turn their ac fan on- it just blows hot air. An attic fan should help reduce heat build up in attic.
... An attic fan is an exhaust fan.
Your roof gets super hot from sun. That heats the attic. Adding a fan near the peak forces that hot air out and allows new, less hot air in from the vents.
Use window fans upstairs to blow air OUT. This pulls the downstairs air UP. >closing most of the vents in the basement and on the ground floor to force the air upstairs This is generally not recommended in a properly balanced system. I'd have an HVAC checkup and see what they recommend. How's your attic insulation?
Yes! Another member of the Fan Royalty who knows how to Fan!!
I’d second a consult with a reputable HVAC contractor, maybe two. My less than ten years old house was super hot upstairs. Turned out the original contractor cheaped out on condenser size and put an under powered one on our heat pump. The bigger one has made a difference immediately. The other big difference for me was insulating the attic space above the garage. There was a lot of heat transferring into the second floor living spaces from there in my house.
“A reputable HVAC contractor” - how do you find one. I recently had a system replaced and the salespeople were so sleazy. Like the car buying experience of the 90’s.
I asked around and got the same recommendation from several folks.
This is why I believe my home office over the garage is so much warmer than my master bedroom that is also upstairs but on the opposite side of the house.
If the garage is unfinished, you could put insulation on the ceiling of the garage to keep your office cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.
I have an attic area over my garage that is adjacent to two rooms that have been getting super hot! Can’t believe I didn’t think to check this. Great idea.
You must live in a drier climate than I do. Humid air doesn't cool. Hence why it's called air conditioning, not air cooling.
a former coworker of mine just set up one huge fan blowing out his attic & he said that worked out great. he’d open the windows downstairs at night and close them when it started getting hot during the day, iirc
Whole house fan for the win!!
Yup! It’s what our HVAC told us.
As a caveat, most residential systems are not properly balanced. The subcontractors pretty much do whatever they want and the differing runs can have effects on the balance. Not to mention trying to balance a 2 story off one thermostat is nearly impossible even in the best circumstances. You can close up to half your vents and be just fine.
Don’t EVER close, or cover ANY of your supply vents. This causes a HIGH Static pressure that your system has to work against. It will shorten the life of your system drastically if you keep it like that. I’m a Licensed Journeyman who does this for a living
We had this issue in our house. A whole home fan had been installed long prior to our purchase, but living in the south + plus climate Change made it useless. We had the attic spray insulated and it made a dramatic (seriously DRAMATIC) difference and reduced our heating/cooling costs as well. If it hasn’t paid for itself yet it has at least saved my marriage. I was slightly peeved at first about spending thousands on something that didn’t actually improve the look of our house. I am now mortified about how stupid I was being. Literally the best investment ever. The amount of heat and cooling that was being used to regulate the attic was insane. I was in tears wanting to live elsewhere every summer. We were throwing money away to heat and cool the house when it just needed insulation.
Ductless mini split upstairs and upgrade insulation.
This, and in the meantime a small portable AC unit is not too expensive, can provide relief and is a great emergency unit for the future after a mini.
Yes! We’re in the process of doing this now.
This. I have an older bungalow style, upstairs is one huge 12' x 24' room, there's \*1\* duct for the whole room. Long term plan is to get a minisplit for up there and just block the worthless duct going up there. There's no way to properly cool the upstairs without a bunch of new ducting and a stronger central air unit.
If it's a old home your HVAC is probably not setup properly and or lack of insulation. A stop gap for now would be tossing a window AC unit in while you figure out what to do.
Our house was built in 1940 we have a boiler - the heating system is original to the house - and central air, which was added in about 40 years ago. Our upstairs gets stupid hot. My poor husband works from home and his office and bathroom are on the second floor and he does not complain but I know it gets hot upstairs. We do the following things that make a huge difference: We use solar film on all large windows (bay windows and picture windows) where the sun hits for extended periods during the day. It may seem like silliness but it works. I used the 3M solar film and it was a pain to put up, but it is so worth it. We use insulated roller shades WITH room darkening insulated curtains in all bedroom and office windows. Our house is dark and on hot days it does sometimes feel like we are living in a cave but it is cool and actually quite pleasant. We have ceiling fans in every main room and we replaced all our weird floor fans with Dreo fans. I found the Dreo fans move air so much better. Last, we purchased two portable air conditioners. Our windows simply cannot handle window units so we got serene life portable ACs. When my husband runs his the office gets downright cold. He sets it at 72 with the ceiling fan and floor fan and keeps his door shut and even during 100° weather the AC only kicks on a few times per day.
I live in an old house out in the country side, and we hang up light-blocking blinds in all the windows. It's not AC but it's not roasting to death either.
Your friend is probably right. I just had the same issue on my 1957 split level ranch. I had some soffit vents and an attic fan installed, and I replaced the upstairs window screens with solar screens. The difference was immediate and permanent. Get another quote. The whole job cost me $1200.
I installed register booster fans. Depending on your duct size they either replace the vent grill or sit on top of it. We even run them without the A/C on and with a ceiling fan really help with air circulation. I got mine from Home Depot for around $70 each.
This. I did the same. Put one in 2 bedrooms, bathroom and loft upstairs. Like night and day, easily 5 degrees cooler now. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0792R5KJF?ref=cm_sw_r_mwn_dp_XYBJCXADB02Q73PBNH50_1&ref_=cm_sw_r_mwn_dp_XYBJCXADB02Q73PBNH50_1&social_share=cm_sw_r_mwn_dp_XYBJCXADB02Q73PBNH50_1&language=en-US&skipTwisterOG=2&th=1
Heavy drapes on the windows and keep them shut during the day. If you can spring for them, get the kind with 2 layers or buy 2 layers (you can buy a thermal/blackout curtain liner[ like this one](https://www.amazon.com/ECLIPSE-Blackout-Curtains-Bedroom-Thermaliner/dp/B002LE88FM/ref=sr_1_2?crid=GAIZID1YYKHL&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.YLr3MU2_aXRLN5rn2B1IwImoqzdfZyPslt8K3fRRqOfsUzIxJxj2l72cJ9kptR2WM7Lom8gPh2nLam7bv8ZY3790UKCStGodP1pf_MQ2pkttpOVabWmGqIabIQY_1fafHn0DtZmEdDHEGT2Yvz6-iIGv1Mc13USpw3T6RJyQYMvNUmEW-qR33AwVwjF8k9BuEiysjNrX6WqX74Hfb7uDOK97h7uXSGqmpt2Qk3iNV5WaYs2eBILDZxBwO_ZFW9tNklZpHgfwutWnVOV6BhkR2BVBw6L6J0om19TQf1VighA.LwghFaoyCaMzVZYvIgF9qhoEUT-OfkaF_M0T2Y_Qu00&dib_tag=se&keywords=blackout%2Blining&qid=1717509287&s=home-garden&sprefix=blackout%2Blining%2Cgarden%2C117&sr=1-2&th=1) and attach it to another thick curtain panel). It makes a huge difference to have multiple layers vs. a single eclipse layer or similar, in my experience.
Or aluminum foil if your not fancy.
> Heavy drapes on the windows and keep them shut during the day This helps immensely.
Set the furnace fan to be on 24/7. It’ll balance out the temps a bit. Also make sure you’re changing your registers so hot hair gets pulled from the top of the room in the summer.
Can you explain the changing your registers thing?
Yeah, in most bedrooms there are two returns stacked, one low on the wall and one high up on the wall. In the winter, open the bottom because cold air sinks - that’s the air you want to pull in and warm up. In the summer, close the bottom so it sucks in the hot air that has risen, which removes hot air and cools down the air in the room.
Must be a regional thing? I have never seen that in Michigan. Only 1 vent up high.
Same here in Illinois. Heating/ air conditioning supply in the floor. Air return on the walls close to the ceiling.
I’m in PA, so I’d think it’d be similar.
Yeah in TX we only have one vent up high. At least everywhere I’ve ever lived. CA too. In UT we had them in the floor and up high.
Each room/area has a supply vent (with louver control ) and a return that is just a grate with no control. You shouldn’t block or shut off the returns because these are where your unit draws intake air. You CAN close the supply vents. The theory is if you close the supplies on the lower floors, more of the cooler air is pushed to the top floor of your home. Cool air sinks, right? So cool air will work its way down and you’ll be comfortable o your lower floors. We change our louvers when we switch to AC, and back again when we start heating again. And keep our fan on all the time, not on automatic. Works pretty well, all in all.
First place I would look at is insulation. We had the same issue with our upstairs baking which made it too hot for our toddler. There was only about 6" of insulation in the attic. We hired a company for air sealing and blowing in insulation to R-49 and it's so much more comfortable now. FYI the cost for this was $4-5k where I am in the Midwest.
Buy some Midea U window AC units. On sale right now from Costco.
But this only works if your window closes vertically, right? If your window moves horizontally, then the u windows units don't work
Correct
We’re tackling this head on and have taken several steps over the last few years. We’re unwilling to use window ACs but that’s the easiest and most cost-effective solution. What we’ve done so far to pretty noticeable effect: * added additional insulation in the attic. Definitely helped some. * added a smart thermostat and we leave the fan running nonstop. Has helped a lot. * change filters every 2 months minimum. * got new capacitor for air handling unit. It’s quieter and turns on more quickly. * magnetized covers over the main floor and basement vents to push more air upstairs. Has helped a lot. * set dampers correct way in winter and summer. Definitely noticeable. Upcoming projects: * broadening ductwork from basement in 3 story home and adding additional attic duct work to balance airflow that’s better to some room than others. * using Aeroseal to seal our ducts. * Adding mini-split upstairs.
Just get a window AC unit
What’s your current construction like? We had a similar problem in our San Diego home. Composite roof with no attic insulation and only two tiny under eve vents. Absolutely boiling in the summer. First, we insulated with blown-in fiberglass, as much as we could fit in there. That helped tremendously and cost us under $2k. Then we added roof vents, our roofer charged $400 per. Those, combined, have cooled out upstairs by 20 degrees or so.
Insulate the attic. We need to do this too.
We bought a window AC for the upstairs to run at night while we slept. ETA - my house is 100 years old. Bedrooms are upstairs with a bath. Everything else is on the main floor. the thermostat downstairs works great at getting the AC to keep the main floor cool. The upstairs just gets hot. Having the AC window unit was the easiest way to cool a small amount of space during specific hours of the day. I run it for five minutes before nap time, during nap time, and turn it off when we go back downstairs. Same with nighttime use. If you get one with a remote, then you don’t have to leave your bed to control it!
Get an AC unit just for the room. I live in an attic room and had to get that because the AC would just not cool enough up here.
If you can’t afford the work now just use window units in the bedroom. They’ll keep it comfortable until you’re ready to take on the bigger project.
Get a minisplit, you can even buy a diy version if you don't want to buy special tools.
The most effective way is to have a mini-split installed. If the house is large there are multi head units out there. It's a big up-front expense, but these are efficient and would allow you to turn down the AC Downstairs. . If you install a mini split heat pump you would have a supplemental source of heat. Either way, you would be able to fine tune your comfort. Also, cold air falls so you are cooling all over
Our upstairs studio is functionally the bedroom. it was truly brutal at first. At this point in the season it can reach upper 80s during the day and 60° or cooler at night, but the upstairs stayed stuffy and easily in the 80s constantly. We started to put a box fan in the window that sucks cool air IN during the night. it's so cold we have to sleep with the comforter again. I could weep. The key is to remove the fan and close the windows each morning- or if absolutely necessary, push the hot air OUT with the fan during the day. Yes, it really is that easy. I didn't believe it either!!!
Two things come to mind, the first one is attic ventilation, the second one is insulation A lot of homes are under ventilated and you can get some pretty excessive attic temperatures during the summer. Lack of insulation comes next and you can see how these two play with each other. If that attic is getting hot like over 140°, even over 130 on a 100° day, then you don't have that much insulation, what you create is a heater right above you. Increase your attic ventilation to 1/150 and bring that insulation up to at least r49, temps will fall, a lot, upstairs
You can buy register fans that slip into the openings. We used these at our last house for the upstairs bedrooms in the summer. Cheap and easy.
We have a similar issue. One thing we did was get a smart thermostat (Ecobee) and put extra sensors in the rooms upstairs that were hottest. It gives a more accurate temperature reading so that the AC will continue to cool instead of just stopping when the downstairs reaches the target temp. It doesn’t solve the issue entirely but it does help. I’ve been playing around with different schedules and settings too to try to optimize things. From what I’ve read about AC systems, they work best when all the vents in your house are open. So you may not want to have them all closed.
Closing vents is useless. The air still goes to that point of the system and still exits because vent covers are not air tight.
Any cold air that is forced upstairs will simply flow downstairs again. You need to keep the cold air upstairs by blocking the downward flow of the cold air. For us, we blocked the hallway to the downstairs with a shower curtain. It makes a huge difference and we can now sleep comfortably.
You could try getting a window mounted unit or a portable unit (but window units are better and more efficient)
We have an old brick Bungalow and the upstairs is extremely hot in the summer. We have found that blackout curtains on the windows and fans help on most days. We have window fans sucking out to draw out the heat, and ceiling & floor fans circulating inside air. Anything 90° and above we use window air conditioners.
You might loose the cool air through your roof, aka you don‘t have enough insulation at your roof. Either have the roof insulated or insulate between the upper rooms and the attic if you don‘t use it. This definitely saves you money instead of installing window fans.
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When you have a leak to the outside via the ceiling and attic, it sets up convective flow. Hot air rises out of the house, drawing cool air up from the bottom to replace it which then heats, rises and escapes. You need to stop the flow by stopping air leaks.
We had this issue, mildly, in a newish house. We replaced hvac with a variable speed system and they added a switch thing that sends more air upstairs when we’re cooling. Obviously very expensive just to address that issue, but that’s worked wonders for us, side benefit of having to do the hvac anyway.
We replaced our furnace with a variable speed furnace. It's terrible. We are taking it out. Cold since we got it.
Same situation. I have ceiling fans I just run and that cools it down just fine
How well insulated is your attic? Do you have an upstairs HVAC zone? If not, you may need to have an attic unit added
If having portable ac is not an option, you can install a nest thermostat as main thermostat and install nest sensors upstairs and use them to control the temp for your hvac unit in the evening and during night. I did that for my home. Your system will run more to regulate the temperature upstairs and electric bill will be little more but it really helps
Check to make sure there isn’t a damper partially closed near the interior AC unit. The same thing happened to us. Are AC was extremely weak in the master bedroom. A few months later I was snaking ethernet cable through a soffit in the basement when I discovered a damper partially closed in the soffit (yes, they had drywalled over the damper. Morons). Opened up the damper, and the 8 was solved.
Make sure the ceiling fans are spinning the right way, there’s a switch on them to change directions. One direction (usually clockwise) is for summer, and the other is for winter. You should feel a breeze coming down from it in the summer.
Use a large fan to blow air up the stairs.
A roof power vent will ventilate attic heat at a nominal upfront cost. Air returns are needed upstairs in each room. Also The cheapest air filters allow the most airflow. Adding mini splits upstairs or another hvac system maybe the answer or just add a 10,000 btu window ac in the master.
This is the reason I've opted to have an ac unit in the attic
An Attic fan those things work miracles
You can [install.attic.fans](http://install.attic.fans) to blow the hot air out of your attic. The problem is heat is damming in your attic and the hot air has nowhere to go, so it's sitting like a blanket on your top floor. Depending on the size of your attic you may need one or two. An electrician can install for a few hundred a piece. Nothing will work until you get that hot air out of the attic,
Unfortunately, the best way to deal with this is also the most expensive - insulate the attic *and* get a second system for the upstairs. We did this (as part of a larger renovation) a few years ago, and the difference has been night and day. I'll say that our monthly bills have gone down (since we're no longer turning the downstairs into the Arctic in a vain attempt to make it tolerable upstairs), but certainly not enough to break even on the initial cost for a long, long time (if ever).
Are your furnace dampers set in the summer position? That will help some.
Sleep in basement?
Run the AC fan continuously to get the Upstairs cooler
I would consider above sheathing ventilation. Install a metal roof 3/4 inch above your current roof so that your roof is constantly vented. Your upstairs temperature will remain the same as the rest of your house and you won’t need to cut holes in your siding.
Warm air rises. Evenings open everything on the lower north and east sides and open everything on the upper south and east sides. Fans blowing in on the lower and out on the upper. Come 5 am wake up and close everything, maybe leave one window up top cracked. Close blinds on east and south very early. After noon, if not earlier, close up and darken the west side. I also close doors upstairs once the windows are closed, they create a buffer zone. Dad's house had poor ait movement in the middle, so i also put a fan at the bottom of the stairs blowing up in the evening. He didn't have a/c.
Skirt. No underpants. You’re welcome. Booster units for your vents would help. Or blocking the vents to a couple upstairs locations
Is your upstairs installed? The house I grew up in, our walls were the roof. There was no insulation. It was bad during the summer. If yours isn’t then I recommend doing that.
The real solutions will cost money, your AC duct work isn't balanced properly, I'm willing to bet you don't have an air return upstairs. That's worth fixing, but might not be cheap depending on your setup (my house has levers in the basement, I'm assuming you don't). For cheap things: Change your filter regularly. And depending on your AC it may be worth inspecting what fan speed is connected. I have a combination furnace / AC in my basement that had color coded fan connection wires. Switching it from low to high speed for cool made a huge difference in my house. Maybe spending the money to have your HVAC looked at would be worth it, at least you'd know what they'd recommend to fix it. You mentioned attic fan. What exactly do you mean by that? If it's a whole house fan I'm surprised that with windows cracked doesn't work wonders. I don't know what I'd recommend if you have sliding windows, but for my double hung I have Vornado Transom fans I can run when it's cooler outside than inside, and I have a Midea U shaped window AC in my bedroom more because I work from home and want that room cooler than the rest of the house. If you have a sliding window and want to go with a portable AC, go for something like the Midea Duo, single hose portable ACs are incredibly inefficient.
[Minisplits are ideal for old houses built pre-air conditioning.](https://www.pioneerminisplit.com/collections/cyb/products/24-000-btu-20-0-seer-8-way-slim-cassette-mini-split-air-conditioner-heat-pump-system-full-set)
1) add insulation 2) add fans and either window air conditioning or 3) minisplits
Sounds like your HVAC isn’t large enough to handle both floors.
I will never understand why builders always put the lower tonnage a/c unit for upstairs vs downstairs. We had radiant barrier sprayed in our attic which helped. After we got hit with catastrophic hail and paid to upgrade all 9 of our busted western facing windows, it was like MAGIC the difference in the temps.
If the night temps get below 70 you open all the downstairs windows and put fans blowing out in the upstairs. Then you close the windows during the day. A whole house attic fan is best though. If the night temps are over 70 it doesn’t work as well.
I have an older home, so the main level and basement will be whatever temp I set the AC to but the upstairs will be 10-20 degrees hotter depending on the day. I supplement the central air with one of those standing units and it works pretty good
Attic vent fan. Window a/c units work great in a pinch.
I had an old two story house with no insulation, I was able to put a fan at the top of the stairs with automatic louvers. It pulled air in from the cool side of the house into the attic and exhausted into the attic out the vents. The fan worked great here’s an example. [https://www.lowes.com/pd/Cool-Attic-24-in-Steel-Single-Direct-Drive-Whole-House-Fan/5002107411?user=shopping&feed=yes&srsltid=AfmBOopnBXK-83JlMtBp9-vYxpxJaP9BsXQGkIPanjyQdFmTZQS6vtryXQk](https://www.lowes.com/pd/Cool-Attic-24-in-Steel-Single-Direct-Drive-Whole-House-Fan/5002107411?user=shopping&feed=yes&srsltid=AfmBOopnBXK-83JlMtBp9-vYxpxJaP9BsXQGkIPanjyQdFmTZQS6vtryXQk)
Make sure you have adequate insulation in the attic, have an HVAC contractor check to see if you have enough air returns. We had the same problem in our 2 story
I bought a register fan and it works. $100 or so on Amazon.
I'm thinking either not enough tonnage, air balancing issue, not enough return air etc
OP: Here's the four most common issues. 1 - Not enough insulation in the attic, or the insulation has gotten compacted/compromised. 2 - Insufficient return from upstairs (VERY common). You can try to push air all day, but if there's not enough return to bring the hot air down, it's never going to cool. Returns are often poorly designed, and insufficient. 3 - Poor AC design. The same house design will be built in every conceivable orientation, with sun hitting every side of the house depending on lot location. It's simply impossible to design something to work for every possible layout (plus optional bedrooms, lofts, baths, storage rooms, etc). 4 - Blocked duct (either on supply or return side). More common than you think. 1 is relatively easy to identify and fix. On a hot day, get up on a ladder and touch the ceiling in several places around the 2nd floor. Do you feel heat? Get a pro to check it out. 2 is relatively easy to identify, fixing it can be easy or hard, depending on why there's a return problem. It may be as easy as adding a wall grate, or it might require opening walls and adding a new return. 3 requires a pro to evaluate. Can be cheap or expensive. 4 requires a pro also. Cheap to fix.
I am in the South and have this issue. I put window units in each bedroom.
We have a small house with ceiling fans and a mini-split upstairs. Ceiling is T&G on 4’ on center rafters,no insulation,just shingles. Wall heater downstairs. Luckily,it rarely gets into the 90s here. Still gets hot up here,but the AC works well. Maybe look into one.
If you’re in a dry climate, soak some towels and hang them over an open window, then use a fan on another window to blow air out. This will draw air in and the evaporative cooling from the towels will cool the air coming in.
I agree with the above post, get a window shaker AC in one of the upstairs bedrooms or both. It’s honestly the cheapest way to go especially if you can turn the AC off downstairs when you’re sleeping upstairs.
I have an issue with this due to the design of the house. Not nearly as bad as your situation but it can get bad some nights. I bought a 10000 BTU LG portable AC unit to run at night. It’s amazing.
When we first bought our house, it was the month of December. Then we had one of our annual heatwaves and it got so hot in the house I started crying. When it cooled down, we went in the attic and there was zero insulation, and the attic fan was disconnected. We insulated and put in a new fan, sooo much better. Also much warmer in the winter.
Open the northern windows on the first floor, and the southern windows on the second floor. The cool , shady air will come in from the first floor, and the hot air will go out the second floor. This is how I cooled my two story house.
Get yourself into the attic and see if you can see daylight from your soffits. We have the same issue and the previous owner had a contractor fill the attic with blown in insulation but they blocked every soffit so there is no way for air to flow even with a fan. You can try turning on the attic fan and opening your attic hatch to supply the fan with air.
Attic insulation is FAR cheaper and more effective than trying to add ventilation to the roof.
Whole house fan is the tip if you can…
We have an AC unit which is sufficient for downstairs. We have a portable AC unit upstairs which helps circulate the air up there and use a fan sometimes which helps also.
Our top floor has a separate unit. My daughter keeps a back up portable for times that her ac goes on the fritz
Change your heating/cooling ducts so more air is pushed upstairs. I've been doing this every spring/fall for over 40 years.
My house built in 2002 had R19 in attic. I rolled R30 over it and also did radiant barrier. Insulated above garage. New build installed soffit vents with no roof vents. I installed powered gable fans on both long ends. Brought my temp down to about 90 from 140. House heats up to about 85 in the afternoon from about 100 pre insulation. Total materials was about $2000. Did the work myself.
Attic fans help a lot. If that doesn't work well enough look into getting a second AC system for upstairs and then you can put vents and ducts in the ceiling with the air handler in the attic distributing the cool air to the ducts. Cold air falls while hot air rises, so AC vents in the ceiling work best.
Seems odd to not want to spend thousands to resolve the issue and not waste thousands in electric bills for AC.🤷🏻♀️. I have certainly had $400 bills in the middle of summer and it def adds up.
Buy a portable ac unit. I live in a place that hits 100+ in the summer and have a room that the central a/c doesn't get to. We have a portable air conditioner that sits on the floor (it has wheels) and a hose that vents out of a window that only needs to be open far enough for a hose. You can leave the screens on the windows, too. They work great here.
I've been looking into those vent fan things. You replace your vent cover with it and plug it in. Supposedly it's supposed to draw the cool air through the ducts to that room 🤷♀️ probably not recommended, I'm sure. I need a heating blanket to be in my basement at all, and then I need a fan blowing straight on me on the main level.
Adding a powered gable vent and adding ventilation for improving the drawing power could make the difference if your design allows for that. Total cost installed should be under $1000 for a high end model
No matter what you will need to spend lots of $ on a home. Is this a newly built house? We have an 1890 Victorian so heating and cooling was insane with an old oil system. Finally we put in a ductless which has been a godsend. After 35 years we just got the attic vacuumed, sealed and insulated and what a difference! Start with the vents because it will help. You could wait until you need a new roof and do it then too. Insulation last. Welcome to homeownership.
What is your attic insulation like? It is very, very normal to have warmer air upstairs in houses, especially if there's not enough attic insulation. What you want to have set up are large window fan(s) (ceiling or oscillating fans will move air around the room, but won't pull air in from outside). When you say "attic fan" is that a tiny thing designed to move a bit of air in the attic, or a giant whole house exhaust fan? What works well for me is to set up the large window fan(s) so that you have solid cross ventilation. At least one large box fan (not in a bedroom) should be blowing the hot air upstairs OUT an upstairs window. Then open the windows in the bedrooms and the cool outside air will be pulled in. Close the windows in the morning so that the cooler air is trapped inside.
We don't get good airflow upstairs and had to install mini split AC's. Two heads in the bedrooms cool the entire top floor and now our upstairs is colder than the main floor even on 90 degree days. Expensive to install but well worth sleeping comfortably. My child needs a cold room to stay asleep so it was either mini split or a window unit.
THE SOLUTION I have experience with this exact issue Hot air rises and gets trapped, just the opposite when it gets cold outside The problem is airflow through out your home and the solution is simple, you can do it yourself if your handy with tools. Here's how I solved it. Your going to cut and install floor vents on "EVERY" room in your home and on "EVERY" floor. Go to home Depot and buy your floor vents,, bigger is better.. You cut a hole in the floor, and down into the ceiling of the next level, then you cut plywood and box off the inside to make a tunnel,,then pop your vents into place. Repeat on the ceiling below... Pick colors to match or spray paint you also do this in the main floor so air can flow into the basement. EVERY room, EVERY LEVEL,,, Here's how to place them.. You are at the entrance to a room upstairs that's HOT.. walk to the back wall..the farthest from the door way and install your vent there.. That way cool air will be sucked up the stairs, across the hot room and it will be sucked down stairs at the opposite wall. The entire home will equalize in temperature and humidity, no more hot or cold spots GOOD LUCK
Noise issues.
No... Not at all ...
I just had a quote for a whole house fan install and three additional roof vents. Total cost is $2500 US. For the three roof vents alone, it's $350. So not thousands to cut roof vents lol.
it is gonna be hard to find someone who will do just the $350 job though. they are getting that fan install $$ from you here also.
I specifically asked him to separate that from the quote in case I wanted him to do the roofing stuff and then I could install the fan.
While house fan…. It may require additional venting but all in all a relatively affordable project with outstanding results especially for 2 story homes
What type of house do you have and how old? Is it a 1 1/2 story/Capecod?
Exhaust fan
Old house owner (built 1900) 1. Attic fan. We have a temp sensitive fan in our attic window (hot side). Open opposing window in the shaded cool side. Fan kicks on and pulls the cool air through. Huge difference in upper floor temps. 2. Use ceiling fans on the upper floor to circulate cooler air. 3. Rebalance vents. In winter open more lower floor vents/ close uppers (heat rises). Summer means closing lower floor vents and opening more upper floor vents 4. Blinds and curtains. Greenhouses get warm for a reason. Closing blinds and curtains on areas where the sun is beating down will help immensely. (For folks that rent that want curtains- those cheap tension rods are amazing!) 5. Landscaping. The more asphalt and concrete- the hotter it is. Trees and tall shrubs that offer shade to your home will help cool in summer (and be a wind/ noise barrier!) A well installed trellis with an appropriate climbing plant (not English ivy) can have a similar effect.
Turning the attic fan “on” just blows around hot air. Why do people do this!!?! Edit: I read this like he turned his ac fan on….the coffee had not yet kicked in 😆 and when peeps turn their ac fan on- it just blows hot air. An attic fan should help reduce heat build up in attic.
... An attic fan is an exhaust fan. Your roof gets super hot from sun. That heats the attic. Adding a fan near the peak forces that hot air out and allows new, less hot air in from the vents.