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Why Are Some Rooms in My Home Warmer or Cooler Than Others?

Couple in a room that's not being cooled

Every house seems to have that one room that is always hotter or colder than the others, no matter what the thermostat is set at. In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the reasons this happens, and some possible fixes.

Check for These Common AC Issues

Go through this checklist to see if any of these situations apply to your home. This could potentially solve the issue without professional intervention.

  • Air Filters – A dirty HVAC filter prohibits enough air from flowing through your system, not allowing enough cool air to flow.
  • Vents/Registers – Check to see if the registers for the warmer room is fully open.
  • Air Ducts – Ducts usually have an inline damper that allows you to shut off the air supply to a particular section or room of your house. Make sure the dampers are all fully open.
  • Windows – Leaky or open windows and doors can allow your conditioned air to escape before it reaches its intended target room. Check to ensure you don’t have a window or door cracked open that’s allowing cold air to escape.

Air Balancing May Be the Answer

After checking the issues listed above, and the problem isn’t solved, your home is most likely suffering from an unbalanced heating and air conditioning system. A professional AC contractor can help you balance it.

Simply put, balancing the air in a home is the process of adjusting the amount of cooled or heated air so each room in the home is about the same temperature. If a home’s HVAC system is perfectly in balance, every single room in the house would arrive at the exact same temperature at the same time. In reality, most homes’ systems are a little unbalanced at certain times.

Causes of an Unbalanced Air Conditioning System

There are many possibilities to be considered when looking for possible causes of an unbalanced system.

Typically, when an AC system is initially installed, different duct sizes and supply vents are used to get larger volumes of air into the rooms of the home that need more.

The duct installation is probably one of the biggest offenders when it comes to ensuring a system is close to being balanced. Dampers are often installed to fine tune the airflow to various sections of the house, the result being more even temperatures throughout the entire home.

A damper is a valve inside your HVAC duct that allows you to control the amount of air travelling to a particular room. They are typically installed on the main ducts near the inside unit of the air conditioner/furnace. In central Ohio, that usually means in the basement.

This balance can be easily disrupted by several common issues.

Multiple Levels/Floors in a Home

It can be difficult to balance a home with multiple levels, because of long runs of ductwork to reach the upper levels, as well as heat rising (requiring more cooled air in the upper levels).

Solution One popular solution, especially for larger homes, is a zoned air conditioning system. A zoned HVAC system divides the house into different areas, each controlled by a separate thermostat and/or temperature sensors that automatically control dampers in the ductwork.

Like the zoned cooling in a large vehicle, zoning can be used to even out temperatures in the home, or even set to different temperatures for different rooms.

Ductwork – Uninsulated or Longer Runs

Ductwork is an important part of a home’s air conditioning and heating system. Its job is to carry the cooled (or heated) air from the furnace’s blower motor to its destinations of different rooms throughout the house. Long runs of ductwork, as well as uninsulated ducts, allows the air being pushed through to change temperature before it reaches its destination. For example, a bedroom in the upstairs of a home is much farther from the first-floor living room, so it’s difficult for the air to remain the same temperature when it reaches that upper bedroom. Rooms closer to the HVAC system, especially one with a thermostat, are easier to reach the desired temperature. If the ductwork travels through an uninsulated area, such as an attic, the temperature could change dramatically. Ductwork should be insulated as much as possible to prevent temperatures surrounding the ducts to change the air temperature inside the ducts.

Solution A simple solution to solve uninsulated ducts is to add insulation, but that’s not always the easiest solution. Solving this issue could also be as complex (and much more costly) as restructuring the entire home’s ductwork to ensure air is distributed more evenly throughout the home.

Return Vents Inadequate or Not Doing Their Job (No Air Flow)

Return vents solve the problem of getting air that has been forced through ductwork to the far reaches of the house back to the furnace or AC, to get conditioned again.

Some homes have only a single air return, usually drawing from a room on the first floor. Far away rooms are literally left in a vacuum, and the lack of return air can actually prevent air from entering from the HVAC system.

Solution One simple thing you can do is leave the doors to all your rooms open. That allows air to travel through the doors and back to the HVAC system through an alternative path – the return vents elsewhere in the house. The next level of solution is to add additional return paths in your home, allowing air to travel more directly back to the HVAC system.

Under- or Over-sized HVAC System

An air conditioning system that is too large, or oversized, will shut off frequently, leaving certain rooms too warm or too cold. And undersized system may just not have enough power to cool the entire house properly.

Solution You can try using fans to circulate the cool air to the warmer rooms of the house (if your system is too large). You may need a new or additional system if the system currently installed is too small or too old.

How Your Rooms Are Used

Certain rooms in your home can cause the system to be unbalanced by the activity in that room. A kitchen that’s being used heavily, or a study or home office that has computer equipment and monitors running may produce extra heat, causing the AC system to try harder to catch up.

Solution The easiest solution is to manipulate the dampers in the ducts flowing to these room. If a room is too warm (like an office) be sure the damper is fully open, and that there is a good path for return air. An HVAC expert can help you make those adjustments.

Renovations or Home Additions

A home that has been renovated  can upset the HVAC system’s balance, especially if walls were added or removed, and proper ductwork and return vents weren’t installed.

Solution If the ductwork is installed, but the room just isn’t getting cold enough or warm enough, a damper adjustment may make a difference. Adding insulation to the ductwork can help as well. In the case of some home additions, like a “sun room” or Florida room, you may need to add another air conditioner, depending on the square footage.

Dor-Mar to the Rescue!

Dor-Mar Heating and Air Conditioning can help you play detective and find issues with ductwork and solve system balancing problems in your home, then offer cost-effective solutions. Contact us today, and we’ll help find and fix the source of the too hot or too cold room problem! Contact Dor-Mar today.

Schedule an appointment for HVAC system troubleshooting or maintenance with us today by using our online contact form, or call one of our seven neighborhood offices listed below. We pride ourselves on our customer-focused service, and our reviews show it.

NEWARK  740.345.6639 • COLUMBUS 614.238.6689 • DUBLIN 614.545.8939 • REYNOLDSBURG 614.365.1579 • WESTERVILLE 614.381.1540 • GROVE CITY 614.595.3098 • ZANESVILLE 740.454.2420

Dor-Mar…Your Climate Hero!

*Please note: neither the Centers for Disease Control(CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), nor the manufacturer of our UV-C Devices have officially announced whether UV-C kills the current strain of Corona Virus (COVID-19). We urge you to err on the side of caution until we have a definitive answer, and take other measures to prevent the acquisition or spread of this virus.

WE ARE CENTRAL OHIO HEATING & AIR CONDITIONING EXPERTS

In continuous operation since 1962, our expertise goes beyond just the mechanicals of your HVAC system. We’re pretty handy when it comes to ductwork and system-wide maintenance as well. For top-notch service keeping your home’s heating and cooling system clean and your family breathing clean, filtered air, contact Dor-Mar today.

Our team offers a wide array of routine maintenance and emergency services for your heating and cooling system, allowing your family to breathe fresh, safe, clean air and be comfortable year-round. We also offer a number of add-ons to your HVAC equipment that can improve your home’s Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), such as electrostatic air filters, whole-house humidifiers, duct cleaning, Ultraviolet-C lighting systems, and more.

Schedule an appointment for HVAC system troubleshooting or maintenance with us today by using our online contact form, or call one of local offices listed below. We pride ourselves on our customer-focused service, and our reviews show it.

Dor-Mar…Your Climate Hero!

Steven Brewer<br/>HVAC Expert & Owner

Steven Brewer
HVAC Expert & Owner

I started in the HVAC business as a young man, with my father putting me in crawl spaces to run ductwork while on summer vacation from school; I began full time in our family HVAC business at the age of 19. I obtained my state commercial HVAC license at 25. I'm married with three kids, and I love boating, fishing and hunting.

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