July 17, 2012
The Problems of Retrofitting
My GF has a nice house, built in 1906. The original part is a square, two stories tall with two rooms per floor. At some point a one-level addition added a master bedroom and a kitchen, then later another addition added a bathroom. That last addition was probably in the 1990s; previously, the toilet and shower were in the basement.
Anyway, the place has forced air heating and central air conditioning. While the upstairs stays nicely warm in the winter, it becomes brutally hot in the summer, even while the AC is keeping the ground floor nicely cool. I finally figured out what is going on– the house only has a single return vent, and it is on the ground floor!
Installing a return vent on the upper floor is very doable, but it would require taking down a bunch of walls, which I'm not about to do as a weekend project. So file it in the "long term plans" folder.
I have also considered putting together a kludge, with 15-20 feet of flexible ducting attached at one end to a box fan. The duct would run from the hot upstairs down the staircase to the solitary return vent.
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Anyway, the place has forced air heating and central air conditioning. While the upstairs stays nicely warm in the winter, it becomes brutally hot in the summer, even while the AC is keeping the ground floor nicely cool. I finally figured out what is going on– the house only has a single return vent, and it is on the ground floor!
Installing a return vent on the upper floor is very doable, but it would require taking down a bunch of walls, which I'm not about to do as a weekend project. So file it in the "long term plans" folder.
I have also considered putting together a kludge, with 15-20 feet of flexible ducting attached at one end to a box fan. The duct would run from the hot upstairs down the staircase to the solitary return vent.
Posted by: Boviate at
05:11 PM
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One of the houses we rented had NO upstairs vents, in either direction. (and no central AC) Just the stairs and I think one between floor grate, maybe two, it's been a while. But it was rather nippy upstairs in the winter. We didn't stick around for summer. :-)
And the kitchen and bathroom were clearly later addition to the side of the house.
Oh, and my current house has one return vent - on the side of the furnace itself, but that's what ya get when your retrofitting the entire system into the house. So I can relate to why they did it that way for it, out is way easier/more important!
And the kitchen and bathroom were clearly later addition to the side of the house.
Oh, and my current house has one return vent - on the side of the furnace itself, but that's what ya get when your retrofitting the entire system into the house. So I can relate to why they did it that way for it, out is way easier/more important!
Posted by: Gretchen at Thursday, July 19 2012 09:02 PM (mTbHO)
2
Try opening the upper part of one of the upstairs windows a few inches to let out some hot air which will help drag cool air up the stairs. Use a window the farthest from the stairs. Remember how the back seat of a car is often helped cool by a little opening in one of the back windows? Gets the cooling flow moving. Not as efficient as recirculating the air, but should be cooler than no flow.
Posted by: Dad at Thursday, July 19 2012 10:41 PM (F3D9W)
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