I have a two story home with one central air unit and the distribution of heat is terrible, some rooms get super hot, the whole downstairs is super cold. Are there any affordable steps one can take to improve these kinda of problems?
Heat people, not spaces (2015)
81–90 of 335 posts
Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
We are near to the equator here. Seasons don't work the same. Here they call the 3 rainy months "winter", and the rest of the year is summer. And the temperature gradient I've mentioned is correct. No noticeable changes along the whole year, I'm sorry.
> No noticeable changes along the whole year, I'm sorry. It does sound kind of unpleasant, but I imagine you get used to it.
I grew up in the Midwest and lived in SF and LA for a few years each. I definitely missed the seasons changing and appreciated them even more moving back to the Midwest. Lack of seasons really messed with my sense of time, like: "Oh that thing we did last month...oh woah that was six months ago??"
Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)
#83We have very very very good insulation now. We don't really need to stop heating spaces, we need to prevent heat loss. In addition we could use more modern heating systems which actually heat rooms only when needed.
Eh, depends on where you live. I was surprised, for example, to find out the abysmal state of insulation in New Zealand. Only in the last five decades have Kiwis had decent insulation standards -- for new construction. Homes from before that time often remain without adequate insulation -- and it gets cold throughout much of New Zealand!
Many new Japanese homes are uninsulated, with the residents using "heat the person" techniques like a kotatsu to keep warm.
Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)
#84A more recent article from the same magazine, about nearly the same topic: https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2022/01/the-revenge-of-the-h...
Because of that article I bought a hot water bottle on Amazon. I’ve had it for about a month now. It’s very pleasing to use to heat a bed in a way that an electric blanket isn’t: it is much faster at warming, gives you heat in exactly the place you want it, and you don’t fear your house burning down using it.
Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)
#85My main concern is frozen pipes, other cold related damage to my home. Gets quite cold up here in Minneapolis. Lovely design ideas for a cabin though where the infrastructure is inherently more limited.
Cant you keep the space above freezing? Just not as warm as people would prefer
So you still have to maintain 2 heating systems instead of just 1.
That seems like it negates any potential savings.
Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)
#86I have a two story home with one central air unit and the distribution of heat is terrible, some rooms get super hot, the whole downstairs is super cold. Are there any affordable steps one can take to improve these kinda of problems?
Add a fan that makes the air circulate: it should blow vertically and try to mix the hot air at the top with cold air below.
Same thing helps with air cooling units which tend to freeze your feet only: push cold air up with a fan.
Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)
#87I've been thinking about the inverse problem. I live in a very warm city. Air conditioning (cooling spaces) is the norm, but tons of money are spent with installations, maintenance and the monthly electricity bill. The new houses are designed with zero consideration about ventilation, designers seem to take for granted that you are going to buy an AC system. Oftentimes, a very simple change in the project would be en…
I had family members who lived in a home in the deep south that was built before air conditioning was common. It had a large fan in the ceiling of a central hallway that vented the air from the inside the house out through the attic. This was an industrial grade fan that moved a huge volume of air. At bedtime, they could open the bedroom windows and turn on the fan and a stiff wind would blow in through all the bedro…
what state and what was the average humidity, or even better dew point?
I personally find fans made very little difference for me in humid climates.
Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)
#88I've been thinking about the inverse problem. I live in a very warm city. Air conditioning (cooling spaces) is the norm, but tons of money are spent with installations, maintenance and the monthly electricity bill. The new houses are designed with zero consideration about ventilation, designers seem to take for granted that you are going to buy an AC system. Oftentimes, a very simple change in the project would be en…
I would disagree with new houses not considering ventilation. There are set building standards (ASHRAE 62.1, 62.2, and ISO standards) that have been around for a while that specify how ventilated spaces should be for given use cases. There’s a more recent trend to evolve these standards to take into consideration non-hazardous levels of particulate matter and gases that still show cognitive impairment—-I’m currently…
That's for keeping air safe for humans, not using passive ventilation as a replacement for HVAC equipment.
Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is exactly the problem with newer design and construction philosophy. Its premise is that we will use mechanical systems, and then try to make these mechanical systems more efficient such as improving insulation, using multi-stage condensers for the AC, etc. This is epitomized in the passive house concept. In contrast the older philosophy is that natural ventilation is good enough, so we design houses to improve…
> In contrast the older philosophy is that natural ventilation is good enough, so we design houses to improve that, such as strategic placement of windows to allow cross ventilation, use high ceilings to allow heat to rise, etc. Yeah, and all those open windows bring in pollen and dust. Yay! Hope you have a good bug screen as well. Of course if there's high humidity then all than ventilation may not help because the…
People lived before 1902 and the invention of compressor-based air conditioning.
Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)
#90I have a two story home with one central air unit and the distribution of heat is terrible, some rooms get super hot, the whole downstairs is super cold. Are there any affordable steps one can take to improve these kinda of problems?
"HVAC balancing" would be a good search term for you.