Can an upstairs AC unit cool downstairs? (2023)

How can I make my upstairs cool downstairs?

Adjust the dampers.

(Hint: If your downstairs is colder than your upstairs during the winter, restrict the airflow on the second floor and fully open the vents on the first floor to force more warm air downstairs.

Since cold air sinks, the first floor will end up at the same temperature as the second floor. In most cases, doing so will effectively cool the upstairs of a two-story home and not take your bills through the roof!

The downstairs thermostat should be set to your ideal temperature, and the upstairs thermostat should be about 2 degrees cooler. The heat should be balanced pretty well with this method, and your downstairs will get a little bit extra warmth to keep you comfortable.

If it's a studio apartment, one AC can easily get the job done. It gets trickier the more rooms and hallways you have. If you have ceiling fans, you can use them to help circulate the cool air (set them to rotate counterclockwise in summer, to force the air down and make you feel cooler).

Not necessarily. It's likely that a 2^nd unit won't cost as much as you'd expect. Since this additional unit is not going to be used to cool the entire square footage of your home, you won't need a particularly large second unit. A professional HVAC company will calculate exactly what size of a 2^nd unit you will need.

Related Articles. A single A/C unit in a two-story home often produces no-win situations. Crank the thermostat down to offset the natural warming in upstairs living spaces and it's too chilly downstairs. Make the downstairs comfortable and it's too hot in the upstairs bedrooms.

Check for blocked or dirty registers. If they're blocked by furniture or have dust and debris in them, it can affect air flow. You can vacuum them with an attachment loosen and remove dirt. Closing some vents on the first floor can help you redirect air for better circulation on the second (and beyond) floor.

Opening upstairs cold air supply registers fully and all but closing downstairs air supply registers helps direct the cold air upstairs. You are literally rerouting the circulation of the air pushed out through your air conditioner.

Cold air is denser than warm air, so it stays on the bottom while warm air rises. That's why the downstairs can feel so chilly while the upstairs is toasty in the winter. The temperature differential between the upstairs and downstairs in an average two-story home is between 8 to 10 degrees.

The general rule of thumb for a two-story home is that you should set each thermostat two degrees Fahrenheit apart from the other. During the summer, when your AC is running, set the upper floor at the temperature you actually want in your home. Then set each floor underneath that to two degrees warmer.

How do I even out the temperature in my house?

Use a bucket of ice

According to the GHI, placing a bucket of ice in front of a fan as a homemade AC unit is just as effective. 'As the air passes over the ice it will be chilled and will circulate refreshingly cold air around the room,' they explain.

The unit on the ground floor is only turned on during the day, while the unit upstairs is operated only at night when everyone is asleep. That is why this makes it essential for homeowners to have two separate air conditioning systems to make each floor comfortable.

1,201 to 1,500 square feet homes should use 2.5 tons. If your home size is higher than the number above but is less not more than 1,800 square feet, you can go for a three-ton A/C. Choose a unit that is 3.5 tons if your home measures more than 1,800 but not more than 2,100 square feet.

As mentioned, most would recommend a 3 to 3.5-ton air conditioning unit for a 2,000 square foot home. In general, the BTU per ton rule is 12,000 BTU per ton. Therefore, a 3-ton air conditioning unit will have around a 36,000 BTU rating.

Dual-zone systems allow you to split the house into a number of zones, where each zone can have its own autonomous temperature setting. And the best part? It can all be done with a single HVAC system. No need to install multiple air conditioning units!

Can you add zones to an existing HVAC system?

Yes, you can add zones to an existing HVAC system. To convert your existing HVAC system to a zone system, you must do these: Install a zone control panel.

Look around to see if you have any blocked or dirty vents. Your vents and your registers can contribute to uneven cooling if they're blocked by furniture or anything else. This can also happen if dust and debris builds up on them. You can vacuum them with an attachment to loosen and remove the debris.

Change the Filter

If your filter is loaded with dust and dirt, it could be causing your air conditioner to not run effectively. If you haven't changed your filter lately, now might be the time to do so. Filters keep dust and other contaminants from building up in your air conditioner.

Your Air Vents are Closed or Obstructed

If you have closed your air vents, or your vents are obstructed by furniture or upholstery, proper airflow is being disrupted. This can most certainly cause some rooms in your home to be hotter than others, while placing extra strain on your HVAC system.

Proper airflow throughout your home is important to stamp out mold growth. When air from your HVAC unit flows through the rooms of your home, it's helping to disperse moisture which is what mold and mildew need to thrive. A closed vent in an unused room can cause mold and mildew growth.

No- you should not close air vents in your house. Closing vents can actually waste more energy than operating your system normally. This is because when you close vents in unused rooms, your central air system will push the excess air to other places in your home.

When it comes to accurately redirecting vents, a vent deflector is an ideal choice. Place it over the vent to guide air away from a wall, window treatment or other surface and toward the center of the room. A vent extender, on the other hand, helps move more air out from a vent that's under a piece of furniture.

A zoned HVAC system divides your home into multiple zones, each controlled by its own thermostat. This allows you to set each room to the ideal temperature for you, instead of having to heat or cool the entire home to just one temperature.

Use negative ventilation to move heated air out of the downstairs and vent it outside. Mount window fans to circulate air out of the house from the downstairs. Open upstairs windows to facilitate the air circulation, and the negative ventilation achieved downstairs will literally pull the upstairs air downward.

What should the temperature difference be between upstairs and downstairs?

Multilevel Homes

In a typical two-story home, there is generally an 8–10-degree temperature difference between the upstairs and downstairs. If this is the case in your home, you may want to consider a zoned HVAC system.

During the summer, we recommend setting your thermostat to about 78 degrees, and 68 degrees during the winter. These are pretty comfortable temperatures for most people, and they won't break the bank. Another important thing to do is to change the thermostat every time you leave for work if nobody will be at the house.

Keep the air moving by turning on the fan setting of your home's thermostat. Turn the fan from “auto” to “on”. The fan will circulate the air continually throughout the home and can help even out temperatures between floors.

The ideal thermostat temperature in the winter is 68 degrees Fahrenheit when you're at home. Energy.gov suggests that 68 degrees is a good room temperature while you're awake at home but recommends lowering it while you're asleep or away.

How To Help Room Cool Faster with Air Conditioner | AC Tips - YouTube

First, check for these common problems: Dirty air filter—A dirty filter restricts airflow, not letting your home get enough cool air. Closed vents—Closed vents in rooms can cause them to be hotter than other rooms. Open windows—Your conditioned air can flow out of open windows, leaving uneven temperatures in your home.

The most standard dampers are found a few feet from the base of the HVAC unit. As you enter your crawl space or air handler unit in a closet, you notice the main connections to the trunk of the HVAC unit. Most homes with a second level will have dampers in their HVAC system.

If an AC vent is not blowing air in one room in your home, then close the vents in other rooms either partially or wholly to improve the airflow to that room. This will naturally force more air to the rooms where more airflow is needed.

When your room is hotter than the outside, it's possible that the room has poor ventilation. Proper ventilation allows hot air to exit while cool and fresh air enters the room. South-facing rooms also heat up from more sunlight, while upstairs rooms will experience the Stack Effect as heat rises through the building.

Why is my apartment so hot at night?

This is because your apartment has a natural affinity to heat build-up. The floors and walls soak in heat throughout the day and redistribute it around. It's an uphill battle for your AC to keep things cool, even at full blast. Your most effective plan is to minimize the accumulation of heat.

Close off all entrances except for the one that links the two rooms in use. Place a box fan in the window of the hotter room facing outward, which will pull hot air out of the room. Crack a window in the cooler room to help circulate cool air into the room you wish to cool.

They recommend that when it's 90 degrees outside, you should try setting your air conditioning thermostat at 80 degrees or higher. And when it's 95 to 100 degrees outside (and higher), you should set your thermostat at 85 degrees or higher.

Example: If the temperature day highs are in the 90s and the lows in the high 70s, you should run an AC for about 8 hours per day. The daily temperature should be about 75°F during the day and about 72°F during the night.

If your air conditioner is running, but not lowering temperatures inside, one issue could be a blocked or clogged condenser coil. When operating correctly, the condenser fan draws air into the outdoor unit through the condenser coil to pull heat energy out of your home.

Method 1: Face cloth or small towel

Wring the cloth out so that it's damp, not dripping wet. Lay the cloth over the fan. As it blows the air out, it'll circulate through the cloth and the air will feel cooler.

You should place outward-facing fans on the warmer side of your home to blow the hot air out and inward-facing fans on the cooler side to draw cool air in, says Barry Jacobs, vice president of product development at Comfort Zone, a home environment product company.

What's the Best Way to Cool My Two-Story House? (Get Better Airflow)

Why is my upstairs so hot even with AC?

One of the biggest reasons the upstairs gets so hot is that the current sealing, insulation, and ventilation systems are not working correctly. On the sealing side of things, gaps in the home's structure can go unnoticed and quickly add up, causing air conditioning to be wasted.

If you live in a 2 floor home, you may want to consider placing the unit in a 2nd-floor window. Cooler air will travel downward in the home as it displaces the warmer air thus cooling a bit more area than it would from the 1st floor. This is especially true when using a fan to push the air down stairwells.

Keep the air moving by turning on the fan setting of your home's thermostat. Turn the fan from “auto” to “on”. The fan will circulate the air continually throughout the home and can help even out temperatures between floors.

What Is Dual-Zone HVAC? Zoning is a way to control your HVAC system to maximize heating and cooling output. It utilizes multiple sensors, thermostats, and modulating dampers to more effectively control the temperature in different “zones” within your home.

Does Every Room Need Air Return Grilles? While it is a myth that air return grilles are required in each and every room in the house, it is definitely necessary to have more than one of these grilles installed at strategic places in the house. The most important place to have these would be the bedroom.

The short answer is no; you should not close air vents in your house. Closing vents can actually waste more energy than operating your system normally. How does closing air vents waste energy? Because when you close vents in unused rooms, your central air system will push the excess air to other places in your home.

Typically, our bodies are most comfortable when the air inside our home is 74-76 degrees. So, a safe setting is 75 degrees. However, this is only necessary when you're in your home.

Why is my house still hot with AC on?

Your current system isn't the right size for your home.

If the system is too big, it's only going to run for extremely short cycles, which can result in uneven temperatures throughout your home. If the system is too small, it's going to struggle to cool and dehumidify your home no matter how much it runs.

Finding where to put a 2nd AC system can be a challenge. This includes the inside unit (the evaporator) and the outside AC unit (the condenser). You may have limited space for installing a second air conditioner. In addition, a 2^nd unit will need ductwork that is separate from existing ducts with your current unit.

An HVAC zoning system costs $1,700 to $4,500 on average, depending on the number of zones and whether it's adding to a new or existing heating and cooling system. Adding a second zone to an existing HVAC costs $1,700 to $2,800, plus $350 to $500 per additional zone.

Yes. You can use a window air conditioner without a window by planning for the exhaust of hot air and the drainage of condensate.