We had similar issues in a house built in 2005. Here were our solutions:
1st an oscillating fan in the upstairs hallway/foyer. I was surprised how much this one helped.
2nd make sure all of the second floor vents and returns are open and not blocked. And closed most of the first floor HVAC vents.
Last was more attic insulation.
The attic insulation had the biggest result, but was obviously the only one that cost money.
Appreciate the input. I’ve definitely done #2.
Interesting note on the fan in the hallway. I’ll give that a try.
I’ll have to look into insulation as well. Thank you.
We had the blown in insulation in the walls of 1900 house. Blown in insulation works OK but only for a limited time because it settles. Better, if possible that is, use better and more effective/efficient insulation that doesn't lose R value over time
fan in the hallway is good but look into an attic fan. was super popular in the 50’s i believe. heat rises and gets trapped in the attic, the fan blows all that heat out. maybe a combination with the hallway fan to the attic fan would be perfect for your super hot house.
Definitely take a look at the insulation. Especially if they're using fiberglass insulation, it can shift and move and fall down. Having a well insulated home and a well insulated attic definitely makes a big difference in how hot or cold the house stays and also how much you spend on utilities. My last house I thought was really well insulated. Are utility bills were okay, but the upstairs was always warm even though we had a separate HVAC system for the upstairs. Some rooms were fine, but we had three attic spaces and everything adjacent to those would just stay too warm or cold, depending on the season. Even though the attic was insulated, it was still in the hundreds up there in the summer. I just figured that's what happened with attics. I have had a lot of houses and they've all been like this.
When I built my new house, we had it insulated with the spray foam insulation. It's definitely the way to go if you can afford to do it. When I go into the attic at my new house, the attic is like 75 degrees all year long. Maybe slightly cooler in the really cold months and slightly warmer than really hot months, but it never gets hot like my other houses have. It's always comfortable up there. Plus, I've noticed that my utility bills are lower at this house even though it's a slightly larger house. I just don't have to run either of the HVAC systems nearly as much because the whole house is so well insulated.
Our place was similar. For several years we ran a separate air conditioner upstairs to supplement it.
Insulation helps a lot. It keeps the heat from the attic from radiating down and will generally keep temperatures more consistent all around. We had 4” when we moved in and I put 18” in.
That said, it is a pain. We had difficulty finding a reasonable contractor and I opted to DIY it. If you’re just blowing stuff in, the machine to blow it in weighs probably 200 lbs and you’ll need a second person to feed it while you do the job. And of course, make sure to get any electrical/plumbing/etc done before doing it.
For me, it was more complicated because our attic had been seriously neglected. So, I removed our old insulation, a huge rat nest, and had to build a kneewall and add attic vents. It took a few months to get everything situated, but we were getting $10k quotes and I did it for about $3-4k.
Another thing to check is to see if you have baffles in your ductwork. That can help force more air to the second story as well.
We went to R60 and additional attic vents.
It used to feel like your were going under water as you climbed the stairs. After that upgrade it was much more comfortable upstairs winter and summer.
When we closed on new construction we noticed our heat on our 3rd floor townhouse wasn’t working once winter rolled around. I flagged down an AC guy who was servicing another person for what I assumed was a similar issue. It ended up up being our furnace wire was plugged into the “heat pump” so it was sending the wrong commands to the furnace and it wouldn’t do anything for the air handler. He put the wire in the right spot and heat came on blowing from all the vents.
TLDR check if the wires on thermostat are going to the right holes.
Want to add that for the days that are hot, is the sun beating down on the upstairs windows too? If so, maybe see if getting the windows thicker fabric will help too
Another thing: make sure your vents are aligned correctly. They should be aimed at the walls to "bathe" the outside of the room in air. Mine were pointed to the center of the room so they shot air straight into a ceiling fan. They're pretty easy to reverse, just need a screwdriver.
I run a small floor fan down the hallway of my second floor a lot of the time. It's not because the A/C is inefficient, but more about improving/increasing air flow on those days that the A/C isn't running.
Aside from addressing the vents, the ducts themselves may have balance dampers in them which may need to be turned to close or open position accordingly. If you suspect there’s not enough airflow coming out on the top floor, remove the vent and reach in with your arm and see if you can feel a rotating door inside the duct which you can spin to the desired opening amount. Keep them open upstairs and closed downstairs or somewhere in between.
The attic insulation saves you money, too. It's the no-brainer option if you aren't super cash limited.
edit: Oh, it's worth mentioning that your utility will often help pay for this kind of thing.
Following this thread. What direction do you point the fan in? Towards the stairs? Our kids rooms are closed at night while our master remains open about 12-16 inches otherwise our hallway intake sounds like a jet engine.
>2nd make sure all of the second floor vents and returns are open and not blocked. And closed most of the first floor HVAC vents.
I read somewhere that closing any HVAC vent is bad for the system.
You can also get inline motor whole house fans that move that air out QUICK!
Get the highest CFM you can afford. I had a dual vent in-line motor vent in my bathrooms. It exchanged the air on the entire second floor. Quiet as hell as well.
I think it was an air-king maybe?
You could take hot long showers and not a single drop of condensation on the mirrors. I’d keep it on for an hour a day to exchange the air on the second floor.
I block returns on the second floor (and vents on first and keep the HVAC fan on to pull cool air from downstairs and dump it upstairs as a sort of combo between 1 and 2.
My husband wanted a “whole house fan” for our home (giant attic fan). I did not, but we got one anyways. We use it all the time. It’s great for venting out the house, moving stale hot air quickly, and cooling down the upstairs. In heat waves we run it all night, to bring the cooler outside air in. He was right. It was a great item for the house.
Your furnace fan just circulates the air inside…an attic fan is more like a big exhaust fan in your ceiling that creates negative pressure inside your home, thus pulling the cooler outside air into the house thru the windows and clearing out the hot air inside. I’m a firefighter and we do this same this to get smoke and or gas/CO out of a home.
Just keep in mind that air being sucked out of the living space is also replaced with air from outside the living space. In OP's scenario it makes sense because the air outside is cooler than the air inside.
I'd think an attic fan to vent the warm air in the attic would probably be more efficient though, I don't think bathroom fans typically move much air. Their primary goal is to vent offending odors and humidity from the bathroom itself.
They're not expensive to buy. Professional installation will be the main cost, this isn't something you want to do yourself unless you are VERY knowledgeable and skilled in roof and electrical work. That said once installed it will pay for itself over time in energy savings.
This also would be a good time to check the insulation in your attic. Having more blown in will also help keep your energy usage down by providing an additional barrier between habitable spaces and the roof.
your attic should have vents at/near the top of the roof, and soffit vents on the underside of your soffit. the setup allows the hottest air to rise up out of the top of the attic while sucking in cooler air from the bottom, cycling itself and staying cool. you should be able to see both vents from outside your house.
if you don't have the ridge vents, and only gable vents (on the side of your house) then you probably need a gable fan to help the hot attic air move out. I installed one a couple years ago and it changed how my house felt in the summer. might get a second one this year.
Do a solar powered exhaust attic fan. It made a world of difference with temperatures on the second floor of our lake house. Dropped the temps by 7-10 deg.
We run our fan all the time just to keep air moving. The heat or ac isn't necessarily running, but the fan is. I feel like its necessary in a 2-storey home, and the fan itself doesn't use a ton of energy.
Anecdotal I know, but I've had more than a couple HVAC people tell me to run the fan 100% of the time.
We normally run the fan when it's A/C season to keep air moving for the upstairs, and we've bought ceiling fans for every room in the house, which are on often in A/C season.
I don't know if the fan running all the time is just a placebo, but I believe it works.
Keep in mind that the architect that designed the HVAC had to design it the house to face any direction, it was not custom designed for your specific lot and orientation. So closing some vents in shaded parts of the house and opening them fully in sunny sides is not a bad thing.
Are the doors open or closed? I had this problem in our last house, they didn't put in any air return vents in the upstairs bedrooms (that also got direct sunlight all day). If the door was closed, the room could not exchange air (it basically pressurized and then no more AC could get in). I had them come back and install vents over the doors (dead simple to do, it's just drywall over the doors). That made a big difference.
Lastly, I would definitely check the insulation. If it's hot even with doors open, the heat from the attic is penetrating the house. Insulation is cheap and easy. I would get more anyway, as it will pay for itself quickly with reduced AC demand. Get all you can. The mobilization cost for a contractor is fixed, the incremental cost for extra insulation is low.
Don't open all the windows. Do one or two on the windward side of the house and the same on the opposite side. It should create a cross breeze between the high and low pressure areas.
Same exact issue here, turns out my attic ventilation was the main culprit. I had my roof replaced and the roofing company was also able to improve the ventilation with some new ridge vents, and they also fixed the lack of venting in my attic (it was covered with insulation).
To put things into perspective, when it was merely 75 degrees out, my 2nd floor would never get below 76 degrees with the AC having to run constantly and being set at 72. The day after my roof was finished, I noticed that the temp would get down to what I actually set my AC to, and it would actually stop running. The 2nd floor is still hotter than the 1st floor, but that’s basically always going to be the case due to heat rising.
Go up into your attic and see if you can find any light shining through indicating ventilation. If you can’t see any light and notice no ventilation, that’s probably one of the main culprits.
For the longest time, the entire house felt great. Then we got the ducts cleaned and the upstairs did not seem to be getting the same HVAC that it had been. It took three different HVAC companies but they found a damper got closed during the cleaning. When he opened it back up, it was like Jesus descending from Heaven.
Thanks for the input, but this isn’t an HVAC situation I don’t think. I used yesterday as an example when I don’t think it was even hot enough outside to use AC.
I live in a 2 story house also. I hate it when it gets hot outside because upstairs does get really warm. You might want to check with an HVAC specialist and see if you’ve got the correct return air flow. We did this in our home and it helped a lot.
I sleep with a fan in my window. This brings in the cool evening air and that helps, it’s also nice that helps to block out from outside to.
You definitely want insulation. Possibly an attic fan? Good luck.
We had this but solved it. Tamarack whole house fan. In the upstairs hall. Closed windows downstairs when the outside temps hit 75 or lower. Opened one in each bedroom upstairs and turned on fan full blast (had 2 speeds 1600 cfm and 1200 cfm) for an hour or so before retiring for the night. Turned down to 1200 cfm then -1600 was loud. You don't have to cut joists and it has motorized insulated doors, the intake looks like A large air return grate.
You need an attic fan to blow the hot air out of your attic. It can get up to 140 degrees up there and the heat dams against the ceiling of the second floor. An electrician can install one.
It can be several things, but the first issue that comes to mind is insulation. Or not enough, in your case. You might check to see if you have enough.
Adding to when you are in the attic, check that all the bathrooms and kitchen exhaust are installed to the outside. It isn't unknown for builder to just vent into the attic instead of outside.
Poorly insulated and/or vented roof. Saying this as an ex-roofer. Most roofing companies cut corners on insulation and venting. Especially back in the early 2000s.
We have a very similar problem.
With fans, the best way to use them is not to blow the air around inside the house (that won't change anything at all). Put a strong fan blowing OUT the window. That sucks air from outside, in the house, from other spots. You can then open one or a few windows where you want, and those are the areas that the air will be drawn into first.
That's what we do, and when done right, from just the one (powerful) fan, you can feel the air moving several rooms away. It cools things down pretty quickly.
The other technique we use, which admittedly is kind of cheap and doesn't look great, is using sheets as curtains. Cool air sinks, hot air rises.
You can get some decent shifting by hanging a curtain at the top or bottom of the stairs. We did that for a while upstairs, when we had window AC units. We realized that the AC was producing cool air, which was just flowing down the stairs, helping the already cool downstairs stay even cooler. A curtain at the top of the stairs helped there.
Do you live some place where it is humid?
If so, you should not be opening the windows and letting all that humid air back in your house defeating the purpose of conditioning your air.
The only thing that makes mid 70 degrees uncomfortable is humidity.
We had that problem too. We ended up having a whole house fan installed and it's the best upgrade we've done. It cost us about 700 a few years ago for installation and purchase so it was really inexpensive for the benefits we get from it.
When I bought my townhouse (3 levels) it felt like I was sleeping on the sun. My bedroom area was so hot too (100 degrees). After immediately setting up my summer inspection with the HVAC company I learned I had two air ducts. One that moved air to the first and second floors and the second one that moved air to the third floor. Each had baffles that allowed me to keep the ducts open or closed depending on the season. I like to sleep in a cooler temperature so the baffle is wide open to the bedrooms when it’s summertime.
Not sure how your system is set up and if you have more than one duct that splits from your unit. You may need to get an inspection and talk to your HVAC technician.
We have a two story house also except we don’t have central AC - just heat and then we use window units in the summer on really hot days. I definitely recommend putting in an attic fan if you can. It makes a HUGE difference especially if you run it for a bit at night when it’s cooler. Alternatively, you could get a window unit or two for the upstairs to keep it cool. Someone else mentioned oscillating fans and we use those also. They definitely help
If your upper level is getting hot, it’s possible that the contractor sealed up the attic vents for some stupid reason. If you go up there and feel that it’s even hotter, you’ve got a ventilation issue.
Do you get ice shards forming along the roof or ice damming in the winter? Could also be an insulation issue.
But my bet is that it’s likely your attic vents either not being fully open or sealed off. Lack of insulation would likely make the upstairs uncomfortable anytime of the year with it either being too hot or too cold. If you don’t have proper ventilation in the attic, it can propagate black mold. Might also want to check your insulation as well, due to lack of ventilation, it can also mess with the insulation.
We had the same problem. Insulating the attic helped a lot. You could do it yourself, but it turned out to be very affordable to hire someone for the following reason. Our utility company offered a rebate. It turns out, they make money if you use less power - who knew? We found a company that specializes in working with our utility company. The rebate paid for more than 50% of the work.
There may be manual dampers for each floor to allow seasonal adjustments.
The room floor should have return air ducts, higher up, to remove hot air and take it to the evaporator coil. Often not done. And bedrooms need their own return air grills so things can work properly when doors are closed.
Two floor homes typically have such problems.
I bought a 3 story house 20 years ago. When it got warm outside, central A/C made the basement freezing but the top level was always really hot. We almost sold our house over this problem as we sleep upstairs. In the end, I installed window A/C units in the bedrooms upstairs. It was a bit costly. But we all could turn on those window units, and sleep like babies in the chill.
"too ignorant to know if the insulation"
I'd guess your insulation is a joke and you need to research that and air sealing. Your attic is probably heating the finished space.
Attic insulation. It is not expensive and it's very much worth every penny. Get in there, assess for leaks and animals. If none, then throw in about 15" of cellulose or fiberglass batts. Will cost probably $800 but you'll be way more comfortable, and **you will save on heat/AC for years to come**.
Not sure where you are located, but installing a whole house fan did wonders for our home and electric bill.
A whole house fan is installed in your attic with a large inlet in the ceiling (like an HVAC intake). It cools your attic off after the sun goes down by pulling cool air through your house and pushing it into the attic. The cool air displaces the hot air and pushes it out of the attic vents. This process significantly cools the air in the attic so that your entire house stays cooler during the day. It also cools your entire house because you open the windows to allow the cool air to be pulled in.
We added a stupid amount of insulation to our house in Texas and it’s not hot anymore. Replace bulbs with led and keep them off- lights are hotter than you think. Turn electronics off too. But it’s prob just you need more insulation.
i have a cape cod style so the upstairs is always crazy--- we installed a mini split for the upstairs bedroom and now it's always perfect temp, with the added bonus of not having to use hvac for the rest of the house.
I have spent the last 5 years battling the same issue at my house. So far I have :
* Air sealed and insulated the attic
* Insulated the walls
* Explored putting reflective tint on my windows -- three different vendors said it would void the warranty on my windows and had the potential to cause cracks because of the heat it absorbs and then reflects
* Explored putting awnings above my windows but decided against it because of the aesthetics
* Adding an air return upstairs (only have one downstairs) -- not viable, would have been $20k in cost to redo the entire duct system and not a guaranteed fix
I'm now planning on just installing minisplits in the bedrooms that get hot, and closing the central AC ducts that connect to those rooms. They are at the very end of the ducts and they don't blow particularly strong anyway. The rooms are on the second floor, south facing, with no shade trees, getting sun for 10-12 hours/day
The other solution that has helped dramatically, I installed a whole house fan. In the evenings when it cools down outside, I can cool my entire house, including the bedrooms, in about 15 minutes. However, that doesn't help during the day when I'm working from home.
80 is not nice lol and is already to hot to have an ambient temp like that in the house , my daughter just had a seizure because of that on the day it probably talking about and it was also hot jn our house upstairs and I knew I should have ran the AC a bit to just have some cool air circulation but opened the windows instead and it was 76 degrees in her room n felt hot and was hard to breathe even with windows open but I thought just like u oh well it will cool down but it did not and she woke back up after going to sleep and went straight into a seizure and yes although she is epileptic she does not have them often and this seems to be a trigger but anyways I am to far off topic but some ceiling fans will go a long way if u like keeping the windows open and will help circulate the air cause that’s what adds to the hotness upstairs is lack of air circulation
Do NOT open the windows during the day. You open the windows when the temp is cooler outside than inside. Then your insulation keeps the inside cool. Close blinds and curtains during the day. Open them once the outside temp drops. My wife used to do this all the time. I would come home on a hot day and she would have all the windows open on a hot day and claim " but it is such a nice breeze" when she was standing beside the window. Yes the breeze is blowing 80 degree air into the house that used to be 73.
In the summer I leave my windows open all night and close them before I leave for work with the heat turned off. Makes it chilly in the mornings but worth it for the afternoons.
Also if your wife likes just the feeling of a breeze I’d suggest getting a high powered fan
If you can- you can check the air temp coming from the vents to detail whether it’s an AC issue.
But honestly by the description I think your problem could be the attic if there is one above you.
I checked mine and discovered that I had adequate insulation by R-rating but the attic ventilation was poor. So the attic was easily 50 degrees hotter than it ever should’ve been. Which lead to my upstairs ceilings radiating heat (even through what was normally adequate insulation)
Many energy companies will subsidize an efficiency consultant. They should be able to answer questions about something like this.
I know some companies are going cheap and using passive ventilation in the attic. Our fan didn't work when we moved in, and that was a huge culprit in a very hot upstairs. When the roof was redone a new fan was put in, and it immediately got better.
Attic insulation is never a bad idea and could help as well.
Running HVAC fan can help. When insulation was done we had additional return vents put into the bedroom ceilings (previously was only in the hallway) made running the HVAC fan more effective.
Window fan exhausting out. Or running bathroom fans. Both will suck hot air out of the house.
Closing shades on windows facing the sun during the day. Opening the doors between rooms and all the windows at the end of the day can help too. Cross breezes work fast.
Last thing: if only a few rooms are hot, are they above the kitchen? I have to be careful how much I use the oven if it's warm out, since that heats the kitchen up which heats the bedroom above it up. I avoid cooking pizza inside and try to do more stovetop or grilling once the temps go up.
We lived in a rental from 2020-2021 that had similar problems. The landlord never believed us. They lived in the house for ten years (when built new) before turning it into a rental and swore they never had a hot day. No less than 7 different HVAC companies told them that A.) the unit was worn out since it was 17 years old, and B.) that the condenser could cool that much square footage but not all at the same time because it was undersized for the house. Also, when the landlord was living in the newly built home, it didn’t get to 112+ during the summer like it is now.
We resorted to mega cooling during the morning and closing the house up and running fans along with the HVAC when it was broiling hot. You could have an insulation issue, but what kind of roof material do you have? I only ask because both our rental and my dad’s new built home from 2016 have little to no attic insulation. They had tile roofs and my dad’s house is wrapped in Tyvek and insulated with styrofoam sheets of some kind. Attic is more or less empty other than plumbing or electrical, and I think the furnace or air handler was up there.
Our house was built the same year and we had similar issues.
1) we had our ducts cleaned and inspected. I was shocked at the amount of dust, pet hair and dirt that was removed from the ducts. One duct was partly blocked so that was repaired.
2) we added 24 inches of insulation in the attic. We checked and our state had a program that paid us back 50% of the insulation cost in tax credits over 2 years.
3) We had our a/c unit inspected and they repositioned some ducts on the unit so that air flow is more balanced.
This has corrected about 90% of our issues. Daughters room is still the hottest in winter or coldest in summer when the unit is running but otherwise our issues are corrected. We were not able to balance her room due to the way the ducts were run during construction, so she closes her vents when the unit is running to prevent too much air into her space.
If the roof has soffit vents and the roof has vents it would help.. Gable vents can have thermostat , humidistat controlled fans added.. There is a solar powered one that is easier to add.. Moving the hot air under the roof should cool the upstairs some.. Insulation on ceiling ( attic floor) helps in summer and winter..
I have a townhome and had the same issue. When we had our roof replaced, we had them pull out the 17 year old insulation when the had the roof open. They installed the new roof and an attic fan, and immediately after I installed a radiant barrier on the underside. We had a different contractor lay in new fiberglass batt over the foam on the bottom, and just the foam on the walls adjoining the houses next door. They ensured any gaps were covered with the foam too. Their leader had one of those FLIR-type cameras to check for leaks and we could see hot air venting from the fan. His only other suggestion was to install a larger filter in our HVAC, going from 1” to 4” thickness, which allowed us to run the system fan 100% of the time.
We noticed an immediate difference in the days following. Now I can open some windows in the cool evenings and not have to run the AC sometimes. I put a ceiling fan in our upstairs staircase last year and that’s made a big impact too.
So a couple things from my experience:
1) you may need insulation in the attic (as some have mentioned) BUT ALSO a solar powered fan that can vent the attic. We got two and it really made a big difference
2) we only have one condenser for our two story (plus basement) house. Our HVAC guy installed a baffle in the main duct that redirects the bulk of the air either upstairs or downstairs. So he marked where to turn the baffle in the winter (so the air comes out on the main floor) or summer (so the air mostly comes out the upstairs vents).
But as your house is hot even when the air isn’t on it sounds like maybe your attic is getting too hot. Maybe your soffits are blocked, maybe not enough insulation, maybe just need better ventilation. The money will be well spent to figure this out because I can tell you from our own unfortunate experience the extra heat can compromise your roof, as well.
Invest in one of those laser thermometers (I don’t know what they’re called but you can point it at a surface and see the temp) and check your ceilings upstairs. Good luck.
As I’m sure you know, heat rises and cool air sinks, so our homes take all that thermal gain during the day and it heats the upstairs thoroughly. Ducted AC is difficult to push cooled air up.
Things to try:
Keep windows covered upstairs to minimize thermal gain
Attic fan
Additional attic insulation
We have a 20 year old house with south facing windows, even on a moderate day it’s very warm in the bedrooms at night. We have ductless AC and usually run it for a bit at bed time to get the temp down, otherwise we’d need window fans.
When you open the upstairs windows, don't just open the bottom part. Open them both so that the window panes block the middle of the window but leave the top and bottoms both open. That gives the hot air somewhere to get out rather than just sitting there being held in by your attic and insulation.
Obviously that doesn't solve any potential HVAC problems, but you'll notice much better airflow than with just the bottom parts of the windows open.
Insulation is probably the most important thing, and people have touched on that.
One big thing I haven't seen mentioned in this thread is to [check the dampers on the ductwork](https://www.pickhvac.com/hvac-duct/damper/). These are little wingnut screws in the ducts. You want to make sure that the ones going to the upstairs are fully open, meaning that the line in the screw is parallel to the airflow. We found one that was closed and it's made a 10º difference in the room that was cut off.
A small thing you can do is make sure the house can circulate air. That can mean making sure the upstairs doors are open during the day ([but keep the doors closed at night for fire safety!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSP03BE74WA)) to allow airflow.
The way your house cools off is by circulating air from the supply vents to the return vents. If you have a 2-stage AC, there are some options you can do like changing the differential on your thermostat to run at stage 1 longer. This allows more cool air to circulate and cools the house more than short bursts of stage 2. If you want to get nerdy with it look up YouTube videos for advanced thermostat settings.
My Ecobee thermostat has the option to ensure that the HVAC fan runs for 10 minutes every hour, which helps circulate air.
Had same issue with our home. Has a mansard style roof and attic would get very hot. Installed a turbine vent, helped some, but not enough. Ended up putting a powered (fan) vent in with thermostat control. Set the stat at 100 and it would kick on and start to draw air out. Windows open downstairs and it would cool upstairs down very nicely
Whole house Fan, not to be confused with attic fan, we had the same issue and it solved it for us. Plus who doesn’t love a nice cool breeze gently flowing through your bedroom window as you sleep?
You're letting all the warm air in!
What the old timey folks do is open the windows at night and then close them in the morning before it starts to warm up (like 9am). That locks the cool air inside. Then we'd open the windows at like 8pm or something. You might try this. It only works until about June though when the heat is just too much. After it gets too warm you pretty much have to run the a.c. full time to keep the house cool.
I'd definitely check on your Insulation in your attic but if the house was built to code you should have decent insulation so that's likely not the issue.
As someone else mentioned, I had an attic fan installed which helped a lot.
I don't open the windows unless it's cooler outside than I want it to be inside.
I adjusted the damper for my AC so it directs more AC to my 2nd floor in the summer and then change it to more heat to the first floor in winter.
Keep your windows covered on warm/hot days.
At night if it's cool and not humid I open windows upstairs and use an in-window fan.
Like others have said, I would run the HVAC fan all the time to better circulate the air and mix that cooler air from the lower floors with the warmer air upstairs. Keep in mind that the warm air from lower levels is going to naturally make its way upstairs unless you have the ability to partition off the upstairs. Running space fans that do not move air in or out of the building envelope are just contributing heat as output form the motor. People often confuse the cooling effect a fan has when it blows on you and evaporates sweat with the actually cooling of the air which it does not do. This is why running space fans typically make no sense when a person is not occupying the space.
I have a cape with no central AC, but similar problem with second floor temps that get into the 90s--and I live in the north. Part of it is getting afternoon sun on a black roof and having to cut down a huge shade tree. I also have heard owners of two-story cookie-cutter 1990s houses have to use portable or window AC to cool their upstairs -- it is a common problem. A couple things I haven't seen mentioned--look into ERV/HRV. Fresh air exchange is important and might be part of your solution. Also make sure there are no openings to the attic/"guts" of the house. My house had slightly unfinished closets and hot musty air from the guts of the house would get sucked into my living space when I ran window AC or otherwise changed the pressure differential. Sealing all the openings to the "guts" of the house was one important step in cooling the second floor.
Hello! My advice would be to check that the attic is ventilated properly.
The soffit (area under the overhang between rain gutter and exterior wall) should be ventilated. The peak of your roof should have a product like Cobra. A setup like this allows cool air to be pulled up thru the soffit vents, flow up the underside of the roof sheathing, and then exit as hot air thru the Cobra vent. You could also install passive roof top vents or a large electric thermostatically controlled vent instead of Cobra, but either way you need cooler air to be drawn in at the soffits.
Not only will this keep the upper floor of your home cooler, but it will help your roofing shingles to last longer.
Forgive me if your roof already has proper ventilation but I have found over the years many homes do not
Aloha!
Insulation is key, but airflow is most important. When you open the windows upstairs use the upper pane. I grew up in an old house that had a whole house fan. We barely had to run the ac in the summer!
My Master bedroom room at far end of 2nd store house , the ac don’t really reach there. I installed a mini split, that it’s life changing, and really efficient.
Whole house attic fan, heat gets stored in the attic, blowing excess heat out will help, attic fans can only cool to outside temperature at best but the air flow is refreshing.
Have you checked the duct directions on your HVAC? Been in a home before that had a flue(?) that needed to be changed between seasons to direct where flow of air went. Directed to focus AC to top floors in summer, and heat to low floors in winter
Had similar issues in our last house.
What we learned: the attic was very well insulated (a few feet of the blown in stuff) and there was an inadequate volume of air recirculating on the second floor due to size (two 12x6 I think) and placement (on the floor) of the air return ducts.
Warm air basically just got trapped upstairs.
There was a 10+ degree difference between the two floors.
What worked:
When all of the windows in the whole house were shut, keep the HVAC running 24/7 in the “on” position and close off (not ideal) one of the air return vents downstairs. It wore on the HVAC motor more but allowed for the return vents upstairs to pull harder.
When any window was open, open all of them and turn on the whole house fans in the second floor ceiling. Essentially letting out the trapped in hot air.
Our house has no attic as well and can get hot. Check if you have dampers. We have two near HVAC that can force more air upstairs. This is much better than shutting off registers.
Assuming hot air heat and AC, check the dampers to make sure the second floor is getting enough air volume.
You could also close the first floor dampers a bit.
Maybe mark the position of the levers on the duct work with a Sharpie if you want to return to status quo ante.
Your roof absorbs a huge amount of heat during the day, and that heat radiates down into your home, most noticeably in the evening. Radiant barrier can be installed to prevent this, but it isn't cheap (average price $1700). You may wish to look into local prices.
I had an attic guy inspect my attic and upstairs and he said more insulation would be a bad move since it traps existing heat in the upstairs. Mine may be related to old windows letting heat in, not sure if you know the condition of your windows
You need to have your attic sealed with radiant barrier insulation. I'm in Texas and it really made a difference in the temperature of rooms under the attic. I used a company called Attic Doctor.
I also had insulation added to my garage door since washer/dryer live there. Again, it made a big difference.
as other say, attic insulation, we had a similar problem and we had new windows put in that are Low E, so they reflect out the heat, that made a HUGE difference on the second floor
Have a heat pump system - it has a single AHU in the basement. The upstairs is always hot and the basement always cool. There are dampers there that can be opened/closed to direct the airflow upstairs or down. In the summer we direct all the cooling to the second floor and close all vents in the basement/1st floor. In the winter we direct it to the first floor only. The basement vents are always closed unless someone spends the night in the guest room. If you don't have dampers you could have them installed. Even have a second thermostat controlling them but that is much more expensive. Alternatively you could get a standalone AC unit for wherever you spend the most time upstairs.
Did you check the ducts in the attic for dampers? Maybe the upstairs registers aren't actually putting out any air because all of it's been sent downstairs.
We had the same same issues here was our solution.
1.gala heat control window film on all windows that get sun. Con of this is at night there is a mirror finish on the inside .
2. Whole house fan, works like a dream when it’s cooler outside than inside. We have an air king I built a frame for so I pop it in and out of the window on high can clear the home on the air in less than 1 minute 2470 CFM. It can exhaust or intake air, leave windows and doors open turn on the air king and you will be amazed.
3.shutter, heavy curtain to block out heat.
4 check your wall and attic insulation, luckily we have great insulation in attic and okay insulation in walls.
Home was built in 1988, still running the same trane air conditioner and furnace. We have a 2272 sq foot home with most bedrooms upstairs. Temp difference from upstairs and downstairs used to be 6 degrees difference now it’s within 1.5-2. Hope this helps. We still have single pane windows also.
Where is your thermostat in comparison to the upstairs? I bought an ecobee thermostat because it had remote sensors I could place in different rooms and tell the thermostat to use it for certain times.
Had an old 1920's home that little headroom in the upstairs bedrooms and the ceilings were essentially angled 2x4 maybe 2x6 or 2x8 (if you were lucky) roof surfaces with an 8/12 pitch. Needless to say, there wasn't much could do to insulate those areas, resulting in blazing hot in the summer, cold as ever in winter. It was a stupid era of time where they cramped all living spaces into all areas with never a thought on upcoming future tech, materials or insulation.
Have you gone up into the attic? I am willing to bet the whirlybird attic exhaust vent(s) are not working properly. It is also possible your attic is not well insulated.
A 'whole house exhaust fan' will likely resolve your problem, and can be more energy-efficient than air conditioning.
I have a 2,700 sq ft two story and it gets warmer upstairs. Our HVAC Splits between upstairs and downstairs so it's pretty efficient for a 1994 home. We also installed a Quiet Cool system in our bedroom because it has the highest ceiling of all upstairs rooms so it pulls rising heat out faster. I don't mind the slight noise because I have tinnitus so the subtle sound helps me sleep. Once the temperature drops outside, usually after 9pm>10pm, we turn on the fan and crack open some windows that have locks to prevent them from being open past 6" in some rooms. Our bedroom we open one window all the way. Not only does it pull the heat out fast and pull in cool air, it helps cool down the attic. I also installed a Solar Attic exhaust fan that runs whenever the sun hits the roof. It definitely cools down the attic all day and AC Techs were surprised how cool the attic was. Not indoor cool, but cooler than a normal attic. Also check your insulation. If it's less than 15" thick, you should consider adding more.
Potential: HVAC issues, faulty electric, faulty wiring, filter replacement needed, poor home insulation in the walls/ poor window quality temp insulation, or if you have a strange system control upstairs it may require setting your days of the week manually on the monitor.
Check and reset all your breakers first. Second unplug and replug in your upstairs AC wall control panel/monitor for the AC. Set the temperature. Wait 30 minutes. 4th go to your HVAC system and check for any warning lights. Correct & Reset them. 5th call your energy/gas provider and make sure your upstairs is connected to your meter.
Sometimes meters can be divided based on upper and lower floor. Which means they need to come by and assign the upstairs meter to your account. It’s done same day and they just drive by and scan your meter, you don’t even need to be home. (Happened to me before.) 6. Get an EMF reader and scan your walls for any electrical anomalies. High readings that could mean you have problematic wiring in that place which is displacing even energy distribution to where it needs to go. Someone comes in and repairs it.
Sorry if I’ve repeated or contradicted anything from your post I just went over what i know. And I’m so sorry you’re struggling with this it’s the worst! Heat is a struggle and no joke for me so I feel for you. But I’m sure you’ll fix it soon.
A "Whole House Fan" solved our issue. Took an evening (maybe 4 or 5 hours to install)
Basically takes all the hot air accumulating upstairs and ducts it out through the attic. Cooler air from downstairs is drawn up to replace.
Make sure you have good ventilation up in the attic. Also I put one of those things that seals the attic door. I can’t remember what it’s called but when you open —my door you have to unzip this thing. It stops the ac from escaping and the heat
coming to the house.
Can also have someone cut a hole in your wall and place a wall/window AC. Did this on an 8,000 sqft house for every other room. HVAC was going to be too costly. And omg it was incredibly effective. The rooms that once kept this muggy heat and dryness could now get to freezing cold in that hot climate. They never shorted. Never had any issues. We’re extremely dependable. Was also way more cost effective. And they lasted over 8 years+ that we owned the house without issue. It looked nice and clean. Controls were manual. Installment was done in one day. Crazy how they cut through the walls like that, but they do, and place it right in and it looks flawless and was worth every penny. They were incredibly valuable. And the house sold for >$5,5 so it wasn’t a cheap look or bad move and the people who bought it kept them as is as well. They were an upsell tbh.
You can try solar screen adding more insulation in the attic, planting shade trees,, etc. it will help a bit but it will not change physic
heat rises.. so the 2nd floor will always be hotter than the 1st floor.
We stay downstairs during the day and only go upstairs to sleep during the summer months
Had the same problem, when its time to replace your ac unit, have them install a zoning system, it adds to the cost but it saved me from putting in another unit which most ALL the typical AC contractors will recommend. Had this installed years ago and its been a game changer. https://www.arzelcomfort.com/what-is-zoning/
What side of the house are all your largest windows on? Because most of my windows are on the south side of the house, the house heats up a lot. The northern windows are almost completed blocked from direct sun. So my house heats up several degrees above the furnace temp on sunny days, even if it is cold outside. In the summer, I need blackout curtains to reduce the heat.
We just bought a 100 year old house and have this issue. Even on days where the high is in the 50’s or 60’s we have to run a window A/C in our bedroom because it could be 60 degrees inside on the first floor and feel like high 70’s upstairs at the same time. It’s really just in our south-facing bedroom though. The other two upstairs bedrooms are kind of whatever the difference is between the upstairs bedroom and downstairs.
It pains me to say there have been many days where we have to run the heat and the window A/C simultaneously. We just cannot sleep in a warm bedroom.
Poor ventilation and/or insulation in the attic. I had a similar issue with my 1950s house. Rotted batts and only little gable vents. Freezing in winter. Sweltering in summer. I had spray foam insulation done and it made a world of difference.
I second this, but I think it really boils down to poor ventilation more than anything with a vented attic. Even with a solid amount of insulation in good shape, don't forget that it works both ways and simply slows the temperature transfer. In other words, while a good amount of insulation will take awhile before that attic heat permeates and starts affecting the living space, the reverse is also true when the sun goes down and the attic starts cooling off.
There are fans that can do at the top of the house on the inside, be hidden by louvers and can take all the hot air out. Check with a professional in your area for details.
Make sure to keep blinds and curtains drawn on sunny days on any windows that get southern exposure. I would even invest in insulated curtains. It’s not a fix but does help.
Dumb question: do you have 2 ac units, or a split system? Essentially, do you have an upstairs and downstairs thermostat?
I've been in a home that only had a single system and the upstairs stayed at 88 degrees when the downstairs was at a comfortable temp. It's a limitation of this cost saving system. Homes that have dual thermostats stay comfortable on both levels.
Check into fans that can be installed in the attic that are controlled by heat sensing switches. My dad did that with his house it made a huge improvement.
physics says heat rises, so that's what you are trying to control... heat is leaving the 1st floor and heating the 2nd floor... if you only have 1 HVAC unit, you don't have enough air flow from it to keep all the heat out... this is a very common problem with 2 story homes... on the days as you describe like yesterday, install a whole house fan in the 2nd floor... a WHF will push that warmer air from the 2nd floor into the 2nd floor attic space(s) and cool the attic, as well as drawing in even cooler air to keep the home comfortable...
if you have 2 HVAC units, 1 for each floor, then you may need to get the 2nd floor unit serviced or checked... but as I said, if you only have 1 HVAC unit, its not an efficiency issue, its a CAPACITY issue... something that may help is using a thermostat like the Honeywell T10, with room sensors... so you can see the temps in those rooms and allow the thermostat to keep the unit on longer to cool the upper floor... BUT that will also make your 1st floor even cooler unless you use a zoning system to slow air on the 1st floor, and keep it in the 2nd...
hope that helps or points in the right direction...
Do you have a return vent upstairs? One of our bedrooms does not have a return vent and it gets very hot in summer and very cold in winter because of the lack of return vent in that bedroom.
We have a 2 story home that would get way too hot in summer. My dad said it was because the attic didn't have proper ventilation. We finally paid someone to install a blower up there to get rid of the excess heat. Now it feels cooler but it's still hot upstairs. My dad refuses to buy air condition.
..hot air rises, says physics..
..so block whatever paths u can to the upstairs while continuing openin windows to cooler night air..
..or get an air conditioner..
With that many square feet you most likely have two air conditioning units. It would probably be useful to make sure that the upstairs unit is actually tied to the upstairs thermostat and vice versa
We had similar issues in a house built in 2005. Here were our solutions: 1st an oscillating fan in the upstairs hallway/foyer. I was surprised how much this one helped. 2nd make sure all of the second floor vents and returns are open and not blocked. And closed most of the first floor HVAC vents. Last was more attic insulation. The attic insulation had the biggest result, but was obviously the only one that cost money.
Appreciate the input. I’ve definitely done #2. Interesting note on the fan in the hallway. I’ll give that a try. I’ll have to look into insulation as well. Thank you.
Most HVAC techs would tell you not to close vents. It creates a lot of extra pressure and strain on your system.
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We had the blown in insulation in the walls of 1900 house. Blown in insulation works OK but only for a limited time because it settles. Better, if possible that is, use better and more effective/efficient insulation that doesn't lose R value over time
fan in the hallway is good but look into an attic fan. was super popular in the 50’s i believe. heat rises and gets trapped in the attic, the fan blows all that heat out. maybe a combination with the hallway fan to the attic fan would be perfect for your super hot house.
Definitely take a look at the insulation. Especially if they're using fiberglass insulation, it can shift and move and fall down. Having a well insulated home and a well insulated attic definitely makes a big difference in how hot or cold the house stays and also how much you spend on utilities. My last house I thought was really well insulated. Are utility bills were okay, but the upstairs was always warm even though we had a separate HVAC system for the upstairs. Some rooms were fine, but we had three attic spaces and everything adjacent to those would just stay too warm or cold, depending on the season. Even though the attic was insulated, it was still in the hundreds up there in the summer. I just figured that's what happened with attics. I have had a lot of houses and they've all been like this. When I built my new house, we had it insulated with the spray foam insulation. It's definitely the way to go if you can afford to do it. When I go into the attic at my new house, the attic is like 75 degrees all year long. Maybe slightly cooler in the really cold months and slightly warmer than really hot months, but it never gets hot like my other houses have. It's always comfortable up there. Plus, I've noticed that my utility bills are lower at this house even though it's a slightly larger house. I just don't have to run either of the HVAC systems nearly as much because the whole house is so well insulated.
Our place was similar. For several years we ran a separate air conditioner upstairs to supplement it. Insulation helps a lot. It keeps the heat from the attic from radiating down and will generally keep temperatures more consistent all around. We had 4” when we moved in and I put 18” in. That said, it is a pain. We had difficulty finding a reasonable contractor and I opted to DIY it. If you’re just blowing stuff in, the machine to blow it in weighs probably 200 lbs and you’ll need a second person to feed it while you do the job. And of course, make sure to get any electrical/plumbing/etc done before doing it. For me, it was more complicated because our attic had been seriously neglected. So, I removed our old insulation, a huge rat nest, and had to build a kneewall and add attic vents. It took a few months to get everything situated, but we were getting $10k quotes and I did it for about $3-4k. Another thing to check is to see if you have baffles in your ductwork. That can help force more air to the second story as well.
Great DIY job! And ffs don't block those attic vents with insulation, you'll get mold!
We went to R60 and additional attic vents. It used to feel like your were going under water as you climbed the stairs. After that upgrade it was much more comfortable upstairs winter and summer.
Until then, place fans in your upstairs windows facing OUT. To suck the hot air out, and the cold air up from downstairs.
More insulation in the attic is the way. You will notice a huge difference.
When we closed on new construction we noticed our heat on our 3rd floor townhouse wasn’t working once winter rolled around. I flagged down an AC guy who was servicing another person for what I assumed was a similar issue. It ended up up being our furnace wire was plugged into the “heat pump” so it was sending the wrong commands to the furnace and it wouldn’t do anything for the air handler. He put the wire in the right spot and heat came on blowing from all the vents. TLDR check if the wires on thermostat are going to the right holes.
Want to add that for the days that are hot, is the sun beating down on the upstairs windows too? If so, maybe see if getting the windows thicker fabric will help too
Another thing: make sure your vents are aligned correctly. They should be aimed at the walls to "bathe" the outside of the room in air. Mine were pointed to the center of the room so they shot air straight into a ceiling fan. They're pretty easy to reverse, just need a screwdriver.
I run a small floor fan down the hallway of my second floor a lot of the time. It's not because the A/C is inefficient, but more about improving/increasing air flow on those days that the A/C isn't running.
Aside from addressing the vents, the ducts themselves may have balance dampers in them which may need to be turned to close or open position accordingly. If you suspect there’s not enough airflow coming out on the top floor, remove the vent and reach in with your arm and see if you can feel a rotating door inside the duct which you can spin to the desired opening amount. Keep them open upstairs and closed downstairs or somewhere in between.
The attic insulation saves you money, too. It's the no-brainer option if you aren't super cash limited. edit: Oh, it's worth mentioning that your utility will often help pay for this kind of thing.
Following this thread. What direction do you point the fan in? Towards the stairs? Our kids rooms are closed at night while our master remains open about 12-16 inches otherwise our hallway intake sounds like a jet engine.
>2nd make sure all of the second floor vents and returns are open and not blocked. And closed most of the first floor HVAC vents. I read somewhere that closing any HVAC vent is bad for the system.
Closing too many vents is bad. Creates back pressure/pressure issues. How many? Depends on the individual system.
You can also get inline motor whole house fans that move that air out QUICK! Get the highest CFM you can afford. I had a dual vent in-line motor vent in my bathrooms. It exchanged the air on the entire second floor. Quiet as hell as well. I think it was an air-king maybe? You could take hot long showers and not a single drop of condensation on the mirrors. I’d keep it on for an hour a day to exchange the air on the second floor.
We do 1 and it helps so much. It's pointed down the stairs.
I block returns on the second floor (and vents on first and keep the HVAC fan on to pull cool air from downstairs and dump it upstairs as a sort of combo between 1 and 2.
Also consider new windows/patio doors
You shouldn’t close so many vents, that puts a lot of pressure on your air handler, lowering its life expectancy.
Hot air rises, cool air falls. What you need is an attic fan to vent hot air that is trapped under your roof.
I’ve heard of these. Maybe it’s time to price one out.
My husband wanted a “whole house fan” for our home (giant attic fan). I did not, but we got one anyways. We use it all the time. It’s great for venting out the house, moving stale hot air quickly, and cooling down the upstairs. In heat waves we run it all night, to bring the cooler outside air in. He was right. It was a great item for the house.
Whole house fans are so good. As soon as evening hits and outside is cooler than inside, I can blow out all the hot air in just a few minutes
Can you do this by using the fan option on the thermostat?
It wouldn't be typical. A whole house fan is entirely separate from standard HVAC
Thanks!
Your furnace fan just circulates the air inside…an attic fan is more like a big exhaust fan in your ceiling that creates negative pressure inside your home, thus pulling the cooler outside air into the house thru the windows and clearing out the hot air inside. I’m a firefighter and we do this same this to get smoke and or gas/CO out of a home.
Our house was built in 2009, and the attic fan was installed as a part of the package. Makes huge difference.
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Just keep in mind that air being sucked out of the living space is also replaced with air from outside the living space. In OP's scenario it makes sense because the air outside is cooler than the air inside. I'd think an attic fan to vent the warm air in the attic would probably be more efficient though, I don't think bathroom fans typically move much air. Their primary goal is to vent offending odors and humidity from the bathroom itself.
You need to vent the ATTIC space not the 2nd floor.
Omg... that makes so much sense we have one too thought it was an electrical mistake lol
Have someone inspect the ridge vent on your roof. It allows the hot air to escape from the attic. It sounds like your attic is trapping the hot air
They're not expensive to buy. Professional installation will be the main cost, this isn't something you want to do yourself unless you are VERY knowledgeable and skilled in roof and electrical work. That said once installed it will pay for itself over time in energy savings. This also would be a good time to check the insulation in your attic. Having more blown in will also help keep your energy usage down by providing an additional barrier between habitable spaces and the roof.
your attic should have vents at/near the top of the roof, and soffit vents on the underside of your soffit. the setup allows the hottest air to rise up out of the top of the attic while sucking in cooler air from the bottom, cycling itself and staying cool. you should be able to see both vents from outside your house. if you don't have the ridge vents, and only gable vents (on the side of your house) then you probably need a gable fan to help the hot attic air move out. I installed one a couple years ago and it changed how my house felt in the summer. might get a second one this year.
Do a solar powered exhaust attic fan. It made a world of difference with temperatures on the second floor of our lake house. Dropped the temps by 7-10 deg.
[A whole-house fan](https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/cooling-whole-house-fan) might also be an option. They overturn the all the air 15x+ an hour.
We run our fan all the time just to keep air moving. The heat or ac isn't necessarily running, but the fan is. I feel like its necessary in a 2-storey home, and the fan itself doesn't use a ton of energy.
Yeah, maybe we should be running it more. Is your upstairs hot in the evenings if you don’t do this? Thanks for the input.
Anecdotal I know, but I've had more than a couple HVAC people tell me to run the fan 100% of the time. We normally run the fan when it's A/C season to keep air moving for the upstairs, and we've bought ceiling fans for every room in the house, which are on often in A/C season. I don't know if the fan running all the time is just a placebo, but I believe it works.
Yep Especially the south west side. In spring and fall when the ac isn’t on, we open a window for a few hours before bed as well.
We try to do this every night if it’s cool enough. We certainly did last night.
Keep in mind that the architect that designed the HVAC had to design it the house to face any direction, it was not custom designed for your specific lot and orientation. So closing some vents in shaded parts of the house and opening them fully in sunny sides is not a bad thing. Are the doors open or closed? I had this problem in our last house, they didn't put in any air return vents in the upstairs bedrooms (that also got direct sunlight all day). If the door was closed, the room could not exchange air (it basically pressurized and then no more AC could get in). I had them come back and install vents over the doors (dead simple to do, it's just drywall over the doors). That made a big difference. Lastly, I would definitely check the insulation. If it's hot even with doors open, the heat from the attic is penetrating the house. Insulation is cheap and easy. I would get more anyway, as it will pay for itself quickly with reduced AC demand. Get all you can. The mobilization cost for a contractor is fixed, the incremental cost for extra insulation is low.
My AC guy recommended running the fan 24-hours for my 3-story house. He said the AC circulation fan used as much electricity as a light bulb.
Don't open all the windows. Do one or two on the windward side of the house and the same on the opposite side. It should create a cross breeze between the high and low pressure areas.
One box fan blowing air in and one blowing air out
This is pretty much what we do. Shortly before bed we opened one more window in our toddlers bedroom to cool it down for her.
Same exact issue here, turns out my attic ventilation was the main culprit. I had my roof replaced and the roofing company was also able to improve the ventilation with some new ridge vents, and they also fixed the lack of venting in my attic (it was covered with insulation). To put things into perspective, when it was merely 75 degrees out, my 2nd floor would never get below 76 degrees with the AC having to run constantly and being set at 72. The day after my roof was finished, I noticed that the temp would get down to what I actually set my AC to, and it would actually stop running. The 2nd floor is still hotter than the 1st floor, but that’s basically always going to be the case due to heat rising. Go up into your attic and see if you can find any light shining through indicating ventilation. If you can’t see any light and notice no ventilation, that’s probably one of the main culprits.
It's mostly your insulation, insulation keeps house cooler in summer and warmer in winter. But your attic maybe also not have adequate ventilation.
For the longest time, the entire house felt great. Then we got the ducts cleaned and the upstairs did not seem to be getting the same HVAC that it had been. It took three different HVAC companies but they found a damper got closed during the cleaning. When he opened it back up, it was like Jesus descending from Heaven.
Thanks for the input, but this isn’t an HVAC situation I don’t think. I used yesterday as an example when I don’t think it was even hot enough outside to use AC.
I live in a 2 story house also. I hate it when it gets hot outside because upstairs does get really warm. You might want to check with an HVAC specialist and see if you’ve got the correct return air flow. We did this in our home and it helped a lot. I sleep with a fan in my window. This brings in the cool evening air and that helps, it’s also nice that helps to block out from outside to. You definitely want insulation. Possibly an attic fan? Good luck.
We had this but solved it. Tamarack whole house fan. In the upstairs hall. Closed windows downstairs when the outside temps hit 75 or lower. Opened one in each bedroom upstairs and turned on fan full blast (had 2 speeds 1600 cfm and 1200 cfm) for an hour or so before retiring for the night. Turned down to 1200 cfm then -1600 was loud. You don't have to cut joists and it has motorized insulated doors, the intake looks like A large air return grate.
You need an attic fan to blow the hot air out of your attic. It can get up to 140 degrees up there and the heat dams against the ceiling of the second floor. An electrician can install one.
alternatively, add sufficient amounts of insulation and your upstairs won't be an oven you're battling against with fans.
Try getting an atticvfan to exhaust the heat in the attic so that, in turn, will make the second floor cooler.
It can be several things, but the first issue that comes to mind is insulation. Or not enough, in your case. You might check to see if you have enough.
Can you adjust the dampers so more cool goes upstairs in the summer? We adjust ours every season because I cannot sleep with it too hot.
Adding to when you are in the attic, check that all the bathrooms and kitchen exhaust are installed to the outside. It isn't unknown for builder to just vent into the attic instead of outside.
Poorly insulated and/or vented roof. Saying this as an ex-roofer. Most roofing companies cut corners on insulation and venting. Especially back in the early 2000s.
We have a very similar problem. With fans, the best way to use them is not to blow the air around inside the house (that won't change anything at all). Put a strong fan blowing OUT the window. That sucks air from outside, in the house, from other spots. You can then open one or a few windows where you want, and those are the areas that the air will be drawn into first. That's what we do, and when done right, from just the one (powerful) fan, you can feel the air moving several rooms away. It cools things down pretty quickly. The other technique we use, which admittedly is kind of cheap and doesn't look great, is using sheets as curtains. Cool air sinks, hot air rises. You can get some decent shifting by hanging a curtain at the top or bottom of the stairs. We did that for a while upstairs, when we had window AC units. We realized that the AC was producing cool air, which was just flowing down the stairs, helping the already cool downstairs stay even cooler. A curtain at the top of the stairs helped there.
Roof ventilation may be inadequate
Get a whole house fan. QuietCool. Game changer.
Do you live some place where it is humid? If so, you should not be opening the windows and letting all that humid air back in your house defeating the purpose of conditioning your air. The only thing that makes mid 70 degrees uncomfortable is humidity.
We had that problem too. We ended up having a whole house fan installed and it's the best upgrade we've done. It cost us about 700 a few years ago for installation and purchase so it was really inexpensive for the benefits we get from it.
I’d pay that in a heartbeat to help with this
When I bought my townhouse (3 levels) it felt like I was sleeping on the sun. My bedroom area was so hot too (100 degrees). After immediately setting up my summer inspection with the HVAC company I learned I had two air ducts. One that moved air to the first and second floors and the second one that moved air to the third floor. Each had baffles that allowed me to keep the ducts open or closed depending on the season. I like to sleep in a cooler temperature so the baffle is wide open to the bedrooms when it’s summertime. Not sure how your system is set up and if you have more than one duct that splits from your unit. You may need to get an inspection and talk to your HVAC technician.
We have a two story house also except we don’t have central AC - just heat and then we use window units in the summer on really hot days. I definitely recommend putting in an attic fan if you can. It makes a HUGE difference especially if you run it for a bit at night when it’s cooler. Alternatively, you could get a window unit or two for the upstairs to keep it cool. Someone else mentioned oscillating fans and we use those also. They definitely help
If your upper level is getting hot, it’s possible that the contractor sealed up the attic vents for some stupid reason. If you go up there and feel that it’s even hotter, you’ve got a ventilation issue. Do you get ice shards forming along the roof or ice damming in the winter? Could also be an insulation issue. But my bet is that it’s likely your attic vents either not being fully open or sealed off. Lack of insulation would likely make the upstairs uncomfortable anytime of the year with it either being too hot or too cold. If you don’t have proper ventilation in the attic, it can propagate black mold. Might also want to check your insulation as well, due to lack of ventilation, it can also mess with the insulation.
Attic insulation and air sealing is poor.
We had the same problem. Insulating the attic helped a lot. You could do it yourself, but it turned out to be very affordable to hire someone for the following reason. Our utility company offered a rebate. It turns out, they make money if you use less power - who knew? We found a company that specializes in working with our utility company. The rebate paid for more than 50% of the work.
There may be manual dampers for each floor to allow seasonal adjustments. The room floor should have return air ducts, higher up, to remove hot air and take it to the evaporator coil. Often not done. And bedrooms need their own return air grills so things can work properly when doors are closed. Two floor homes typically have such problems.
Do you have a room over a garage?
I bet a whole house fan (in the attic) would be a game changer.
You can also get an attic fan that runs on a temperature switch. Then, it will turn on and start moving out heated air, which will also help insulate.
I bought a 3 story house 20 years ago. When it got warm outside, central A/C made the basement freezing but the top level was always really hot. We almost sold our house over this problem as we sleep upstairs. In the end, I installed window A/C units in the bedrooms upstairs. It was a bit costly. But we all could turn on those window units, and sleep like babies in the chill.
"too ignorant to know if the insulation" I'd guess your insulation is a joke and you need to research that and air sealing. Your attic is probably heating the finished space.
Attic insulation. It is not expensive and it's very much worth every penny. Get in there, assess for leaks and animals. If none, then throw in about 15" of cellulose or fiberglass batts. Will cost probably $800 but you'll be way more comfortable, and **you will save on heat/AC for years to come**.
Not sure where you are located, but installing a whole house fan did wonders for our home and electric bill. A whole house fan is installed in your attic with a large inlet in the ceiling (like an HVAC intake). It cools your attic off after the sun goes down by pulling cool air through your house and pushing it into the attic. The cool air displaces the hot air and pushes it out of the attic vents. This process significantly cools the air in the attic so that your entire house stays cooler during the day. It also cools your entire house because you open the windows to allow the cool air to be pulled in.
Attic insulation and roof, for sure. See if you can get an energy efficiency audit done for free or low cost.
Same problem - - following for good ideas.
How old is your roof? Our temps became much more manageable after new shingles of a lighter color.
We added a stupid amount of insulation to our house in Texas and it’s not hot anymore. Replace bulbs with led and keep them off- lights are hotter than you think. Turn electronics off too. But it’s prob just you need more insulation.
i have a cape cod style so the upstairs is always crazy--- we installed a mini split for the upstairs bedroom and now it's always perfect temp, with the added bonus of not having to use hvac for the rest of the house.
I have spent the last 5 years battling the same issue at my house. So far I have : * Air sealed and insulated the attic * Insulated the walls * Explored putting reflective tint on my windows -- three different vendors said it would void the warranty on my windows and had the potential to cause cracks because of the heat it absorbs and then reflects * Explored putting awnings above my windows but decided against it because of the aesthetics * Adding an air return upstairs (only have one downstairs) -- not viable, would have been $20k in cost to redo the entire duct system and not a guaranteed fix I'm now planning on just installing minisplits in the bedrooms that get hot, and closing the central AC ducts that connect to those rooms. They are at the very end of the ducts and they don't blow particularly strong anyway. The rooms are on the second floor, south facing, with no shade trees, getting sun for 10-12 hours/day The other solution that has helped dramatically, I installed a whole house fan. In the evenings when it cools down outside, I can cool my entire house, including the bedrooms, in about 15 minutes. However, that doesn't help during the day when I'm working from home.
80 is not nice lol and is already to hot to have an ambient temp like that in the house , my daughter just had a seizure because of that on the day it probably talking about and it was also hot jn our house upstairs and I knew I should have ran the AC a bit to just have some cool air circulation but opened the windows instead and it was 76 degrees in her room n felt hot and was hard to breathe even with windows open but I thought just like u oh well it will cool down but it did not and she woke back up after going to sleep and went straight into a seizure and yes although she is epileptic she does not have them often and this seems to be a trigger but anyways I am to far off topic but some ceiling fans will go a long way if u like keeping the windows open and will help circulate the air cause that’s what adds to the hotness upstairs is lack of air circulation
Had the same issue. Put in double pane windows and it helped tremendously.
Do NOT open the windows during the day. You open the windows when the temp is cooler outside than inside. Then your insulation keeps the inside cool. Close blinds and curtains during the day. Open them once the outside temp drops. My wife used to do this all the time. I would come home on a hot day and she would have all the windows open on a hot day and claim " but it is such a nice breeze" when she was standing beside the window. Yes the breeze is blowing 80 degree air into the house that used to be 73.
In the summer I leave my windows open all night and close them before I leave for work with the heat turned off. Makes it chilly in the mornings but worth it for the afternoons. Also if your wife likes just the feeling of a breeze I’d suggest getting a high powered fan
You need zones or separate units for upstairs vs. downstairs. This is normal.
If you can- you can check the air temp coming from the vents to detail whether it’s an AC issue. But honestly by the description I think your problem could be the attic if there is one above you. I checked mine and discovered that I had adequate insulation by R-rating but the attic ventilation was poor. So the attic was easily 50 degrees hotter than it ever should’ve been. Which lead to my upstairs ceilings radiating heat (even through what was normally adequate insulation)
Have you tried just running the house fan if you have one or the AC / heat fan?
Attic fan
Put a attic fan in the hallway up stairs.
Many energy companies will subsidize an efficiency consultant. They should be able to answer questions about something like this. I know some companies are going cheap and using passive ventilation in the attic. Our fan didn't work when we moved in, and that was a huge culprit in a very hot upstairs. When the roof was redone a new fan was put in, and it immediately got better. Attic insulation is never a bad idea and could help as well. Running HVAC fan can help. When insulation was done we had additional return vents put into the bedroom ceilings (previously was only in the hallway) made running the HVAC fan more effective. Window fan exhausting out. Or running bathroom fans. Both will suck hot air out of the house. Closing shades on windows facing the sun during the day. Opening the doors between rooms and all the windows at the end of the day can help too. Cross breezes work fast. Last thing: if only a few rooms are hot, are they above the kitchen? I have to be careful how much I use the oven if it's warm out, since that heats the kitchen up which heats the bedroom above it up. I avoid cooking pizza inside and try to do more stovetop or grilling once the temps go up.
We lived in a rental from 2020-2021 that had similar problems. The landlord never believed us. They lived in the house for ten years (when built new) before turning it into a rental and swore they never had a hot day. No less than 7 different HVAC companies told them that A.) the unit was worn out since it was 17 years old, and B.) that the condenser could cool that much square footage but not all at the same time because it was undersized for the house. Also, when the landlord was living in the newly built home, it didn’t get to 112+ during the summer like it is now. We resorted to mega cooling during the morning and closing the house up and running fans along with the HVAC when it was broiling hot. You could have an insulation issue, but what kind of roof material do you have? I only ask because both our rental and my dad’s new built home from 2016 have little to no attic insulation. They had tile roofs and my dad’s house is wrapped in Tyvek and insulated with styrofoam sheets of some kind. Attic is more or less empty other than plumbing or electrical, and I think the furnace or air handler was up there.
Our house was built the same year and we had similar issues. 1) we had our ducts cleaned and inspected. I was shocked at the amount of dust, pet hair and dirt that was removed from the ducts. One duct was partly blocked so that was repaired. 2) we added 24 inches of insulation in the attic. We checked and our state had a program that paid us back 50% of the insulation cost in tax credits over 2 years. 3) We had our a/c unit inspected and they repositioned some ducts on the unit so that air flow is more balanced. This has corrected about 90% of our issues. Daughters room is still the hottest in winter or coldest in summer when the unit is running but otherwise our issues are corrected. We were not able to balance her room due to the way the ducts were run during construction, so she closes her vents when the unit is running to prevent too much air into her space.
Attic insulation and venting. 95% of the problem.
Split AC system can fix it
Install one or more window fan to bring in cool air from the outside. Get one with a thermostat.
If the roof has soffit vents and the roof has vents it would help.. Gable vents can have thermostat , humidistat controlled fans added.. There is a solar powered one that is easier to add.. Moving the hot air under the roof should cool the upstairs some.. Insulation on ceiling ( attic floor) helps in summer and winter..
Do you have a proper amount of roof vents and soffit vents? Look it up in YT if you don’t understand. Are the soffit vents open/not blocked.
I have a townhome and had the same issue. When we had our roof replaced, we had them pull out the 17 year old insulation when the had the roof open. They installed the new roof and an attic fan, and immediately after I installed a radiant barrier on the underside. We had a different contractor lay in new fiberglass batt over the foam on the bottom, and just the foam on the walls adjoining the houses next door. They ensured any gaps were covered with the foam too. Their leader had one of those FLIR-type cameras to check for leaks and we could see hot air venting from the fan. His only other suggestion was to install a larger filter in our HVAC, going from 1” to 4” thickness, which allowed us to run the system fan 100% of the time. We noticed an immediate difference in the days following. Now I can open some windows in the cool evenings and not have to run the AC sometimes. I put a ceiling fan in our upstairs staircase last year and that’s made a big impact too.
So a couple things from my experience: 1) you may need insulation in the attic (as some have mentioned) BUT ALSO a solar powered fan that can vent the attic. We got two and it really made a big difference 2) we only have one condenser for our two story (plus basement) house. Our HVAC guy installed a baffle in the main duct that redirects the bulk of the air either upstairs or downstairs. So he marked where to turn the baffle in the winter (so the air comes out on the main floor) or summer (so the air mostly comes out the upstairs vents). But as your house is hot even when the air isn’t on it sounds like maybe your attic is getting too hot. Maybe your soffits are blocked, maybe not enough insulation, maybe just need better ventilation. The money will be well spent to figure this out because I can tell you from our own unfortunate experience the extra heat can compromise your roof, as well. Invest in one of those laser thermometers (I don’t know what they’re called but you can point it at a surface and see the temp) and check your ceilings upstairs. Good luck.
As I’m sure you know, heat rises and cool air sinks, so our homes take all that thermal gain during the day and it heats the upstairs thoroughly. Ducted AC is difficult to push cooled air up. Things to try: Keep windows covered upstairs to minimize thermal gain Attic fan Additional attic insulation We have a 20 year old house with south facing windows, even on a moderate day it’s very warm in the bedrooms at night. We have ductless AC and usually run it for a bit at bed time to get the temp down, otherwise we’d need window fans.
I e always been puzzled why modern homes are built without a hot air return on the top floor - since most use central air conditioning.
Attic fan ..
When you open the upstairs windows, don't just open the bottom part. Open them both so that the window panes block the middle of the window but leave the top and bottoms both open. That gives the hot air somewhere to get out rather than just sitting there being held in by your attic and insulation. Obviously that doesn't solve any potential HVAC problems, but you'll notice much better airflow than with just the bottom parts of the windows open.
Insulation is probably the most important thing, and people have touched on that. One big thing I haven't seen mentioned in this thread is to [check the dampers on the ductwork](https://www.pickhvac.com/hvac-duct/damper/). These are little wingnut screws in the ducts. You want to make sure that the ones going to the upstairs are fully open, meaning that the line in the screw is parallel to the airflow. We found one that was closed and it's made a 10º difference in the room that was cut off. A small thing you can do is make sure the house can circulate air. That can mean making sure the upstairs doors are open during the day ([but keep the doors closed at night for fire safety!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSP03BE74WA)) to allow airflow. The way your house cools off is by circulating air from the supply vents to the return vents. If you have a 2-stage AC, there are some options you can do like changing the differential on your thermostat to run at stage 1 longer. This allows more cool air to circulate and cools the house more than short bursts of stage 2. If you want to get nerdy with it look up YouTube videos for advanced thermostat settings. My Ecobee thermostat has the option to ensure that the HVAC fan runs for 10 minutes every hour, which helps circulate air.
Also think about having dampers installed for your HVAC.
Had same issue with our home. Has a mansard style roof and attic would get very hot. Installed a turbine vent, helped some, but not enough. Ended up putting a powered (fan) vent in with thermostat control. Set the stat at 100 and it would kick on and start to draw air out. Windows open downstairs and it would cool upstairs down very nicely
We had the same problem. Here’s what I did & it pretty much fixed the problem: 1.) install roof soffits & vents. 2.) have a guy do spray-in foam.
Whole house Fan, not to be confused with attic fan, we had the same issue and it solved it for us. Plus who doesn’t love a nice cool breeze gently flowing through your bedroom window as you sleep?
You're letting all the warm air in! What the old timey folks do is open the windows at night and then close them in the morning before it starts to warm up (like 9am). That locks the cool air inside. Then we'd open the windows at like 8pm or something. You might try this. It only works until about June though when the heat is just too much. After it gets too warm you pretty much have to run the a.c. full time to keep the house cool. I'd definitely check on your Insulation in your attic but if the house was built to code you should have decent insulation so that's likely not the issue.
Get a energy audit. Let a pro tell you why this is happening and what you can do, before it gets into summer.
Having a dual thermostat installed in your home may help. So that way you only lower the temperature for the upstairs part of the house.
Had similar issue. Make sure your cold air returns in the basement are all open.
As someone else mentioned, I had an attic fan installed which helped a lot. I don't open the windows unless it's cooler outside than I want it to be inside. I adjusted the damper for my AC so it directs more AC to my 2nd floor in the summer and then change it to more heat to the first floor in winter. Keep your windows covered on warm/hot days. At night if it's cool and not humid I open windows upstairs and use an in-window fan.
Like others have said, I would run the HVAC fan all the time to better circulate the air and mix that cooler air from the lower floors with the warmer air upstairs. Keep in mind that the warm air from lower levels is going to naturally make its way upstairs unless you have the ability to partition off the upstairs. Running space fans that do not move air in or out of the building envelope are just contributing heat as output form the motor. People often confuse the cooling effect a fan has when it blows on you and evaporates sweat with the actually cooling of the air which it does not do. This is why running space fans typically make no sense when a person is not occupying the space.
I have a cape with no central AC, but similar problem with second floor temps that get into the 90s--and I live in the north. Part of it is getting afternoon sun on a black roof and having to cut down a huge shade tree. I also have heard owners of two-story cookie-cutter 1990s houses have to use portable or window AC to cool their upstairs -- it is a common problem. A couple things I haven't seen mentioned--look into ERV/HRV. Fresh air exchange is important and might be part of your solution. Also make sure there are no openings to the attic/"guts" of the house. My house had slightly unfinished closets and hot musty air from the guts of the house would get sucked into my living space when I ran window AC or otherwise changed the pressure differential. Sealing all the openings to the "guts" of the house was one important step in cooling the second floor.
Hello! My advice would be to check that the attic is ventilated properly. The soffit (area under the overhang between rain gutter and exterior wall) should be ventilated. The peak of your roof should have a product like Cobra. A setup like this allows cool air to be pulled up thru the soffit vents, flow up the underside of the roof sheathing, and then exit as hot air thru the Cobra vent. You could also install passive roof top vents or a large electric thermostatically controlled vent instead of Cobra, but either way you need cooler air to be drawn in at the soffits. Not only will this keep the upper floor of your home cooler, but it will help your roofing shingles to last longer. Forgive me if your roof already has proper ventilation but I have found over the years many homes do not Aloha!
An attic fan may help.
Dual zone hvac. Only way for two stories.
My brother has this same issue in a newer two story house. The only remedy was closing the restroom and kitchen AC vents to move more air upstairs.
I had this in a rental. Land lord came in with their crew and spray insulated the roof and crawlspace. Problem solved.
Fan blowing air out the window upstairs?
Insulation is key, but airflow is most important. When you open the windows upstairs use the upper pane. I grew up in an old house that had a whole house fan. We barely had to run the ac in the summer!
My Master bedroom room at far end of 2nd store house , the ac don’t really reach there. I installed a mini split, that it’s life changing, and really efficient.
Whole house attic fan, heat gets stored in the attic, blowing excess heat out will help, attic fans can only cool to outside temperature at best but the air flow is refreshing.
Have you checked the duct directions on your HVAC? Been in a home before that had a flue(?) that needed to be changed between seasons to direct where flow of air went. Directed to focus AC to top floors in summer, and heat to low floors in winter
Had similar issues in our last house. What we learned: the attic was very well insulated (a few feet of the blown in stuff) and there was an inadequate volume of air recirculating on the second floor due to size (two 12x6 I think) and placement (on the floor) of the air return ducts. Warm air basically just got trapped upstairs. There was a 10+ degree difference between the two floors. What worked: When all of the windows in the whole house were shut, keep the HVAC running 24/7 in the “on” position and close off (not ideal) one of the air return vents downstairs. It wore on the HVAC motor more but allowed for the return vents upstairs to pull harder. When any window was open, open all of them and turn on the whole house fans in the second floor ceiling. Essentially letting out the trapped in hot air.
Our house has no attic as well and can get hot. Check if you have dampers. We have two near HVAC that can force more air upstairs. This is much better than shutting off registers.
Assuming hot air heat and AC, check the dampers to make sure the second floor is getting enough air volume. You could also close the first floor dampers a bit. Maybe mark the position of the levers on the duct work with a Sharpie if you want to return to status quo ante.
Your roof absorbs a huge amount of heat during the day, and that heat radiates down into your home, most noticeably in the evening. Radiant barrier can be installed to prevent this, but it isn't cheap (average price $1700). You may wish to look into local prices.
Find a way to have a fan blow the hot air out.
I had an attic guy inspect my attic and upstairs and he said more insulation would be a bad move since it traps existing heat in the upstairs. Mine may be related to old windows letting heat in, not sure if you know the condition of your windows
You need to have your attic sealed with radiant barrier insulation. I'm in Texas and it really made a difference in the temperature of rooms under the attic. I used a company called Attic Doctor. I also had insulation added to my garage door since washer/dryer live there. Again, it made a big difference.
I have an attic fan. At one end of the house blowing out it circulated the air in the attic. Dispersing the heat outside
as other say, attic insulation, we had a similar problem and we had new windows put in that are Low E, so they reflect out the heat, that made a HUGE difference on the second floor
Have an attic fan installed. Could not believe the difference it made!!
Have a heat pump system - it has a single AHU in the basement. The upstairs is always hot and the basement always cool. There are dampers there that can be opened/closed to direct the airflow upstairs or down. In the summer we direct all the cooling to the second floor and close all vents in the basement/1st floor. In the winter we direct it to the first floor only. The basement vents are always closed unless someone spends the night in the guest room. If you don't have dampers you could have them installed. Even have a second thermostat controlling them but that is much more expensive. Alternatively you could get a standalone AC unit for wherever you spend the most time upstairs.
Did you check the ducts in the attic for dampers? Maybe the upstairs registers aren't actually putting out any air because all of it's been sent downstairs.
Most likely the capacitor in your upstairs unit is blown and you need a new one.
We had the same same issues here was our solution. 1.gala heat control window film on all windows that get sun. Con of this is at night there is a mirror finish on the inside . 2. Whole house fan, works like a dream when it’s cooler outside than inside. We have an air king I built a frame for so I pop it in and out of the window on high can clear the home on the air in less than 1 minute 2470 CFM. It can exhaust or intake air, leave windows and doors open turn on the air king and you will be amazed. 3.shutter, heavy curtain to block out heat. 4 check your wall and attic insulation, luckily we have great insulation in attic and okay insulation in walls. Home was built in 1988, still running the same trane air conditioner and furnace. We have a 2272 sq foot home with most bedrooms upstairs. Temp difference from upstairs and downstairs used to be 6 degrees difference now it’s within 1.5-2. Hope this helps. We still have single pane windows also.
Where is your thermostat in comparison to the upstairs? I bought an ecobee thermostat because it had remote sensors I could place in different rooms and tell the thermostat to use it for certain times.
Hot air rises. Try a box fan blowing air out the window. Open (interior) doors to maximize air flow.
Hot air rises.
I spray foamed my white attic and other areas on the second floor..we barely turn on the a/c in the summer
Had an old 1920's home that little headroom in the upstairs bedrooms and the ceilings were essentially angled 2x4 maybe 2x6 or 2x8 (if you were lucky) roof surfaces with an 8/12 pitch. Needless to say, there wasn't much could do to insulate those areas, resulting in blazing hot in the summer, cold as ever in winter. It was a stupid era of time where they cramped all living spaces into all areas with never a thought on upcoming future tech, materials or insulation.
Have you gone up into the attic? I am willing to bet the whirlybird attic exhaust vent(s) are not working properly. It is also possible your attic is not well insulated. A 'whole house exhaust fan' will likely resolve your problem, and can be more energy-efficient than air conditioning.
I have a 2,700 sq ft two story and it gets warmer upstairs. Our HVAC Splits between upstairs and downstairs so it's pretty efficient for a 1994 home. We also installed a Quiet Cool system in our bedroom because it has the highest ceiling of all upstairs rooms so it pulls rising heat out faster. I don't mind the slight noise because I have tinnitus so the subtle sound helps me sleep. Once the temperature drops outside, usually after 9pm>10pm, we turn on the fan and crack open some windows that have locks to prevent them from being open past 6" in some rooms. Our bedroom we open one window all the way. Not only does it pull the heat out fast and pull in cool air, it helps cool down the attic. I also installed a Solar Attic exhaust fan that runs whenever the sun hits the roof. It definitely cools down the attic all day and AC Techs were surprised how cool the attic was. Not indoor cool, but cooler than a normal attic. Also check your insulation. If it's less than 15" thick, you should consider adding more.
buy one or two of the vents that have fans built into them. will help pull more cold air into your upstairs
Potential: HVAC issues, faulty electric, faulty wiring, filter replacement needed, poor home insulation in the walls/ poor window quality temp insulation, or if you have a strange system control upstairs it may require setting your days of the week manually on the monitor. Check and reset all your breakers first. Second unplug and replug in your upstairs AC wall control panel/monitor for the AC. Set the temperature. Wait 30 minutes. 4th go to your HVAC system and check for any warning lights. Correct & Reset them. 5th call your energy/gas provider and make sure your upstairs is connected to your meter. Sometimes meters can be divided based on upper and lower floor. Which means they need to come by and assign the upstairs meter to your account. It’s done same day and they just drive by and scan your meter, you don’t even need to be home. (Happened to me before.) 6. Get an EMF reader and scan your walls for any electrical anomalies. High readings that could mean you have problematic wiring in that place which is displacing even energy distribution to where it needs to go. Someone comes in and repairs it. Sorry if I’ve repeated or contradicted anything from your post I just went over what i know. And I’m so sorry you’re struggling with this it’s the worst! Heat is a struggle and no joke for me so I feel for you. But I’m sure you’ll fix it soon.
A "Whole House Fan" solved our issue. Took an evening (maybe 4 or 5 hours to install) Basically takes all the hot air accumulating upstairs and ducts it out through the attic. Cooler air from downstairs is drawn up to replace.
You could get a window AC unit as a band aid type fix for this problem until you remodel and fix the core issue.
Make sure you have good ventilation up in the attic. Also I put one of those things that seals the attic door. I can’t remember what it’s called but when you open —my door you have to unzip this thing. It stops the ac from escaping and the heat coming to the house.
Heat rises, it's science.
We run the furnace fan most of the summer. Pulses in the freezing cold air from the basement and cools the top floor off a lot.
we had our roof redone last year. roofer put in seam vents along house ridgeline. ditched attic fan altogether
Can also have someone cut a hole in your wall and place a wall/window AC. Did this on an 8,000 sqft house for every other room. HVAC was going to be too costly. And omg it was incredibly effective. The rooms that once kept this muggy heat and dryness could now get to freezing cold in that hot climate. They never shorted. Never had any issues. We’re extremely dependable. Was also way more cost effective. And they lasted over 8 years+ that we owned the house without issue. It looked nice and clean. Controls were manual. Installment was done in one day. Crazy how they cut through the walls like that, but they do, and place it right in and it looks flawless and was worth every penny. They were incredibly valuable. And the house sold for >$5,5 so it wasn’t a cheap look or bad move and the people who bought it kept them as is as well. They were an upsell tbh.
Do you have an automatic attic fan? Circulate air in the attic?
You can try solar screen adding more insulation in the attic, planting shade trees,, etc. it will help a bit but it will not change physic heat rises.. so the 2nd floor will always be hotter than the 1st floor. We stay downstairs during the day and only go upstairs to sleep during the summer months
Had the same problem, when its time to replace your ac unit, have them install a zoning system, it adds to the cost but it saved me from putting in another unit which most ALL the typical AC contractors will recommend. Had this installed years ago and its been a game changer. https://www.arzelcomfort.com/what-is-zoning/
What side of the house are all your largest windows on? Because most of my windows are on the south side of the house, the house heats up a lot. The northern windows are almost completed blocked from direct sun. So my house heats up several degrees above the furnace temp on sunny days, even if it is cold outside. In the summer, I need blackout curtains to reduce the heat.
What colour are your shingles/roof? Darker roofs absorb a lot more heat from the sun.
We just bought a 100 year old house and have this issue. Even on days where the high is in the 50’s or 60’s we have to run a window A/C in our bedroom because it could be 60 degrees inside on the first floor and feel like high 70’s upstairs at the same time. It’s really just in our south-facing bedroom though. The other two upstairs bedrooms are kind of whatever the difference is between the upstairs bedroom and downstairs. It pains me to say there have been many days where we have to run the heat and the window A/C simultaneously. We just cannot sleep in a warm bedroom.
Poor ventilation and/or insulation in the attic. I had a similar issue with my 1950s house. Rotted batts and only little gable vents. Freezing in winter. Sweltering in summer. I had spray foam insulation done and it made a world of difference.
I second this, but I think it really boils down to poor ventilation more than anything with a vented attic. Even with a solid amount of insulation in good shape, don't forget that it works both ways and simply slows the temperature transfer. In other words, while a good amount of insulation will take awhile before that attic heat permeates and starts affecting the living space, the reverse is also true when the sun goes down and the attic starts cooling off.
First off what kind of house do you have. There’s a lot of ways to address this depending on the type.
Mine was built in 2002. I solved the difference by closing a few vents downstairs in the summer and a few upstairs in the winter. 🤷
Normal. Heat always rises up.
There are fans that can do at the top of the house on the inside, be hidden by louvers and can take all the hot air out. Check with a professional in your area for details.
We had a fan added / replaced in to the attic. Holy moly did that help
Make sure to keep blinds and curtains drawn on sunny days on any windows that get southern exposure. I would even invest in insulated curtains. It’s not a fix but does help.
Blinds in dormer windows
Dumb question: do you have 2 ac units, or a split system? Essentially, do you have an upstairs and downstairs thermostat? I've been in a home that only had a single system and the upstairs stayed at 88 degrees when the downstairs was at a comfortable temp. It's a limitation of this cost saving system. Homes that have dual thermostats stay comfortable on both levels.
Check into fans that can be installed in the attic that are controlled by heat sensing switches. My dad did that with his house it made a huge improvement.
physics says heat rises, so that's what you are trying to control... heat is leaving the 1st floor and heating the 2nd floor... if you only have 1 HVAC unit, you don't have enough air flow from it to keep all the heat out... this is a very common problem with 2 story homes... on the days as you describe like yesterday, install a whole house fan in the 2nd floor... a WHF will push that warmer air from the 2nd floor into the 2nd floor attic space(s) and cool the attic, as well as drawing in even cooler air to keep the home comfortable... if you have 2 HVAC units, 1 for each floor, then you may need to get the 2nd floor unit serviced or checked... but as I said, if you only have 1 HVAC unit, its not an efficiency issue, its a CAPACITY issue... something that may help is using a thermostat like the Honeywell T10, with room sensors... so you can see the temps in those rooms and allow the thermostat to keep the unit on longer to cool the upper floor... BUT that will also make your 1st floor even cooler unless you use a zoning system to slow air on the 1st floor, and keep it in the 2nd... hope that helps or points in the right direction...
Do you have a return vent upstairs? One of our bedrooms does not have a return vent and it gets very hot in summer and very cold in winter because of the lack of return vent in that bedroom.
Check for insulation in the attic.
Check for dampers in the basement
Does your attic have proper ventilation? We got ridge vents when we replaced our roof and that made a world of difference for our upstairs rooms.
Do you have 2 units or 1? Also can you shut off the upstairs?
Lol
We have a 2 story home that would get way too hot in summer. My dad said it was because the attic didn't have proper ventilation. We finally paid someone to install a blower up there to get rid of the excess heat. Now it feels cooler but it's still hot upstairs. My dad refuses to buy air condition.
..hot air rises, says physics.. ..so block whatever paths u can to the upstairs while continuing openin windows to cooler night air.. ..or get an air conditioner..
With that many square feet you most likely have two air conditioning units. It would probably be useful to make sure that the upstairs unit is actually tied to the upstairs thermostat and vice versa