HowTo Get More Air Upstairs
The options for solutions to get more air upstairs range dramatically. You can start simple with registers and damper solutions, all the way up to some high-tech solutions like zoning. What you wan to think about with the airflow in your home is that air will always take the path of least resistance. We’ll show you how to make the path of least resistance the upstairs.
Experiment With Opening And Closing Room Registers To Get More Air Upstairs
The first and easiest thing you can try to get more air upstairs is to just simply shut off registers in rooms. Shut off registers in the lower levels that will sill be comfortable if they don’t have as much air flow, and make sure the registers upstairs are open. You would be surprised how many people complain that they don’t get enough air upstairs and they have closed registers!
They key here is you are trying to manipulate the air to go where you want it to go.
Adjust Dampers
Most homes have dampers near the furnace area. You can usually find your dampers on runs that go to the upstairs. Most homes have at least two dampers, however that is not the case for every home, so you home may not have them. We made another video about how to find your dampers and adjust them how you like.
Dampers do need to be manually adjusted, but they are a fantastic way to control where you are pushing the air in your home.
The down side about dampers is typically there are two options. You can open or close the dampers that go to the upstairs. This will help tremendously, however you have to remember to change them with the seasons and sometimes you may need another person to help you open or close them properly.
HVAC Zoning To Get More Air Upstairs
We also have a more high-tech solution to get more air upstairs. You can install a zoning panel. You can take a home that only has one heating and cooling system, (one furnace and one air conditioner) and you can zone different areas in your house.
And those zones would have their own thermostat.
You can adjust those thermostats however you want. For example, you could create a “zone” that only includes your home office with its own thermostat while using your same heating and cooling system.
We are breaking your system up into multiple systems where we can have two three and four thermostats in the home and utilize control panels. Those panels are connected to dampers that have little actuators on them (little motors) which will adjust on the fly. They can open and close at the touch of a button to get the proper airflow to where we want.
The results are phenomenal
Many people are loving zoning, and you might be pleasantly surprised by the price.
Run Your Furnace Blower In The “On” Position
Another really great trick to get your upstairs more comfortable is continuous airflow. Turn your thermostat blower to the “on” position. This will run the blower continuously.
By running the blower constantly, we are now pushing air upstairs constantly. We are constantly mixing things up in the return air that will make a huge difference.
Just try that.
The blower is going to run continuously. It’s not like you’re running your air conditioner non-stop, and just see if that doesn’t make a difference.
