Ideas for cooling my condo

geepondy

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This is my first summer in my condo and this recent spell of 80 plus degree heat has given me a glimpse of what I'm up against this summer. It is a two floor condo with the upstairs essentially being a big loft with an attached bathroom and there is an open stairway connecting the floors. The trouble is the second floor abuts the rafters of the roof (former old school house) and in fact the ceiling slopes so at the edge, it's barely standing room. As a result, the temperature is running a good five to eight degrees warmer upstairs then down. I have central air but the thermostat is located downstairs. Yesterday I had to set the thermostat so that it was near frigid downstairs just so it would be tolerable upstairs. Any ideas on how to circulate the cooler air better so that the temperature differential could be lessened between the floors?
 

Lynx_Arc

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If there is vents upstairs adjust them wide open and restrict the ones downstairs a little, otherwise by a powerful fan to blast air from downstairs up there. I have an 18 inch patton floor fan that moves a lot of air. You could also put in a ceiling fan upstairs or blast hot air downstairs to mix with the cold. You may have to get creative and put in some ductwork because you need to move air both ways to get the job done quickly, cold air up and hot air to where the return vent is so it can be quickly cooled.
 

James S

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sounds like the AC wasn't thought out very well. Does it blow enough air and it just doesn't circulate where you need it?

If you can have a ceiling fan installed in the main large room that is a good solution for moving air around. I have one in the living room and in the summer i run it so that it blows upwards and pulls the air around the room in a circle. Blowing down is better for making you feel cooler directly under it, but blowing up pulls the hot air down from the top along the walls and keeps it mixed.

where is your cold air return? If you have one upstairs then make sure the filter is changed and not clogged shut or something. If you have only the one return and it's downstairs on the floor then no amount of cold air is going to reach the top of the space.
 

BIGIRON

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This is common in multi-story buildings. The primary problem is no real ability to return air to the HVAC unit. The warm air rises and wants to stay at the top while the cool air immediately seeks lower levels and goes back downstairs.

If you can engineer some type of return air system from the upper floor, other than the stairwell, it will help. A powered return air system would be even better, particularly if you could have the inlet near the peak of the ceiling.

If you can't manage that, a directional fan at the top of the stairs, blowing down, will help some as will adjusting your ducts as posted earlier. Don't close your downstairs ducts completely -- that could result in reduced airflow thru the cooling coils.

The other things are obvious -- relective film on windows, insulating window shades or coverings. West facing windows are the worst. I manage one condo with a lot of glass on the west side. At the beginning of each summer, we put foam insulating board in the west windows and remove it in the fall. Obviously darkens the room but really reduces the solar heating.
 

Lynx_Arc

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A cheaper and easy fix to the problem is find a window upstairs you can put a window air conditioner in, preferably one that faces south or is shaded most of the day. A high efficience window AC upstairs could solve your problem and if the central AC unit is less efficient could possibly save you money. This would require some fiddling with settings on both units to get temperatures correct. Figure out the square footage upstairs and get an AC that is about 10-30% more powerful than normally needed due to it has to fight more heat than normal upstairs. I had a 10000btu window unit that barely cooled a 300 square foot attic in 100 degree weather on a 2 story house.
 

chimo

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If your thermostat has a fan switch ON/OFF/AUTO put it in the ON position. The AUTO setting turns on the HVAC fan only when heating or cooling. The on setting runs the fan continuously which helps move warm air to cold areas and cold air to warm areas. Otherwise, the air stagnates between HVAC cycles and temperature differentials build in the areas farther from your thermostat. The fan usually does not consume a great deal of power and is greatly offset by the increase in comfort level. It is important to clean/change your HVAC air filters regularly to increase airflow and reduce strain on the blower motor.

As well, the other methods mentioned are good ideas. Just closing bilnds/curtains on the sunny side will help reduce cooling requirements.

Hope this helps.

Paul
 

geepondy

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There is no return vent upstairs but the air blowing from the vent is cool enough but I really need more then the one vent as it is so much warmer up here. Thanks for the advice. I may try to control it more thru suggestions of fan use and vent adjustment and I hope I don't have to go out and buy a window AC to supplement the central cooling.

One question. How durable are the heat pump fan and motor assemblies? I thought about leaving the fan on all the time instead of auto but the heat pump system is pretty old and I don't want to blow out the motor any quicker then I have to. Can they take being on all the time?
 

cobb

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All sound like good ideas. I live in a single story apartment that does not seem to heat or cool evenly. I found during the winter leaving the fan on maks it more evenly heated and during the summer a box fan on the floor between the bed room and living rooms makes it more confortable and feels cooler than leaving the central fan on to the ac.
 

BIGIRON

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Blower motors aren't that expensive IF you do it yourself. Last one I bought was about $60 and about an hour to install with basic tools. If you have a HVAC guy do it, that's a different story.
 

Lynx_Arc

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stopping and starting motors sometimes is harder on them than running them continuously. I have a window AC that I let run constantly to move air around. Some window units shut off the fan when the thermostat kicks in. With that you lose a little of the cold air that is still in the coils when the compressor kicks off.
 

3rd_shift

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Definitely a window unit upstairs if there is a place to put it.
Otherwise, close off a vent, or two downstairs to force a bit more cool air upstairs.
maybe even have a bigger vent put in upstairs where the heat load is.
Looks like a good case of bad ac psychrometrics occured at your place before/when they put in the ac.
 

Lurker

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Running the A/C blower full time will definitely help, but if you just have the one vent register upstairs, you will get limited air flow up there. If you buy a freestanding fan, especially a Vornado brand one, and can place it to effectively move air either up or down, this will probably move a lot more air. This would be a good next step to try.
 

DimBeam

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[ QUOTE ]
Lynx_Arc said:
A cheaper and easy fix to the problem is find a window upstairs you can put a window air conditioner in, preferably one that faces south or is shaded most of the day. A high efficience window AC upstairs could solve your problem and if the central AC unit is less efficient could possibly save you money. This would require some fiddling with settings on both units to get temperatures correct. Figure out the square footage upstairs and get an AC that is about 10-30% more powerful than normally needed due to it has to fight more heat than normal upstairs. I had a 10000btu window unit that barely cooled a 300 square foot attic in 100 degree weather on a 2 story house.

[/ QUOTE ]

The reason I recommended the self contained A/C unit was if his Condo Association had a policy about A/C units being installed in windows....a lot do have such rules.
 

BIGIRON

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And to tag onto DimBeam - if you do the foam board in the window, you'll probably need to put the white side out and the foil side in. If the foil side in is a problem, just put in two pieces foil to foil - that way you'll see white both in and out. From the outside, you can't tell it from white curtains. Foam board is cheap.
 

greenlight

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I use a blue/foil tarp to cover my sliding door when it gets full sun. The room will get over 90 if the door is closed, but with the tarp on the outside and the mylar reflecting the sun's rays, the room stays cool.
 

MR Bulk

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Hey Geep, we have a solar-powered roof venting fan that sucks hot air out of our attic, I am sure it can also be installed in your ceiling to pull the hot air out.

It's got a large cowl over it outside so that the air is vented out from under the edges of the cowl, and water cannot get in during rain. The best part? It is an approved EPA energy saving device that got us a TAX CREDIT that year, making it virtually free!

YMMV if you live in an area that snows a lot, although I am sure you can install a cover over it outside on the roof or under it inside up on the ceiling for use during the winter.

If you're Really interested I can climp up on the roof one a these days and get you the make and model, etc.
 
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