Solving Uneven Heating Problems In Your Home

Many of us experience uneven heating in our home – too hot upstairs and too cold downstairs, for example. Rather than braving the cold or heat – or fiddling frustratingly with your thermostat for hours – it’s worthwhile to discover the root of the problem.

Let’s take a look at some common causes of temperature imbalance between floors or rooms in your home.

Why You Have Hot And Cold Spots

Uneven heat in your home is typically caused by three factors (on its own or in combination): poor airflow in your heating system, inadequate insulation, or air leaks and inefficiencies in your home.

More specifically, causes include:

• Restricted airflow between the furnace and registers
• Leaky or poorly installed ductwork
• A mis-sized heating system
• Drafts
• A thermostat giving inaccurate readings (often due to placement)

As you might imagine, these problems aren’t always easy to diagnose without the right tools and training. A well-trained HVAC professional can test and assess your system to help you identify the real cause of your heating issues and determine the best course of action to take to solve the problem.

Seven Solutions To Uneven Heating

If you’re experiencing uneven heating in your home, here are some possible solutions a pro might suggest, in order from the simplest to the most complex:

1. Close vents in unused or under-used rooms – If you have a forced air system, redirect warm air to rooms you use most.
2. Replace your air filter – In a forced air system, a blocked air filter will make it difficult for your blower to force air through your ductwork; inhibited air flow means less warm air reaches your living space. Try replacing your air filter before moving on to more substantial measures.
3. Bleed your radiators – If you have a boiler rather than a furnace, trapped air pockets can keep heated water or steam from reaching your radiators. If you have cold spots on your radiators or baseboards, your system probably needs to be bled.
4. Air seal your home – Caulk leaky window and door frames, install doorsweeps, and add weatherstripping to door jambs to reduce drafts.
5. Have ductwork inspected and sealed – As much as 15 percent of the air you paid to heat could be lost on the way to vents via leaks in your ductwork. Consider investing in a professional ductwork inspection – since many leaks are located behind walls and in hard to reach spaces, it’s not a DIY job.
6. Install a zoning system – A zoning system allows you to control temperatures on each floor of your home independently from its own thermostat. If your heating system is powerful enough to be configured this way, it could solve an uneven heating problem.
7. Add a supplemental space heater – A ductless mini split heating system or heat pump or a propane space heater can add targeted heat to a room without needing to be connected to your central heating system or ductwork, bringing much needed heat to any room. As a bonus, many ductless mini-split systems can also serve as cooling units in the summer.

Experiencing uneven heat in your home? Black Bear’s HVAC pros can help. Contact us today to learn more about heating system service in Sullivan County, NY!