Many homes that have a central heating unit have a problem with distribution of heating or cooling. This can become an issue with extreme hot or cold days, leaving you in a situation of discomfort. When you’ve got a central air conditioning unit, there is generally only one switch that controls the entire temperature for the house. You can’t just force air into one room, it’s going to produce hot or cold air throughout the entire house. There are a few different options you have in these scenarios, which we’ll explain below.
Get your Ducts Cleaned and your HVAC Unit serviced
The first thing to try is simple: get your ducts cleaned! The problem could simply be that there is dust and debris blocking one specific room, or even the entire wing of your home. If done properly by a professional, you’ll end up getting the “Central” back in your central air unit. This is going to be the most cost effective over time as well. Not only will your unit run smoothly in the future because it’s having to work less hard in order to produce the proper amount of comfortable air, but you’ll get the air into the room within the proper fashion. Not only this, but the thing most people do in a situation where they’re uncomfortable is that they’ll turn the temperature down or up in the central unit, even though it’s just one room that is out of the temperature range they’re after. The result of this is that while yes, the room may now be cooler than it was before, the rest of the home is an icebox just to get the room there. This will be an unnecessary waste of electricity, costing a lot of extra money that could have been avoided in the first place.
Buy a Window Unit or a Space Heater
This one is troublesome. You’ve already got a central HVAC system in your home, so spending any additional money is going to be tough to swallow. Because you’re uncomfortable in your room, you need it to cool down in the summer, or heat up in the winter. If your ducts are already clean, or if you don’t want to go this route, you could get a window unit. Many people will buy multiple window units for their home if they don’t have a central system, so it seems natural to supplement your HVAC system with individual room control.
The issue here is that generally window units cost more money in electricity than a central HVAC unit will. This is because if you set up multiple individual window units, each individual unit consumes more electricity than one central unit would have. The big advantage you have here, is that if you want to cool just one room in a large home or building, having multiple single room units will allow individual climate control on a per-room basis. Many large homes and buildings use individual room control in this manner because it makes sense not to heat or cool unoccupied rooms. If you’re only using one window unit, this can actually lead to electrical savings, but you’ll want to make sure to do the math in order to find out.
Close Vents in Unoccupied Rooms
If you are having issues with the climate control in your home being uneven, many times it’s because the pressure is dying off before it makes it’s way to the room you need it in. The simple, no cost fix is to walk into an unoccupied room and close the vent. Generally the vent will have a lever that can be pushed all the way back, and the air flow should pass right by this vent. This is a very easy thing to do and will allow the air pressure with the comfortable air to make it’s way into the room that is occupied.
While it’s nearly impossible to get your home to the perfect temperature in the entire home, it is possible to come pretty close. The first step in making sure your home’s central air system is performing is to have a professional come out and clean the ducting system that the home uses.