Two-story homes are quite common and can be found all throughout the country. What many people find out the hard way, however, is that living upstairs in a two-story home can be less than desirable during the hot summer months. This is especially true in the Carolinas, where temperatures can soar. Understanding why the top story of your home can be so uncomfortable is the first step towards fixing the problem, and it’s not as confusing as you might think.
If you’ve never heard the term “stack effect” before, you’re certainly not alone. It’s important to realize, though, that this phenomenon is more pronounced in a two story home. As buildings grow in height, so too does the amount of pressure from top to bottom. When you turn on your AC, pressure changes throughout the home, drawing hot air from the attic into the highest floor of the home, warming the upstairs and causing the air conditioner to work that much harder, often resulting in the upstairs living area never reaching the thermostat setting. Not only that but the warmer air upstairs will then force cooler air out of the bottom! Here’s a great visual aid: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/stack-effect-when-buildings-act-chimneys . Because one-story homes typically feature three-times less pressure than two-story homes, the issue is usually less apparent.
Stack effect itself is unavoidable in homes with more than one story, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t things that can be done in order to mitigate the issue.
One of the reasons why stack effect can be so problematic is that it comes along with a number of side-effects, mainly that of hot air being drawn in from your attic and thus creating a vicious cycle that affects energy efficiency. The solution can often be found in air sealing, and it all adds up to make perfect sense. Cracks in the ceiling of the upper floor of your home are often the culprit, and sealing them (along with adding a good layer of insulation) can typically fix the issue entirely.
Every home is unique, and each has its own needs. One of the best places to start if you feel as if your home is being affected by the stack effect is to schedule a home energy audit, which will give us a complete and clear view of exactly what’s going on. From there, we’ll determine the best path to take in order to keep conditioned air from escaping your home and making its upper levels uncomfortable.
Don’t wait until the summer heat starts getting unbearable. Contact Benton, and schedule a home energy audit today.
My gas bill last month was $92! And that includes the cost of hot water -- last year it was almost $300 and the house was always cold! Thanks for doing such a great job.
Heat rises – Blame physics: hot air rises while cold air sinks. That means your upstairs typically gets hotter than your lower levels, even if your air conditioner's working in overdrive. Your roof's hot, too – Unless you have shady tree cover, your roof absorbs a ton of heat from the sun.
Heat rises – Blame physics: hot air rises while cold air sinks. That means your upstairs typically gets hotter than your lower levels, even if your air conditioner's working in overdrive. Your roof's hot, too – Unless you have shady tree cover, your roof absorbs a ton of heat from the sun.
The temperature can be balanced between the stories of your home by upgrading your furnace, installing a zoned system and keeping the air circulating throughout the house. Address existing problems first by checking your attic insulation and how well your ducts are sealed.
Heat rises to upper floors and cold air sinks to lower floors. This means that your air conditioning will generally work harder upstairs during the summer months and your heating downstairs will work harder during the winter.
If you have a basem*nt, you can push more cool airflow up to the second floor by locating the dampers on your ducts and closing them at least halfway. If you can't find the dampers or don't have a basem*nt, you can partially close the vents on your first floor register to achieve the same effect.
It might be that your HVAC system is incompatible with your home's capacity or hasn't been properly adjusted for home additions. Perhaps the ductwork is outdated and ineffective, impacting the cooling performance of the upstairs AC system.
In the summer, set the top floor temperature to the actual setting you want and set the bottom floor two degrees lower. For example, if you set the AC to 68 degrees F upstairs, set the downstairs thermostat to 66 degrees F.
Set the first floor's thermostat to your desired temperature, and then decrease the temperature setting on your thermostats by two degrees as you go up. Warm air on the first floor will rise and make the upper floors more comfortable.
The general rule of thumb for a two-story home is that you should set each thermostat two degrees Fahrenheit apart from the other. During the summer, when your AC is running, set the upper floor at the temperature you actually want in your home. Then set each floor underneath that to two degrees warmer.
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