You may love nothing more than to come home to a cool, comfortable home at the end of a hot day. However, you may notice that your living room feels cooler than your bedroom, or that one side of the house always feels warmer than another. These issues can cause frustration as you struggle to find a livable balance.
Thankfully, you can achieve more even air conditioning throughout your residence once you understand what kinds of problems can lead to uneven cooling and how some smart repairs and upgrades can help you conquer those problems. Take a look at five things you can do to make your home more uniformly comfortable.
1. Check Your Ducts for Problems
All the air refrigerated by your HVAC system’s evaporator gets directed to various parts of the home through a network of sealed ducts. Each duct delivers a portion of the chilled air to a separate room through a filtered vent. If one of these ducts or vents fails at its job, the chilled air ends up going elsewhere, leaving that room warm.
Ask your HVAC technician to check your ducts for leaks. Even a tiny hole or loose seal in a duct can allow chilled air to escape, sending it into your home’s structure instead of the room that needs cooling. The technician may also recommend replacing ductwork that includes too many kinks or sharp corners (which can impede airflow).
Ducts can’t deliver chilled air through blocked vents. Replace clogged, dirty air filters with fresh ones. Get into the habit of checking the filters and replacing them periodically to keep that cool air coming in.
2. Fill Cracks or Gaps That Leak Air
Just as ducts can develop gaps that leak chilled air, so can any tiny gaps or cracks that allow cool indoor air to intermingle with warm outdoor air. Common air leakage points in a typical home include doors, windows, garage and fireplace walls, cantilevered floors, foundations, attic spaces, and even the chimney or fireplace flue.
You may need to schedule a thorough home energy assessment to identify exactly where you need to seal air leaks throughout your home. Caulk, weatherstripping, foams, gels, and other sealants can often close those gaps. You might need additional renovations to help keep cool air inside your home where it belongs.
3. Insulate Walls and Windows
Different sides of your home receive different levels of thermal energy throughout the day. If your HVAC team has given your climate control system a clean bill of health, yet certain rooms in your room feel unnaturally warm, you may have an insulation problem that needs addressing.
You can often tell whether a wall lacks insulation simply by disengaging the power to a wall outlet and then removing the outlet’s wall plate to peek inside. Even if you see some insulation, that particular part of the house may benefit from a bit more. An installation provider can sometimes drape new insulation over old insulation.
Old, single-pane windows can also allow cool air from your HVAC system to escape your home. Consult with HVAC experts to determine when you need to upgrade your windows for optimal energy efficiency.
4. Put a Stop to Short CyclingĀ
Sometimes an air conditioner will switch on and run for too brief a period before shutting off again, a phenomenon known as short cycling. A short cycling HVAC system can cause a variety of problems, from abnormal wear and tear on mechanical parts to wasted energy, high utility bills, and uneven cooling.
Short cooling cycles may simply fail to cool all parts of the house, especially those areas that naturally tend to get warmer than others. Your HVAC technician may remedy this situation by relocating the thermostat, fixing electrical malfunctions, cleaning your evaporator coils, or topping off your refrigerant levels.
5. Upgrade Your Air Conditioner
Air conditioners can provide many years of excellent services, but they will eventually wear out. As your air conditioner ages, you may notice that it just doesn’t cool your home as evenly or efficiently as it once did, even when it runs at full power for extended periods. You may also see an increase in condensation.
An HVAC inspection can determine whether your air conditioner has neared the end of its service life. Think of this problem as an opportunity to invest in a new model with much greater energy efficiency. With proper care and maintenance, the new unit should provide you with many more years of trouble-free operation.
Even if your air conditioner hasn’t worn out, the previous owner or builder may have installed a unit too large for its surroundings. An oversized air conditioner will often produce the short cycling issues noted above, resulting in uneven cooling. Your HVAC provider can recommend a more appropriate model for your home.
At Steele Brothers Heating, Inc., our technicians can conduct a thorough evaluation of your entire HVAC system, perform any needed maintenance or repairs, and recommend modifications or upgrades that can make your home a more consistently pleasant escape from the outdoor heat. Contact us today.
