Too hot upstairs!!!!!?

Question

I have bought a 125 year old 1.5 story house, and my problem is it's soooo hot upstairs. The main floor will be quite cold, temp is set at 65 degrees usually and it's so hot upstairs I could die. SO I need some ideas. There's not really anywhere on the upper floor to put a fan because the rooms are all very small with sloped ceilings and the hallway is only about 45 inches. I will be putting a fan on the main floor in the living room but I don't know if it will do enough. Or does anyone have any good ideas of what I could easily block and unblock the vents with, the vent covers are cast iron grate beautiful grates but they don't work well enough or something cause when I block the inside of the vents with insulation it helps a little to stay cooler up there.
HELP ME PLEASE. Cheap is good, I'm borke from all the other repairs already.

Answer 1

Number one check to see if you have vents under the ground floor in the basement and a return duct to the furnace. You need something to actually warm up the floor. Number two you can buy or have dampers made to block off the duct work( pipes) going upstairs. Number three keep the doors to the upstairs closed as much as possible.

Answer 2

Best case, you need to put in a way to circulate the hot air back down to the lower level. A return in the ceiling, with a duct down to a fan that pumps the air back out at the lower level would be best.
Cheap? hmmm find a way to keep all the air from getting to the top part. close or install doors, something on that order.

You do not say exactly what type of heating system you have. It is possible that same heating system can be modified to do what you need. If it is a forced air system, I am almost certain it can be modified to solve the problem, with out a lot of cost. Exactly what and how, I cannot say without actually seeing it and the house. For temporary, anything that will cut down the transfer of the warm air to the upper level will help. even plastic sheeting hung in doorways or such.

Answer 3

It sounds like your house is doing what it was designed to do 125 yrs. ago. I doubt they had a t-stat to set at 65, more than likely started out as a coal fired convected heat system (state of the art back then). If your heating system has been upgraded to a forced air system you may be able to have your heating contractor modify one of your beautiful grates into a return air vent and suck warm air from upstairs to mix with the cool air downstairs, a win win deal. If not you could choose to do what many have done before, me included. Put a door at the top of the stairs. If you don't have room to frame one in vertically, lay it flat like a trap door. If you look closely you may see the original hinge marks on the floor. My wife and I got used to opening it with our heads even if it did compromise our hair (I later installed a small set of weights and pulleys which made it easier to open from above). Keep it closed during the day to save energy and open it at bedtime. CAUTION - Be very careful of this set-up if you have kids due to the danger of fire. Installing a latch that can be locked in the open position ONLY would be a good idea. RScott

Answer 4

I have the same problem with my two story house. I added a cold air return upstairs, and that helped a little. I removed the screws on most of the registers upstairs, put a sheet of clear plastic over the hole in the wall, screwed the registers back on, and trimmed the plastic. Now the downstairs gets more heat, and it is comfortable upstairs with just the rising heat.

Good luck, and kudos for buying an older home.

Answer 5

Shut the doors to the upper level hot air rises and thats why your lower level is stays cold