How can I ensure that the entire house gets cooled down and not just a few rooms?

Question

I live in Florida, so central AC is a must! My home is approximately 1300 square feet.

I have central air conditioning but the two farthest rooms in the house are usually warm while the rest of the house is cool. What can I do to ensure that all rooms are cooled evenly?

Answer 1

Sounds like your system is a free flow supplying air to all rooms at once.
To fix this a technician would have to go into your ceiling and adjust fixed dampers in the ductwork. By getting the correct airflow balance the air should be able to reach the extremity of those rooms.
If the air is still not able to reach rooms you may have a system that does not have enough capacity to adequately supply those rooms. Believe it or not it is a tricky job to balance the air correctly requiring specialist measuring equipment.
Another consideration is the thermostatic control. It is nearly impossible to cool extremity rooms if these have a high heat load in comparison to the rest of the home, the thermostat cannot know what the temperature is in those rooms and even if it did the system would then freeze the rest of the home in a vain attempt to cool the extremity rooms.
Not as easy as it first sounds is it?
Best to get the experts in to have a look. And be selective as to who you choose, this type of job requires high technical experience from a reputable company...don't scrimp out trying to save a few dollars.
Good Luck

Answer 2

Thomas had the right ,idea but I'll explain it a little further. First, check any air filters on your unit ,if they're really plugged it could be limiting air flow; and the furthest rooms would be the first to show it. If that's OK, next, you need to find the varous ducts that circuate the cooled air to the rooms of the house. In Florida, the air condtitioning system is frequently in the attic (or what passes for an attic in many houses). The air duct leading to each room should have an adjusting lever to control the relative flow into each room/area in the house. These were probably adjusted when installed, but the settings can get out of adjustment over the years.

Be very careful if you climb up there; do it in the early morning before it gets very hot. Also many attic/crawl spaces have no floor, if you step between the rafters you will break through the ceiling below, and could even fall through! You can use scraps of plywood as temporay "floor". Make certian its strong enough and still be carefull! (If you are nervous about doing this, hire somone to investigate).

Find the ducts that lead to the "warm" rooms; check to see that they aren't crushed, or have become disconnected. If they're OK, try opening the dampers further. Generally, when the lever is lined up with the duct, its full open (but occasionally, idiots have the levers installed wrong). If, with the dampers for the "warm" rooms full open, you still get insufficient cooling, and there are no obvious blockages, try partially closing off the dampers to the rooms near the air conditioner unit, to force some of the cool air further down the ductwork. Be patient; you may have to make several adjustments to get it evened out)

Answer 3

The reason why the two farthest rooms get the least amount of cold air is that air, like water and electricity, follows the "path of least resistance". Air flows more easily through shorter ducts than longer ones. There are two things you can do to get more air to the farther rooms. 1. Partially close the vents in the nearer rooms. Most vent covers have a movable baffle inside that can be set anywhere from completely open to completely shut. If yours don't, you can partially cover the vent with something else (if you don't want it to look bad, you could paint a piece of cardboard black, remove the vent cover, and reinstall the cover with the cardboard behind it. That way it will be almost invisible and depending now big a hole you cut will control the airflow.) Also, some houses have baffles (usually called dampers) installed in the duct work, which will usually be either in the attic or the basement, depending where your heater/AC unit is located. This approach can also be used to save energy if you have a room (like a guest bedroom) that you don't usually use. Simply close or block off the vent to that room and the heater/AC won't have to expend the energy to heat/cool that space, just remember to keep the door shut to the rest of the house(you may actually find that this has been done in these rooms and that is why they aren't getting cooled properly, so check the vents and make sure they are open to begin with). 2. Install booster (auxiliary) fans in the ducts going to the two farthest rooms. The booster fans normally are triggered by the blower in the furnace/AC unit, so they only run when needed, and they help push more air to the farther vents.

Usually the first option is enough to make the difference, and is much cheaper and simpler to do. Occasionally, however, even that isn't enough to get a lot of air to the longer runs and the second option is needed. Also, you can pay a professional to do both of these, but most of the people I know who have had this problem have been able to get the system working well enough to be comfortable on their own. It will generally just take a few days of readjusting to get it the way you like it. If you do hire someone, it would most likely be to install the booster fans because that does require some technical knowledge. After they are in, you will probably have to readjust the vents because you will find the farther rooms are getting too cool.

There are a few other things that can help a bit. One is to wrap the ducts in the basement/crawlspace with insulation if you can get to them. This way less of the heat or cold (depending on the season) will radiate through the walls of the duct before the air can get to where you want it (the space in the house you actually spend time in). Another is to get light colored curtains that are thick enough fabric to block most of the light. These will reflect more sunlight (and therefore heat) back out the windows and therefore slightly reduce the amount of heat the air conditioner has to deal with. Darker colors will work too, but will absorb more heat and reflect less, but they will keep the house a bit cooler than no curtains or blinds. Lastly, placing fans or ceiling fans in the house can help to circulate the cool air better, but only if the doors to the warmer rooms are left open, and even then ceiling fans may not have the greatest effect. Another thing that can help (and help keep the house more comfortable in general) is to add more insulation to the exterior walls and roof of the house. This can be expensive and/or time consuming, but it will help keep the temperatures inside the house more manageable, and you will usually save money in the long run. Booster fans and restricting the openings in the other vents work better, are out of the way (sometimes unlike fans sitting in the house), and work even when the doors to those rooms are closed.

I hope this helps!

Answer 4

try to close the vents a little closest to the ac and open up the farthest vents wide open you will get more air in the farthest rooms,and keep the blinds down due to sun.

Answer 5

I have a lot of windows and recently had to get dark screen covers. I can really tell the difference. Adding some blinds and curtains will help. If it's not too much you can invest in a couple of ceiling fans.

Answer 6

Try adjusting your to even out the air flow if that doesn't work use fans to help circulate the air.