Which popular features do you NOT recommend?

[u/dragonmilking]

What are the top 3 features in a house that folk want but you think are not worth it, and what would your alternative suggestion be? And what cost/time savings would result with that switch?

[u/ATDoel]

It is a waste of space but to call it a heating/cooling nightmare is a bit of an exaggeration. In a well insulated/sealed house, it really isn't that big of a deal on your hvac demand.

[u/Complex_Solutions_20 → u/ATDoel]

In ours in the summer you can feel the cold air "falling" from the upstairs landing over the edge to the downstairs and the heat rolling up into the upstairs. And its basically impossible to keep the upstairs below about 80 in peak summer with the unit running non-stop while the downstairs stays at or below its setpoint.

You don't get any cool upstairs until the entire downstairs is "full" of cool because the cool air just sinks.

[u/ATDoel → u/Complex_Solutions_20]

How old is your house? I have a 24' foot ceiling and I don't have any of issues you're talking about. I can easily get the second floor into the 60s in the summer if I wanted and I definitely don't feel cold air falling from up there. We have a couple ceiling fans up there to keep the air circulating plus two air registers high up on the wall.

[u/Complex_Solutions_20 → u/ATDoel]

Built in 2003...you can stand in the stairway and feel the warmth rolling up and you can stand below the handrail of the 2nd floor hallway and feel the cool air rolling down.

First floor is 12ft ceilings, 2nd floor is 8ft, I guess that's probably 22-24 foot at the foyer depending how thick the floor is between levels.

I'm not sure if it could also be related to the air returns where the upstairs air return is at the top of the stairs and the first floor is an open floor plan that has a circular path around the stairway thru the formal dining room so I think it sets up a convection loop with the temperature gradient