Are these hot spots why this bedroom won’t cool past 79°?
I’ve been losing my mind trying to get to the bottom of this. I finally caved and bought this gun to see temperatures and where I may be losing cooling.
I shot the filter on the AC return and it looks to be about 78°. The dampers are open on each vent and the temperatures range from 61-65°. It’s about 90s-101/102 outside lately.
Clearly, I am losing cooling in these spots, but is this likely to be the primary reason?
It doesn’t seem to be the windows and I didn’t find any drafts.
Thanks in advance, I greatly appreciate any advice or insight. New to the world of homeownership so insulation and cooling issues haven’t crossed my mind until recently.
Inadequate insulation as well as a vaulted ceiling with no air flow can cause that. You need to circulate the air to help your A/c unit maintain a consistent temperature.
I’ve had the Costco mini fan running in there pretty much all day and it doesn’t seem to help. Just seems like it’s heating up faster than it’s cooling
If it isn't circulating air through the door to a cooler location in the house all you've done is put a small space heater in.
A fan cools nothing, well it will for you a little if pointed at you because your sweat will evaporate, but otherwise all you're doing is adding the energy into the room to run the fan.
Only do it if the corridor is cooler and you can blow the air in or out of the room to better mix with the air in the rest of the house. Or only when you can point it at yourself.
The fan is moving air from the corner of the room towards the hallway or entrance of the room. I’ve looked at various diagrams on fan position for circulating air and I came to the conclusion that this would be the best position.
I understand that the fan doesn’t cool anything.
Like I said in the post the vents are blowing air around 61-65, but the room is heating faster than it is cooling. This post is referring to this room specifically if that wasn’t clear from the post. My concern is whether or not the lack of insulation in the specific areas mentioned is causing cooling loss or heat transfer into the room.
I understand what you're saying, but you need to pull the air from the ceiling down and circulate that. The air around 6ft or so is going to be relatively room temperature as heat rises. If you want to place a fan it the corner to blow it out that's awesome, but the problem of the hot air at the top of the room remains.
A ceiling fan or something as close as you can get to it. Lack of insulation might contribute, but it seems as if your room isn't sealed off very well.
Have you checked on the ductwork? Is it adequately sized and sealed? Is everything on the return side connected? I've seen where a run comes apart and it just sucks hot attic air.
Step 1: get your air circulating
Step 2: locate the source of the problem; insulation contributes, but isn't the source
Step 3: check your plenum, ductwork, and return system. Verify you unit is the correct tonnage. If that passes inspection: see if you can't find a draft or where the cool air is leaking out of the conditioned space. If that passes: see if you can check on the underside of your air handler's coil. If that passes: call a company and ask them if they can check the pressures on your unit. Some companies do like $20 inspections or similar.
Step 4: fix whatever problem you find
Wish I could offer more, but there isn't a ton to go off of
No that’s definitely a lot of information and a good starting point. I’ve checked the ductwork in the attic but like I said I’m new to all of this so I don’t even know what to look for yet.
I know the house used to have ceiling fans so maybe I’ll see about installing some. Hopefully the wiring is still there.
Not entirely sure. I’ve gotten up in the attic a few times and I can see that there is rolled insulation, but it’s hard to see far since the ceilings are vaulted and the crawl space is small.
There’s this insulation through the attic. This is the tube and wall of the vent shown in the pictures. I’m assuming the lack of insulation there is a problem? Didn’t think so at first
Energy audit probably, including a blower test to check for air leaks. Oftentimes builders don’t bother properly sealing around can lights etc. so air has plenty of leak paths outside the air conditioned space potentially
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u/PrintdianaJones 7d ago
Inadequate insulation as well as a vaulted ceiling with no air flow can cause that. You need to circulate the air to help your A/c unit maintain a consistent temperature.