- Home
- Hot upstairs
Why upstairs is hotter, and what to do first
There are usually several reasons at once. The point of this check is not to name one — it is to put them in the order that costs least and helps most.
Tick what you have noticed
The list on the right reorders itself into the sequence worth working through. It runs in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere — and it is a starting order, not a diagnosis.
Your order of work
Start with the filterTick what applies on the left and this becomes a sequence. Without any ticks, the sensible first move in almost every house is the same one.
What we would do on a visit: measure airflow at the registers and static pressure at the equipment, then work down this same list with numbers instead of guesses. It is usually one afternoon, and the answer is often cheaper than a second system.
Worth knowing
Four things people try first that rarely work
- Closing downstairs registersIt raises static pressure and usually reduces total airflow. Any gain upstairs is small and the system suffers for it.
- Turning the thermostat down furtherIt runs the system longer at the same distribution problem. The upstairs gap stays roughly where it was.
- A bigger systemOversized equipment short-cycles, which makes distribution worse rather than better — and costs more to run.
- A fan at the top of the stairsIt moves air around the landing. It does nothing about a duct that is not delivering.
