Central air??

Question

is there any way to seal off downstairs vents to push the cool air to the top floor of our house.

My wife is 8 months pregnant and trying to sleep in the heat is horrible. I was thinkin I could seal off some of the other vents in the lower levels to push the air upstairs to our bedroom. Is there a certain way to seal them?? Tape?

I tryed closing them but air stil gets thru.

thanks

Answer 1

You can toss a rug over them if they are on the floor. But I don't give much hope for changing it much. The little air coming out after closing them won't help the upstairs much.  

If you are still getting air out after closing them then air pressure is high and the ducting is not taking all the air upstairs.

Since heat rises I would guess it is designed and balanced well for heating as the upstairs needs less since heat rises. Usually the lower part of the home is cooler in winter. But of course the reverse is true for cooling and that is why you are having this problem.

Closing vents risks moving too little air and frosting up the coil. So that is a problem with shutting down the lower vents.

You might want to run the fan on constant fan to keep circulating air during the day to help even the temp..  Run the fan even if not cooling yet during the day.

But your best and cheapest solution really is to add a window a/c for that bedroom to help out balancing the central a/c.

I see that often here where heating is a bigger consideration than cooling.

Then if cooler to start it might be able to maintain it in the night and that would allow opening the other vents. It will be more efficient in total if you are not closing very many vents.

Good Luck.

Answer 2

Our a.c. repair man had us open all the vents. He said it is not efficient and it's harder on the compressor if the unit isn't properly moving air through correctly. We solved the exact problem you have by having insulation blown in all the outside walls, and having our attic heavily insulated. Now there is no noticable difference in the 2 floors anymore, and I rarely have had to use our a.c. You  may want to check into this, or just get a window a.c. to put in your room.

Answer 3

Mine was doing the same thing when I was pregnant last summer and I called an HVAC guy and he came and adjusted it so it was cooler upstairs. He asked how much cooler I wanted it and I said 5 degrees. He went to the basement, it took him about 5 minutes to adjust it and within a few hours it was 4 degrees cooler upstairs.  It cost me $75.