A portion of my attic is a walled off room with insulation on exterior of walls and there are 2 AC vents up there (same unit for whole house)It's a third floor, but still only accessible through a ceiling/ladder door that is almost always closed (and not sealed very well if at all)Does anybody know if it's more efficient to leave those vents up there open or closed?Ps I live in south Texas.the AC is running majority of the year
The best resolution to the problem, and probably the most costly - sorry, is to install a seperate HVAC unit for only the second storyA quality built house will have this alreadyLess expensive - Attic fans are a good suggestionPut fans at the top of the stairs to pull cool air up from the 1st floor Install a window air conditioner in the one room you have the ceiling fan, that is assuming it is the only room you live in upstairsInstall a ceiling fan at the top of the stairsDo you have dual pane windows with low E? Plant trees and plants outside to shade the houseWhen you re roof use a lighter color material as to not absorb so much heatPut in a pool?
Close the vents and try to seal the entry to your attic better than it isYou are losing a lot of cool air into that area that you don't go into, and the heat from your roof will always change the cool from those ventsEven though heat rises and cold air falls the hot air from the roof will certainly win the battle up thereSave you power for Rooms that you use, and save money too :)
I just finished replacing my old single pane windows in my two story and noticed that the temperature dropped by 3 degrees with my a/c on the same setting and the a/c is not running as muchThe low e coating on the windows works very well as I can now touch the glass and not feel the heat like I could before and the vinyl frames also stay cool.
Do you have an attic fan? Make sure that the ventilation in your attic is goodYou can either put a large attic fan in or two small ones at your ventsIt will pull the heat out of the house and is a must have if you have central airWe are currently buying a home and this is what the inspector suggested we do to keep both cooling and heating costs down.
