Its Hot In Here..

Here is your scenario:  You live in Chattanooga and it is in the middle of Summer.  Its hot and muggy.  For the most part, your home cools quite well but there is that one room, maybe your bedroom, and it doesn’t quite get as cool as you’d like.  What do you do?

Before we decide on our options lets first understand what is happening throughout the system.  There is obviously air blowing through a series of ductwork in your crawl space and/or attic.  Assuming your unit and ductwork have been sized correctly for your home, the air flow will produce pressure.  This pressure is necessary for your unit to perform correctly.  I won’t go into detail why, but understand that there is a relationship between the size of your home, the amount of air flow into the home, and the size of your ductwork.

Now, let’s get back to solving the problem of that muggy room.  Here are our options:
1)       Add a Vent into the room
Pro:  An additional vent right into the room
       Con:  Could negatively affect pressure.  Labor intensive.  Potentially expensive.
2)      Close off Registers in other rooms
Pro:  User Friendly
Con:  Hard to correctly measure productive air-flow.  Could negatively affect pressure.
3)      Add Mini-Split
Pro:  Dedicated and thermostatic air.  Will not affect rest of systems or pressure.
Con:  Potentially Expensive
4)      Upgrade System
Pro:  Brand new.  Can adjust tonnage for new Heat Load.  New Technology.
Con:  Expensive. Unless your system has failed and requires replacement, this is obviously impractical.

Some of the more practical points here are obvious.  Sometimes it is ok to damper vents, sometimes it is not.  Sometimes it is ok to add a vent, sometimes it is not.  Your heating and air company will give you options that should be affordable and balance the system and its pressures.

Other things that need to be considered are your ductwork and the shape it is in.  Often times, ductwork, especially flexible ductwork, develop holes.  These holes are bad, not just for your comfort levels, but for the pressure in your system.  So, there is an off chance you may not need additional cooling but a minor repair.

Granted, you may actually need your ductwork replaced.  This stuff gets old.  It loses its effectiveness.  It also gets dirty.  It gets moist.  It gets cold.  Mice love it, and raccoons.  Obviously, because this stuff is in crawl spaces and attics (especially in the Tennessee Valley), the elements, along with the location of your ductwork will affect its life expectancy greatly.
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To sum this up, if you have a room or have several rooms that aren’t being heated or cooled properly, call someone.  You have options.  Of course, we would love it if you called us!  706-820-6041
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