Low air flow to certain rooms or areas of a building is one of the complaints we hear all the time. Buildings with several levels and only one central furnace and air conditioner usually have trouble getting each floor the same temperature for several reasons.
The thermostat is usually on the middle floor. Once the middle floor temperature has reached the set point of the thermostat, the furnace or air conditioning system will shut off whether or not the other floors are at that temperature or not. If the building was built using a system for each floor the problem would not exist because each floor would have it's own thermostat. It is often possible to install a second system in a home or building. Doing this, would involve adding a second furnace or air handler, another air conditioner, running new refrigerant lines, a thermostat and all related secondary and primary 120 volt and 230 volt wiring. Often times, however this is not feasible for many reasons.
Another choice might be to install zoning to the existing furnace if it is possible to somehow separate the ductwork in a manner that will allow the zoning to work correctly. Zoning works by having electronic dampers installed in the ductwork, adding a zoning panel and various thermostats. The only time these dampers open and let heated or cooled air into a room is if there is a signal from the zones thermostat. The cost on most zoning jobs runs about ,500.00 to ,000.00 depending on the complexity of the job.
A higher 1,625 R.P.M direct drive blower motor can usually be installed which will move more air to all registers. Once this has been done you can damper down on smaller room registers like bathrooms really boost the air where it is needed.
Still another way to help even out a building temperature is to balance the system. Balancing is done by measuring the amount of air flow coming out of the registers, determining with a heating and cooling load survey what the actual requirement are for the rooms and then adjusting the registers to get the required air flow from each register. Balancing will never replace separate systems or zoning but it will make the building much more even and won't cost an arm and a leg to get done. Most quality Heating and Air Conditioning companies can do a balancing job at a reasonable cost.
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