Best way of cooling two story home

We recently moved into a new two story home with central air. My first two story. It’s really warm upstairs, now keep in mind, today is the first day I’ve run the air and I didn’t turn it on until I got home from work. Already 78 degrees in the house. It’s been running ever since.

I’m guessing she’ll take some time to cool down. I plan to open the windows tonight when the temp drops some, but with two babies upstairs, I’m not comfortable having open windows in their rooms. I fear it will get too cold by morning.

Is this going to be a constant battle of good vs evil for the rest of the summer?? Freeze on the main level, roast on the 2nd??

Suggestions to keep my babies from getting too warm?? They are alot like papa, think about moving, start to sweat. I don’t know how they are sleeping right now??

Our 2 story w/central air is the same way. Always cold downstairs and warm upstairs, the evening sun beats on the roof and our bedroom is is under that vaulted ceiling. We use a small window unit for our bedroom. The central is only on a few hours in the evening so we’re comfortable, the cenral air gets turned off before bed, bedroom unit gets turned on. Kind of suks to have to use a window unit w/central air but what do ya do. It works out well for us but no kids or other bedrooms to control.

The small window unit we bought is thermostated and holds temp well, maybe an option??

BIRDDOG

I have a split level and the solution for me was to shut down the vents downstairs and open all the vents upstairs in the summer. Reverse for winter heating season.

hi there kooty
i install hvac,and 2 storys are harder at times to cool/ht.
#1 put your stat on fan on ,that will make your blower run all the time . that will keep the air moving and mixing all the time.
#2 you can try to shut off all the registers in the bacmt., the cold air will find its way on its own to the lower levels.i heat my split with almost all the regs.off or dampered up stairs, and cool with all the ones dn. OFF and all the upper ones open.
#1SHOULD HELP even if the a/c is not on.if the house has the right number of RAs,cold air returns,it should work fine .yes it also will take a long time to cool the house down when frist turned on for the day.
one more thing ,check the fuse by the outside unit and make sure it is in on the on side of the fuse.
#3 if it dose not cool or keep up this summer, better have the freeon checked .
hope that helps

also make sure the outside unit is kept clean and i spose it don’t hurt to make sure you got clean ducts

Here are some things I plan to try:

Shut doors on 2nd floor rooms so heat going upstairs in the foyer stays in the hallway. This is the one I’m not sure about?? I don’t know how that will affect circulation.

Keeps blinds drawn during heat of the day. Our problem is most window don’t have blinds on the main level and are west facing. The wife over did the windows, and the cost for treatments is unreal. HOLY SSSSS!! We considering tinting those window to see how much it helps. We are worried about the “look” of it though.

Close vent covers on main floor.

Thanks for the input guys, if you can’t solve it on IDA, it can’t be solved.

Zone heating and cooling, I switched my house over 2 years ago, I have a VERY HAPPY wife

Kooty-

I have a newer 2 story house with a basement. We don’t use our basement much, so I always leave the vents closed down there. If we are getting company in the winter,I will open them up a day ahead of time. But in the summer, I do also shut a few vents on the main floor and make sure all are wide open on the top floor. With this combination and the fan running constantly the whole house is about the same temp.

Good Luck,

P.S. That furnace fan doesn’t cost much to run all the time, for the .75 cents a day, it is worth the comfort

Quote:

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Zone heating and cooling, I switched my house over 2 years ago, I have a VERY HAPPY wife

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I remember when it first came out about 12 years ago.. What does it cost nowdays?

We have a big 2 story house with 4 bedrooms upstairs. Our bedroom and 3 kids’s bedrooms. We have run into the same problem. Although I like the idea of having the air/fan run all the time on the a/c, the only thing I think about then is the electric bill. The one thing we did was put ceiling fans/lights in the bedrooms and turn them on low. It help to circulate the air pretty good, and are also quiet. Then, by the time the wife and I go to bed, things seem to have cooled down a little bit and we then go in and turn the fans off. Just an idea… Hope it helps.

Kooty;
Call your builder on this.
He should know exactly what to do! If not, his “people” will know!