Equalizing temp in rooms

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donald73d

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I am an old guy but new to HVAC as I was use to baseboard heat. My new to me home with a heat pump has temperature differences between rooms with the doors closed. Is the best way to get several accurate thermometers and then make sure all the dampers are open and start to adjust dampers? Is there a best practice?
 
Do you have air returns in each room? If not, when the doors are closed the room becomes pressurized because you're trying to push more air into the room than is getting out around the door and through other gaps in the room. Keeping doors open will allow the system to work much better.

For privacy you could add back to back air grates above your doors will allow the air to move from the vents through the room and out to your centrally located air return.
 
I have doors open except when I sleep. From a fire perspective you should have doors to bedrooms closed when sleeping. I know my master bedroom does have a return.
 
How does the master bedroom fare with regards to temperature regulation? I understand about the recommendations regarding fires. That doesn't change what causes problems in the rooms. The inability of air to move out of the room prevents more air from coming into the room via the air vents.
 
The master bedroom is hotter than surrounding rooms with doors closed. The thermostat is right outside the master bedroom door.
 
If your MBR has both supply and return vents balancing the dampeners at the trunk line may help. However, with the thermostat outside of the bedroom the system doesn't know your bedroom is hotter. Is your bedroom on the south or southwest side of the house? Does it have a lot of sun exposure? Have you had your HVAC system serviced lately? The tech should be able to help adjust the dampers to put more air flow into your bedroom. Is your unit located in the attic or basement/crawlspace? Can you access the main trunk line and branch lines to the various rooms in your house?
 
The unit is serviced 2x a year. Unit is in crawlspace that I can get to. The MBR is front to back on the east side of the house. So the back windows of the MBR are towards the south, But several large trees in the back also. I am looking to up my expertise on HVAC. So something like this should be doable,.
 
Try partially closing the dampers in the heat registers in the master bedroom.
That will push more air elsewhere where it is needed.
Or look for and adjust dampers on trunks and takeoffs if they are accessible.
 
Your thermostat likely has a switch for the fan that says "ON---OFF---AUTO." And it is likely set to AUTO. If you move it to ON, the fan will run continuously. That is the easiest way to improve heat balance. If you have a modern air handler with an ECM blower, the fan will likely run at a nice slow speed that you won't even hear it running. Some people don't like running the fan full time in the summer because after the AC stops, it will evaporate some of the condensed water on the coil rather than letting it drip off, and thus raising the humidity somewhat.
 
Try partially closing the dampers in the heat registers in the master bedroom.
That will push more air elsewhere where it is needed.
Or look for and adjust dampers on trunks and takeoffs if they are accessible.


He's complaining that the MBR is hotter than the other rooms. Since this is summer, I'm guessing hotter isn't what he's looking for. The advise is sound, just for the wrong rooms. I'd adjust at the duct dampers if they are accessible.
 
Sparky you are right, I was thinking of the heating season, not cooling.
Brain fart.

So partially close the registers in rooms that are nice and cool, and partially close any registers that supply conditioned air to the hallway outside the MBR.
More air flow will be directed to the registers in the MBR, and with less air flow in the hallway, the thermostat will take longer to cool down, and the a/c will run longer.

Or do the same thing by adjusting duct and trunk line dampers, if you can get to them.
 
Your thermostat likely has a switch for the fan that says "ON---OFF---AUTO." And it is likely set to AUTO. If you move it to ON, the fan will run continuously. That is the easiest way to improve heat balance. If you have a modern air handler with an ECM blower, the fan will likely run at a nice slow speed that you won't even hear it running. Some people don't like running the fan full time in the summer because after the AC stops, it will evaporate some of the condensed water on the coil rather than letting it drip off, and thus raising the humidity somewhat.
This will help, especially if he keeps the doors open except at night. We don't know if the other rooms have return ducts in them. The MBR does per an earlier post. Without returns the rooms become pressurized with the doors closed restricting air movement.
 
Where do you live, and how old is the house?
Two things..
First thing. Check attic insulation above master. It might be worth a few bucks to blow some new insulation in to lower heat migration.
Second. The "wall vent" idea is sound. They do make vents that will automatically close if there is a fire.
 
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