If you find you need to wear a sweater in your living room to stay warm, and a tee-shirt in your kitchen to stay cool, you have an air balancing issue. When the airflow to the rooms in your home is uneven, hot and cold spots are created. Hot and cold spots aren’t just uncomfortable, they can also trick you into changing the temperature of your home, leading to higher utility bills.
The team at Bardi Heating, Cooling & Plumbing is here to help tips to avoid hot and cold spots and the sky-high utility bills that come with them.
5 Tips to Avoid Hot and Cold Spots
The following are tips to balance the air in your house. Some of these strategies can be accomplished by homeowners, and others are best completed by a professional.
- DIY: Check Your Filters
Cleaning your filters will ensure that the path of air that flows through them is unobstructed by dirt, dust, or debris. This may well reduce the severity of hot and cold spots in your house. - DIY: Check That No Vents Are Blocked
Oftentimes furniture is the culprit of hot and cold spots. For example, if a couch has been placed over a vent it is likely absorbing the heat coming from that vent, creating a cold spot. Check under your furniture to ensure that no couches, chairs, or objects are blocking vent openings. - DIY: Inspect Your Windows and Doors for Broken Seals
Windows and doors, if not properly sealed, can create unbalanced heat in your home. Faulty window and door seals let in cool drafts from outside, creating pockets of cold air in certain rooms. - Get Professional Duct Maintenance
While sometimes simple problems like clogged filters and blocked vents cause hot and cold zones, air ducts are more commonly at fault. Much like air filters, the dust and debris that collects in air ducts may cause issues with airflow. In more serious cases, defective ductwork causes uneven distribution of air. An HVAC professional can solve faulty ductwork by insulating the ducts, sealing them, fixing loose joints, and removing any sharp turns. Check out this article for more facts about duct sealing. - Zone Your Home
Instead of controlling the temperature of your entire home with one thermostat, a zoned home is divided into sections, each with a dedicated thermostat. Each thermostat controls dampers in the air ducts of the house, enabling different parts of the house to be at different temperatures. Zoning makes it possible to heat up cold spots and cool down warm spots in your home.
Still, need more help with your air balance? Give us a call!
If you have tried these tips to avoid hot and cold spots without success, call the experienced technicians at Bardi Heating, Cooling & Plumbing. The master technicians on our team provide expert heating, cooling, plumbing, and mechanical contracting for families in the Atlanta area. If you need advice, installation, or maintenance contact us, or fill out a service request form online.
