Hot room/cold room: it’s the heating and air-conditioning repair industry’s version of good cop/bad cop. You know the drill. One room in your house is frigid, while another (usually a large and/or important room) refuses to cool off no matter what you do. Try these six tips to keep the battle of good versus evil at bay.

• Close registers and doors. If your tiny downstairs half-bath feels like an Arctic getaway, try closing the heat register in that room. There’s no reason to cool a room that you’re only in for 30 seconds at a time. Shutting the vent allows the cool air to flow more strongly to other (read: hotter) rooms in your home. Also, make sure not to cover your registers with furniture or decorations. They don’t do much good if you’ve got a desk or sofa on top of them!
• Update attic insulation. If the second floor of your home stays consistently warm, despite closing registers on the ground floor and in unused rooms, your attic insulation may be to blame. By increasing attic insulation, you allow less cooled air to escape, which helps maintain a steady and comfortable temperature on all levels of your home.
• Keep doors and windows shut. This seems like a “no-duh” suggestion, but most of us are guilty of such sins as leaving the door open to grab the second load of groceries or opening a window to air out a musty guest bedroom. To keep your home evenly cool, you can’t disrupt the airflow created by the HVAC unit. Make sure everyone in your house abides by this rule.
• Consider a zoning system. There isn’t much use in having a large home if you’re not comfortable hanging out in parts of it. Consider a forced air zoning system if you’ve only got one thermostat for a sizeable home. Much like an air traffic controller, it tells the air where to go and when. Although this heating and air service will cost some money upfront, it will reduce your bills, make you more comfortable, and increase your energy efficiency.
• Decorate. Invest in some good, quality blinds and curtains. If you know a room gets a significant amount of sun during a particular part of the day, ensure it’s adequately closed off at that time. A general rule of thumb is that if the sun is shining in a room, blinds and drapes need to be closed. Not a fan of the dark? Go sit in a room that isn’t receiving direct sunlight. You’ll still get plenty of light without the added heat.
• Tint your windows. This may bring up bad mental images of cars you may have seen, but if you have one or two rooms that stay consistently hotter than the rest of the house, consider having the windows tinted. Tinted windows help reduce ultraviolet rays and glare from the sun. That not only keeps your home cooler but also keeps you safer from dangerous, cancer-causing UV rays.

A residential zoning system makes use of motorized dampers that are controlled by room thermostats and can selectively control the temperature for each zone/room of the home. You can compare this to each room in a house having its own separate light switch rather than one master switch. A zoning system allows you to have that same control over the temperature for each room or section of the house.

And, as a bonus, besides increasing comfort levels in your home, a zoning system can also substantially reduce your utility bills.

Contact us today to schedule a Comfort Consultant to provide you with more information about zoned heating and air conditioning systems and will help you find an option that fits your home, your budget, and your heating and cooling needs.