More heat on the first floor = more heat up the stairwell?

[jerrod6]

I haven’t turned the heat on yet this season and this sounds like a dumb situation/question but:

If you have two rooms on the first floor, connected by a center hallway which contains a stairwell, one room is cooler than the others, and the cooler room is getting as much supply as it’s ducts will carry, so in the warmer room if you increase the supply through the dampers will the heat move from the warmer room to the cooler, OR will the additional heat go up the stairwell to the upper floors?

[beenthere]

Possibly neither will happen.

If you increase the air flow to that room. The room air will mix better with the increased air volume from the register.

This sounds like a cooling question. But I know your in heating season, cause philly ain't warmer then here.

[jerrod6]

Possibly neither will happen.

If you increase the air flow to that room. The room air will mix better with the increased air volume from the register.

This sounds like a cooling question. But I know your in heating season, cause philly ain't warmer then here.


Yeah this is a heating question, but so far no need to run the heater since the house is holding the heat from..when it was warmer. So maybe the room air will mix better...do you mean it will mix better and move down the hallway to the colder room or just stay in the warmer room. I mean it is basically all open space aside from the center hall, but there is a difference in ceiling heights, and this stairway is in the hall

[beenthere]

It will mix better in that room.
And some of that air will be forced out into the hallway so that it can go to the return.
But, it may not help with the cold room.

[jerrod6]

It will mix better in that room.
And some of that air will be forced out into the hallway so that it can go to the return.
But, it may not help with the cold room.

Your comments regarding the air mixing but not helping the cold room are what I suspected. I do find that with the register damper partially open in the warmer room it tends to increase the air flow at the supplies in the colder room, so I will leave the configuration alone. Earlier this year I completely opened all air returns resulting in increased supply flow throughout the entire system, so I may not need to do anything when I start heating season.

[dan sw fl]

Earlier this year I completely opened all air returns resulting in increased supply flow throughout the entire system, so I may not need to do anything when I start heating season.

Turn the thermostat up AND
YOU WILL KNOW !


ARE the room/ hallway air temp differences < 3'F?
Yes, you ought to be satisfied.

No, call a Pro Air Balancer.

http://nebb.org/index.php
http://www.aabc.com/

[jerrod6]

Turn the thermostat up AND
YOU WILL KNOW !


ARE the room/ hallway air temp differences < 3'F?
Yes, you ought to be satisfied.

No, call a Pro Air Balancer.

http://nebb.org/index.php
http://www.aabc.com/

Ok Dan I took your advice and did the following:

I turned the tstat up so the heat would come on. My blower speed is set to medium-low which is the factory default for heating. The cooler room has vents in the walls about 7 inches from the floor. The vents are located on the side walls on either side of an outside wall which has french doors and windows that lead to the back yard. I guess the design thinking was to send the heat across this outside wall.

Years ago I purchased plastic air difusers from Home Depot designed to direct air flow up and I had them on the room registers. After the heat started there was more air than previous, then I decided to take the difusers off and use the grill louvers to direct the air. The registers have two parts the damper part which opens and closes it and the grill which has individual louvers that can be adjusted. I adjusted each one so that the air was being sent out and up across the wall. What a difference - in a good way. The air is sent out across the wall and up about 7 ft up into the room on each side. I didn't get on a ladder to see if it was going higher on each side. The air flow seems to meet in the middle. Perhaps the air difusers were not a good idea because they sent the air up but not out into the room?

As far a temp differences there is about a 1 to 1 1/2 degree difference in the rooms with or without any system running usually not more than this, and the stairway leading to the upper floors is in this hallway. The hallway is the same temp as the warmer rooms. I thought every thing was supposed to be the same so maybe I am being too picky about temperature differences. It will be interesting to see what happens when it gets really cold now that I have opened all returns, adjusted the register grill and ditched the difusers. I thought I was doing good by using the difusers -but maybe not. I will check out the links posted.

[beenthere]

If you have a hydrotherm.

Measure the humidity in that room, compared to the warmer room and hallway.

[dan sw fl]

I turned the tstat up so the heat would come on.
My blower speed is set to medium-low

The air is sent out across the wall and up about 7 ft up into the room on each side.

As far a temp differences there is about a 1 to 1 1/2 degree difference in the rooms with or without any system running usually not more than this, and the stairway leading to the upper floors is in this hallway. The hallway is the same temp as the warmer rooms. I thought every thing was supposed to be the same so maybe I am being too picky about temperature differences. .

Nice work.

PERFECTION ( +/-1'F ) will cost you
time,
______ $,$$$,
____________your sanity
or ___ ALL OF THE ABOVE.


GO WITH THE most reasonable FLOW ... LOL

[jerrod6]

If you have a hydrotherm.

Measure the humidity in that room, compared to the warmer room and hallway.


I have one so will do that. Do I need to wait until the heating system is running or can I do it with it off?

[beenthere]

Do it with the system off.
And then with it on.

See if their is a big difference in humidity between those rooms.