Issues heating and cooling a Cape Cod home

[ddrallette]

I have a 10+ year old cape cod style home about about 2100 square feet. We recently installed a wood burning furnace outside and it keeps our downstairs nice a warm. The upstairs is a different story. The upstairs is very warm in the summer and very cold in the winter. Currently it is 74 degrees in our downstairs and 63 degrees in our upstairs (readings from thermometers). There seems to be no regulating the temperature. There are 2 bedrooms, a bathroom and a medium size landing upstairs as well as a "bonus room" which is more like a large closet. Each bedroom has 1 return vent. The larger (17x17)room has 2 air ducts, the smaller (13x17) bedroom and bathroom has 1. There are no ducts on the landing or in the bonus room. It is worth noting that the closet in the smaller room has a door to a crawl space near the floor and it located on an exterior wall. This closet is VERY cold in the winter and I notice the temperature in that room being significantly worse if the closet door is left open. There is also a opening in the ceiling of the bonus room that leads to a type of attic. Any suggestions as to what could potentially be the issue would be greatly appreciated.

[esker3]

Assuming that you have an indoor air handler to transfer the heat, I would run a constant fan to try to balance the house. If you do this even when the unit is not blowing hot air at least the air from all of the rooms in the house will be taken back to the air handler mixed together to a uniform temperature and redistributed back to each room. Seems like you have some design flaws to your home but this should help some. I dont know if you can zone a wood burner but its worth looking into also. Good luck.

[tjc76]

silly question, but is the insulation in your attic intact?

[George2]

If I'm reading the post correctly, you have 4 supplies to the second floor?

You have a woodburner outside, do you also have some sort of back up heat package?

Do you have central A/C as part of this system?

Without much information, my first guess is that your very short on the amount of airflow to the second floor. It's a very common problem with new and old homes.

It's a money and/or knowledge thing.

[hvac-learning]

Make sure the knee wall are insulated well and no drafts /cracks/small gaps around the penetrations of wall supplys or returns wood syle boiler outdoor? ahu in behind knee wall? what size HW coil in AHU (btu`s) maybe not a large enough coil / restriction in lines coil/ circulator problems/ dirty filter// blower speed too low list can go on...

[stvc]

A wood burning furnace outside? I've seen boilers but not furnaces.
Sounds like this could turn into an interesting thread, post some pictures so we can get a better idea of the situation. Sounds like a couple good thoughts already though.

[genduct]

Although there are some who might believe your description of all those returns should rule out duct distribution problems, I think you have both insulation issues (that door to the kneewall area should be gasketed and insulated) and duct balancing problems.
You need someone who can MEASURE AND THEREFORE CONFIRM YOU HAVE AIRFLOW.

[REECHMAN]

Warm in summer, cold in winter? Start with the insulation and air sealing. You can contact a home energy auditor in your area and have them come out and test your home. You'll be surprised how much air is coming in and out of your home.

[KIMHVAC101]

Reechman is spot on. Cape Cods are famous for insulation deficiencies. I would agree to have a Home Energy Auditor bring in their equipment (blower door, manometers, and thermal imaging camera). That will be the best start since you already have a system in place and you assume someone ran load calculations.

[George2]

Reechman is spot on. Cape Cods are famous for insulation deficiencies. I would agree to have a Home Energy Auditor bring in their equipment (blower door, manometers, and thermal imaging camera). That will be the best start since you already have a system in place and you assume someone ran load calculations.

This is a 10 yr. old home. Now my 65 yr. old has insulation deficiencies!

However, my second floor heats and cools fine. At $178.00/ month for 2,250 sq. ft. I'm not too upset.

I think is issue is ductwork related.

He must of gotten another utility bill and died of a heart attack. He hasn't been back to read the replies.