Cooling the 2nd story: long term solution?
Question:We have insulated as much as possible in attic and walls and overhang (because of the type of insulation in the walls we cannot force more insulation in). A new roof is not due for 10 years. There is a significant heat change from the first to second story. All blinds are closed (when the sun is coming in). We have an open staircase (that would be a nightmare to close off). We have a ceiling fan in one of the rooms and close off other rooms. What can we do to cool the 2nd story?
Answers:
Two other things you can do is to put in an attic fan and tint your windows. Our second story gets blazing hot 100 degree sun beating in all day long. We did the ceiling fan in the master bedroom and it does help. But, tinting the windows and putting in that attic fan helped more. I am able to keep the upstairs at 75 degrees and the downstairs at 70 degrees without the AC on. Our attic fan is set to automatically turn itself on when the temperature reaches 90 degrees up there. Sometimes it runs from early morning to well into dark, but before I had it installed the upstairs was always hot. My stairwell is open to the downstairs, too and you used to literally feel the difference between the temperatures upstairs and downstairs while walking up the stairs. Now there is only a subtle difference.
Do you have an attic fan? Make sure that the ventilation in your attic is good. You can either put a large attic fan in or two small ones at your vents. It will pull the heat out of the house and is a must have if you have central air. We are currently buying a home and this is what the inspector suggested we do to keep both cooling and heating costs down.
The best resolution to the problem, and probably the most costly - sorry, is to install a seperate HVAC unit for only the second story. A quality built house will have this already.
Less expensive -
Attic fans are a good suggestion.
Put fans at the top of the stairs to pull cool air up from the 1st floor.
Install a window air conditioner in the one room you have the ceiling fan, that is assuming it is the only room you "live" in upstairs.
Install a ceiling fan at the top of the stairs.
Do you have dual pane windows with low E?
Plant trees and plants outside to shade the house.
When you re roof use a lighter color material as to not absorb so much heat.
Put in a pool?
I just finished replacing my old single pane windows in my two story and noticed that the temperature dropped by 3 degrees with my a/c on the same setting and the a/c is not running as much. The low e coating on the windows works very well as I can now touch the glass and not feel the heat like I could before and the vinyl frames also stay cool.
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