Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[PhilStubbs]

So, I bought this house a few months ago and the a/c has been working great and overall for the age of the place, the insulation seems to be pretty good. The only problem I have is that the master bedroom gets hot through the night. When I go to bed it's nice and cool, usually around 2-3am it gets hot. Then when the a/c finally comes on it cools right down, but then gets hot again till the a/c runs again.

I keep the ceiling fan on high as long as I'm in there but moving hot air doesn't do much. I have return vents in the wall above the door and I considered putting some sort of fan in there to either pull the hot air out or push cool air in. I just wonder if im wasting my time and money with that. Anyone here work on houses and have a solution to this.

[j.h.christ]

heat rises. move the bedroom.

[2slow]

Close vents in rooms you dont need it like the bathroom or closets and shit. Or leave the master bedroom door open

[keelay]

My bedroom does the same thing, but during the day. There are a few reasons for this. The room where the thermostat is is cooler. More windows in the bedroom. I do it kinda ghetto. I have two fans mounted around the doorway to my room, pulling air from the cooler living room into the bedroom. It does ok. Before the fan, there was a good 15 degree difference during the day. It's still an obvious difference now, but it' a much more tolerable 5ish degrees. But I don't have central cooling, just a large window unit.
  If I were you, I'd look into running another thermostat in your bedroom to control the a/c

[PhilStubbs]

the bedroom isnt on top of anything, so i dont see how moving it will fix anything.

we do have some vents closed off, but the bedroom is just fine as long as the a/c is running. flow isnt the problem, i guess its more circulation

i also cant leave the door open due to 2 cats and a roomate.

i did consider a 2nd thermostat, but i would have to find a way to have it only work in the one bedroom, otherwise the other rooms would be completely freezing.

the best solution i can come up with is to find a way to circulate the air from the living room to the bedroom(living room is right next to master bedroom and where the thermostat is)

i just wonder if one fan pulling just one direction would work, or if i should have 2, one to push cold air in and one to pull hot air out

[keelay]

One fan will work, if placed correctly. Think about it. You are forcing air in, therefore creating a pressure differential between the bedroom, and the room it is pulling from. No need for a fan pushing air out. Placed correctly, it will pull cooler air in, and send the hotter air out. Just look at your layout, and use common sense about airflow, and it will fall into place.
   Now there has to be a reason that one room is getting warmer quicker than the rest. Is it an addition? If so, poor insulation could be a factor, or insufficient duct flow, Check out the ducting. It could be the last vent in the duct, or the furthest from the a/c unit. Figure out solution accordingly. Is the room getting direct sunlight during the day? Get some GOOD window coverings. The thick, dark kind. Or if you are ghetto like me, blankets. The sun will cook a room in just a matter of minutes.

[PhilStubbs]

the room is not an addition. it is the farthest one from the air handler, but it cools right down once the a/c is running. i dont suspect the sun being a problem, the room is fine all day cause the door is open. its only between 1am and about 6am. i ASSume due to the door being shut only during those times.

i am thinking a small fan mounted in the return vent thats above the door to pull the hot air out would work. it could then put a suction at the bottom of the door to pull cool air in since that is the only other opening to get air

[Jorsher]

Open the door.

Closed door = pressure = less air going in = nowhere for the heat to go.

Air, like everything else, takes the path of least resistance.  If the other rooms are open doors the AC is going to have an easier time pushing air there.  Not to mention the AC sucks air...  If that room is closed off, but the others are open, the AC suckage is going to decrease the pressure in those rooms, and the nice cooled air will have an easier time being pushed into those rooms.

What's the big problem with opening that door?

You want the cool air to circulate in the house.  WTF is a return vent?  I'm in an old fucking house so maybe that's future technology the house didn't get built with, but all I have is vents for the AC/heater to blow air.  The doors also have vent-like things built into them, I suppose to improve circulation, but I can still tell the pressure difference so it's obviously not sufficient.

Sucking cool air in the bottom will not work unless you have somewhere for the air in the room to escape.  I suppose if you really do have a return system then this may work, but if you do then if you put a nice inline fan in the return duct than you won't need anything to suck cool air from the bottom.

[SgtB]

If you've got a closed bathroom attached to the master, open its vent and the  door at night. All the air travels towards the return. I wouldn't recommend closing the other rooms vents completely, but shutting them a little helps. Keep a clean filter in the return too. The quickest way to fuck yourself out of money is a poorly flowing ac system.

If your doors have the proper space under them, the pressure shouldn't be enough to kill flow into the room. If your door makes a noise when the ac comes on, then you may have a pressure problem in the room, but it could also mean that your blower has enough power that it doesn't matter. You can balance it with the other vents if need be.

Don't turn the ac too far up during the day either, and absolutely do not turn it off. Heat soak burns more energy than running it in most cases. I just bump mine up 5-8 degrees while we're at work.

[Hotrodlincoln]

Who cares if your room-mate can peek in at night and see u poking your ol lady in the guts, keep the door open. At least partially.

[crttaz]

partly open door with a tower fan to move air.

done right the cats won't get in.

[PhilStubbs]

the return vents are basically vents above the doors cut into the wall to allow the air to come out of the room when the door is shut. it takes the place of having a big gap at the bottom of the door. it also helps that the hot air is up high where the vents are.

as for leaving the door open, the cats are a bigger worry than the roomate. i can shut the door for bone'n. it will stay cool long enough to knock the bottom out of the wife.

i see where you are going with that idea bone, but im after a fix that doesnt require effort every night. i am leaning towards a small fan inside the return vent above the door with a switch in with the ceiling fan switch. i can walk in, flick it on and go to sleep. i think there is enough of a gap at the bottom of the door so the fan will push out hot air from the top and cool air will come in under the door.

[fysh]

Window A/C unit, or one of those more low-key units that Hotels use.

[bluerex]

didn't read shit so not sure if this was mentioned yet, but just switch the air handler's fan from auto to on.

[highroller54]

if you have to leave the door closed then get a "window air conditioner" just for that room

[PhilStubbs]

i have done that in other houses i have lived in, but our power bill is already $300 a month. shooting for something a little more efficient.

most of the time i can sleep through it and dont even notice, but those nights when i wake up almost sweating, its annoying.

[crttaz]

ah, a hot sleeper, like me. If it i above 80 in the bedroom, I can't sleep even with a fan blowing on me.

Those ice packs for 6 pack Igloo Little Playmates, I've slept with them wrapped in a thin towel to be cool.

OK, onto your issue.

How much gap at bottom of the door? Need at least 3/4", 1" is preffered. now for the killer idea. Hang a tower fan in front of the vent above the door. Mine had a remote control. You will have to be careful as to isolate NVH. My bedroom the door has about 1/4" gap at the bottom. If door is not block open it will get sucked shut. You can leave the base off, that way if you hit oscillate the fan won't go crazy.

Who big is the opening?

120v cooling fans?



FYI in the winter, I keep the floor vent closed most of the time. I try to keep my room at 65 degrees...or colder. I really wanna bury an ISO shipping container (102"x48-53') under ground to live in. Very little heat needed and in the summer, stays nice and cool!
 

[PhilStubbs]

That looks like it will fit. Do you have a link to that fan? That's pretty much what I had in mind. I wil have to measure the hole, but my eybal tape measure says it's 4"x18" and the wall is 2x4 built plus Sheetrock so its more than thick enough to house that fan. If it wont fit, I will mount that bitch on the outside of the vent first and if it works find a bigger vent and cut the hole bigger.

I like the shipping container idea, I have had similar thoughts, but if FL you can dig more than a couple feet before you hit water.

[sewell94]

I really wanna bury an ISO shipping container (102"x48-53') under ground to live in. Very little heat needed and in the summer, stays nice and cool!
 

Some of the houses they're building out of shipping containers is amazing.

[jabberwock]

didn't read shit so not sure if this was mentioned yet, but just switch the air handler's fan from auto to on.

Winner right here, but you will burn through return filters more often.  What I've done is take cheapo filters, cut the cardboard border off, make a frame from some waterproof shit, wash the filter every so often.  Fuck those fancy $30 filters you see at Lowes.

Panic room/lair shipping container buried in the yard would be baller as fuck.

[PhilStubbs]

That would put my electric bill through the roof though

[jabberwock]

Where is your duct work?  Basement/crawl or attic?  Multi or single level house?

Set the fan to "on" when you go to bed and "auto" when you get up.  That will make it only be circulating (and evening out temps) at night.  A big fan circulating a whole house's air is more efficient than a bunch of small fans in each room.

[snarf]

In order for the a/c to do it's work like it was designed to, ALL door should be shut.  You also need to think about balancing the air flow AKA: close vents near the t-stat half way and open the master bd room all the way.  However this may be easier said than done when you have a roommate situation. 

[PhilStubbs]

It's a single level house with the ducts in the ceiling.

The spare bedroom door is always closed and my roomate closes his door at night. The only open doors are the 2 bathrooms, one of them being inside my bedroom.

I think I might just try the fan idea with a fan I already have and see if it works. I'm sure running the fan in the air handler all night would work, I just think the power consumption would be huge compared to one small fan for my room.

[1slow91hf]

try installing a door vent as long as you dont mind your roomy hearing you railing your lady like spiker on a baconator 

[PhilStubbs]

There is already a vent above the door for the sole purpose of letting air out of the room to get back to the return vent.

[Kain]

shave off the bottom 1 inch of the door.