Any air conditioning experts out here?

[dennis thompson]

The air conditioning in my first floor seems unbalanced. The living room and dining room in the front of the house are much cooler than the family room and kitchen in the back of the house. We spend most of our time in the family room and rarely use the living room. If I close off the living/dining room vents will that force more cool air into the family/kitchen rooms?
Thanks for any advice.

[Malcolm McLeod]

The air conditioning in my first floor seems unbalanced. The living room and dining room in the front of the house are much cooler than the family room and kitchen in the back of the house. We spend most of our time in the family room and rarely use the living room. If I close off the living/dining room vents will that force more cool air into the family/kitchen rooms?
Thanks for any advice.

The simple answer is 'no, don't just close the vents to the LR/DR'. The remaining vents to the other areas may not be able to carry enough air to utilize the fixed capacity of the A/C unit and your efficiency gets hammered (along with your wallet). (Or do you have a variable speed system?)

You could look at an additional return air duct to the high-use areas. Or, if the LR/DR easily reach the thermostat setting, but leave the high-use areas too hot, you could look at moving the T-stat closer to the high use area. But be careful about getting it too far from the return air intake - - this just causes more problems.

You could look at increasing the size of the ducts to the high-use areas. IF have the space available in the attic or basement, and any chases. And you can get into the chases.

Another option, but not particularly good one, is to modify the supply plenum. Most plenums are built with the various ducts coming off at 90deg to the air flow - to balance the pressure to all ducts. You could blank off the existing high-use area take-offs, and move these ducts to the new holes in end of the plenum - in-line with the air flow. The theory is that these in-line ducts see higher pressure, and so more air flow, but don't restrict the total air flow.

[Jerome Stanek]

You need someone to balance your system

[Mike Henderson]

I had that problem in my house. Finally bit the bullet and had it "zoned" into three zones. So now, I can control the temperature in three different areas of the house (different temperature in each zone). But you can't have on one heat and another on cool. They all do the same thing - heat or cool.

The disadvantage is that the fan in the evaporator section of the A/C is not variable speed so when only one zone is "operating" you get a lot of air coming out of those vents and that increases the wind noise. But, overall, I'm very satisfied with the zoning.

Mike

[In the meanwhile, I'd restrict those vents - maybe not all the way, but some restriction in order to see if more air comes out of the ones you want it to come out of. You won't destroy your A/C by experimenting temporarily.]

[Lee Schierer]

Most systems have dampers in the ducts leading to each space that are used to balance the air flow. Locate the duct(s) feeding the family room and kitchen and open them a little bit at a time to improve air flow to those two rooms. If the dampers are already fully open, locate the ducts feeding the living room and dining room and close them slightly. If your ducts don't have dampers you need to consult with an HVAC contractor to have them installed and have your system balanced. The contractor should do this by actually measuring the air flow to each room.
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