Air Conditioning!

[pf0sh0]

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What do you all set the AC to at night?

Wife set to 18-19 at night, I have 3 blankets.

[ExtraSlow]

My wife would prefer 23 daytime and 17 nighttime temp. We settle on 21 and 19.5 in the summer.

[pf0sh0]

Compromise is nice. I end up opening the ecobee app and just turning temps up/down and battle temps passive aggressively

[Ca_Silvia13]

Very interesting to hear you guys running low temps overnight. 23 during the day and off overnight with windows open has been working for us with these low 20 degree days. 30* next week I could see it running all night too.

[ExtraSlow]

Does depend a lot on the house and the allergy status of the occupants. My 2 story attached infill will never cool with windows unless it's like 5c outdoors.

Besides energy use is directly correlated to standard of living, and I want a high standard of living.

[FraserB]

Pretty much 19° year round. AC set to that in the summer and furnace in the winter

[gpomp]

Wish the AC would cool the bedroom instead of the basement

[vengie]

Close all the vents in the basement.

My lower two levels have all vents closed to redirect air to the upper two.

[prodigydud]

Our second bedroom would get hit with direct Sun all afternoon making it the hottest room during the summer (warmest room during winters), but no amount of a/c, blinds, or fans would cool it down to a comfortable level.

We tried tinting the window and it worked like a charm!

[never]

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Our second bedroom would get hit with direct Sun all afternoon making it the hottest room during the summer (warmest room during winters), but no amount of a/c, blinds, or fans would cool it down to a comfortable level.

We tried tinting the window and it worked like a charm!

What did you tint it with?

[gpomp]

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Close all the vents in the basement.

That is with all the basement vents closed

[ExtraSlow]

Closing vents in the basement is fine, but make sure EVERY vent on the top floor is wide open.

[gpomp]

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Closing vents in the basement is fine, but make sure EVERY vent on the top floor is wide open.

Maybe this is my problem. What it the theory behind this?

[ExtraSlow]

Your furnace needs to move as much air volume as possible to cool efficiently. If you close enough vents, you are just making the entire system ineffective.
All top floor vents open, all top floor interior doors open.

[90_Shelby]

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Maybe this is my problem. What it the theory behind this?

@spikerS can probably sort out your vents for you if you need a hand.

[ThePenIsMightier]

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Your furnace needs to move as much air volume as possible to cool efficiently. If you close enough vents, you are just making the entire system ineffective.
All top floor vents open, all top floor interior doors open.

This isn't wrong, but there is a way to optimize and I can't remember for the life of me. I recall it being super counter intuitive.
I'll consult my HVAC guru friend and hopefully report back.

[Ca_Silvia13]

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This isn't wrong, but there is a way to optimize and I can't remember for the life of me. I recall it being super counter intuitive.
I'll consult my HVAC guru friend and hopefully report back.

Are you talking about air balancing? It's not typical in a house but can be done. The theory is air will always travel the path of least resistance up to the top levels and then convection will make sure the cooler air travels down through the house to the basement on its own. So you can tweak the dampers on the grilles to force air out the ones you want.

[ExtraSlow]

I'm sure there's a way to do it perfectly, but for a homeowner wanting a cooler top floor, having every top floor vent wide open should be the starting point.

Run circulating fan 24/7 when AC is off is also a smart move for multi-level houses.

[pheoxs]

Also hasn’t seemed to be mentioned: make sure your return air vents are unblocked. Those are just as important for cooling a room so it can draw cool air into the room.

[vengie]

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Run circulating fan 24/7 when AC is off is also a smart move for multi-level houses.

This is also important.