Looking for inexpensive ideas to cool upstairs?

[Disneygrl71]

I have a two story home, the upstairs opens up to the downstairs livingroom (which has a ceiling fan I run to help circulate air upstairs).
The upstairs has 3 bedrooms 1 bath. It's just myself and my son that lives there, so one bedroom stays closed off.
It typically stays about 3-5 degrees warmer upstairs than down. Is there anything I can use (besides a window unit or anything that needs to be vented) due to HOA not allowing it?
I live in a pretty humid state (not sure if that matters).
I would like to keep the cost under $200.
Thanks

 

[davper]

Try a box fan on the vent upstairs to pull more ac air upstairs.

I think they actually sell booster fans for this purpose. Look at this http://www.amazon.com/Suncourt-HC50...pebp=1434120482561&perid=C4B88BD065134C83864F

 

[HM]

Do you have an attic? Is there a fan to pull hot air out of the attic in it? Make sure it's working, if it's there.

If you don't have any fans in the bedrooms, I'd suggest getting something like this for your rooms

or something like this

You'll find that even with the temp at a few degrees warmer, having the air movement in your room will make it feel cooler. Both of these types of fans cost less than $25.

 

[Disneygrl71]

Thanks for the great tips. I do have ceiling fans in all rooms. Going to look into putting floor fans in the two bedrooms to use while sleeping and in upstairs hall to run all the time. Thought about a floor fan at bottom of stairs to push cold air up, but my stairs has a landing, so doubt that would work.
What about closing off vents or cracking them downstairs, to push more airflow upstairs???

 

[amcnj]

I have a two story home, the upstairs opens up to the downstairs livingroom (which has a ceiling fan I run to help circulate air upstairs).
The upstairs has 3 bedrooms 1 bath. It's just myself and my son that lives there, so one bedroom stays closed off.
It typically stays about 3-5 degrees warmer upstairs than down. Is there anything I can use (besides a window unit or anything that needs to be vented) due to HOA not allowing it?
I live in a pretty humid state (not sure if that matters).
I would like to keep the cost under $200.
Thanks

So you have central ac now? If so, where are the vents bringing in the cool air? If they are those floor vents I have seen fans that sit on top of the vent and pull more air to that room. Large home improvement stores carry them. I think they were in the $40-50 range each.

As you later suggested, adjusting vents can also help direct air to one place over another.

 

[Disneygrl71]

I do have central AC, it's just to small for my home. Once it dies.. I'll replace it with a bigger unit. The vents are located in the ceiling.

 

[kymom99]

We have some of those fans that attach to the vents in our upstairs. They kick on and off as needed depending on the temp in the room. Our vents are on the walls, so you can get them that attach easily to the vent covers.

 

[Disneygrl71]

Which ones do you have? Can you tell a big difference??

 

[sksjasams]

We found it helpful to turn the thermostat fan from "auto" to "on" when the a/c is on. It seems to help it feel cooler upstairs.

 

[Disneygrl71]

I hadn't thought about that ... Thanks!

 

[kuhltiffany]

We have a 3 story home, we close the vents in the bottom 2 floors and open the ones in the top only. I also have the blinds (which have heat deflectors in them) closed during the day or whenever that room is being hit by the sun.

 

[elgerber]

We found it helpful to turn the thermostat fan from "auto" to "on" when the a/c is on. It seems to help it feel cooler upstairs.

We have a 3 story home, we close the vents in the bottom 2 floors and open the ones in the top only. I also have the blinds (which have heat deflectors in them) closed during the day or whenever that room is being hit by the sun.

We have a two story with finished basement, and we do both of these things as well. Only the upstairs vents are open all the way. We have a couple open on the main floor, and none of the ones in the basement are open at all. We also leave the fan on instead of auto to keep the air circulating.

 

[xlxo]

Things I've done...

• having a well insulated house helps
• have LowE or thermal protective windows on the South facing window. Keep the south facing windows closed between 9am and 6pm
• when it's cooler outside than inside in the evenings.... open the windows and have a good window fan to draw in the cool air into the house. Amazing difference with a strong fan after 10 minutes
• Once cool, I close the windows for security at night.
• I open the windows once again in the mornings to capture the even cooler air before sealing it up again before going to work.

 

[mistysue]

I agree with those saying to close downstairs vents, open upstairs ones and also to leave the fan switched to "on".

That fixes the issue most of the time. If your winters are also cold I switch the vents to be open/closed the opposite for winter to keep the downstairs warm.
Before I used to close vents I placed a one of those high volume fans propped on top of a door so it was against the ceiling and pointed down the stairs to force the air to comply which can also be a big help if your house refuses to balance well.

 

[Disneyliscious]

This will help and it DOES work. Its ingenious and almost free!

 

[Judique]

This will help and it DOES work. Its ingenious and almost free!

That's an updated old fashioned idea! Used to be a fan blowing over an old washtub full of ice.

Right now my AC is not keeping up with the job upstairs. I love the idea of the solar panel to run the fan.

But, I'll probably be calling my AC guy on Monday. It's pretty hot here and once we hit the 90ties, I can't get my upstairs below 82. It's 74 downstairs which is fine.

 

[kymom99]

Which ones do you have? Can you tell a big difference??

Google register booster fan. I don't know off hand the exact model, but you should find something that will work with your set-up.

 

[honeybunches]

Do you have roof vents? Our first home was a bungalow-style built in 1930. The upstairs was always at least 10 degrees warmer than the rest of the house, even with a window unit. We had roof vents put in (cost about $125) and it helped so much!!

 

[Disneygrl71]

Love the bucket fan idea...thanks for sharing!
I'm not sure on the roof vents, but I'll be checking that out today!
Thanks everyone!

 

[HM]

Also check out the insulation in your attic. It may be cost effective to have more placed down, in addition to the roof vents and the attic fan.