AboutHoward Livingston Expertise Can answer questions on electrical control circuits, power supply,airflow & distribution, electrical components,refrigerant problems,gas, electric & propane furnaces.No boiler or refrigerator or oil fired furnaces experience.Just HVAC questions please.
Experience 35 years experience in residential & light commercial repair & installation.
Question My father-in-law has a dual zone system in his house. The house is about 1500-1600 square feet on the main floor (on a slab) and a bonus room upstairs that is about 250 square feet. Thermostats on both floors. He can never cool the upstairs anywhere near comfortable. It will be 74 or 75 degrees on the main and 97 upstairs. The thermostats are usually set with the downstairs 3 or 4 degrees cooler than the upstairs. The 1 zone toggle switch is set to off, and it is a heat pump system and we live in Alabama. Where should the thermostats be set too and what should the DIP switches be set too? There are 8 dip switches. It is a damper system as far as we can tell. We can never keep the upstairs even remotely cool in the summer months. Thank you.
Answer Common problem with 2 story houses & an open stairwell. Difficult to fix since the cool air upstairs falls rapidly down. Reverses in the Winter. With good air distribution you ought to have at least a 3 ton down, maybe 2 up stairs. Do you ?? A single with dampers would add difficulty trying to pump air upstairs. Easiest fix is with oots of ceiling fan all over. Tell me how is the airflow from the supply grilles up & down set for Summer.
