One of the most frustrating things about being a homeowner in San Antonio during the winter can be a room that just always seems to be colder than the rest of the house. You may have your heater on full blast, yet that one room is still colder than all the rest.
Sure, there are temporary solutions like portable space heaters, but those can be dangerous for children and pets, use a lot of electricity, they’re typically unattractive, and can overload electrical circuits if you have many things plugged in at the same time.
Caliente Plumbing Heating & Air in San Antonio is all about fixing HVAC problems right, not patching it up for more problems later down the road. Here’s how you can troubleshoot having one room that’s much colder than other rooms in the winter.
Check Your House For Air Vents That Have Been Closed.
First, check the cold room itself and see if someone manually closed the air vent in that room. Then check other rooms as well. If vents have been closed in other rooms, that can affect the circulation of air in your home and can lead to one room being much colder than the others due to improper air balance. This might seem like an obvious solution, but you’d be surprised by how many calls we get from people in San Antonio who didn’t realize that one of their vents was closed.
If all of your vents are open, it’s time to move on to the next check!
Are You Losing Heat Through Your Windows?
Windows can affect the temperature balance of a room in your home during the winter for a couple of reasons:
Old or improperly installed windows tend to “leak.” Glass is extremely susceptible to temperature loss or gain. If your windows are leaky, you can use caulk, weather stripping, or a foam sealant to close up any cracks.
If you have large windows in your home, it’s likely you are losing lots of heat through the glass. To limit heat loss through glass, place some heavy curtains over the windows.
You might have leaking air ducts in your attic!
Older air ducts can have leaks in the air ducts that let that nice heated air leak out into the attic instead of flowing into that colder room. Your air ducts can develop leaks for many reasons including:
Work performed on your roof or in your attic dropped debris that punctured your air ducts
Rodents such as mice or roof rats, or other wildlife chewed on your air ducts and caused a leak
If you store things in your attic and possibly dropped something that ripped an air duct
Older air ducts can just come apart at the seams and start leaking
Air ducts can be re-sealed and restore your HVAC system’s efficiency!
Is Your HVAC System Imbalanced?
When a furnace or heating system is imbalanced, it means there are potential flaws in the original design and installation that could be causing one of your rooms to be colder than the other rooms.
Here are some possible issues with a faulty HVAC setup:
Too many air vents (or not enough)
Improperly insulated ductwork
Incorrectly sized ductwork
Additions/renovations to the home that didn’t properly incorporate the existing HVAC system
Vents placed in odd locations through the house
Call Caliente Plumbing Heating & Air and we’ll send a friendly, certified HVAC technician to inspect your system for any symptoms and provide an affordable solution today!
