Home Temps During Cold Weather

[Bootsie]

I have always lived in a warm climate and am not familiar with many house heating issues.  I know hot air rises, but how much impact does that typically make in temps within a home?

The original part of our house is about 100 years old--pier and beam, with paper-thin windows.  I know that there are drafty areas.  One area I realize LOTS of cold air comes through is the downdraft oven vent. The house has been added on to over the years.  A family room is in the back of the house on a slab. Above that family room are two bedrooms and a bath on a separate HVAC unit.   We have the downstairs temp set on 65 (and some rooms remain cooler than others).  The upstairs temp is set on 55, but I just went up and it is a toasty 70 degrees up there and the heater has not been on up there all day long.  we really lose that much heat from downstairs to the upstairs rooms?

[Bambam]

I have a friend who has a two story with a dramatic two story foyer plus two story tall living room - lots of windows. She is in the Houston area. She cannot afford to heat that house in the winter because all their heat goes up into that empty space.  So, I vote, yes, that can happen. 

[cjzimmer1]

18 minutes ago, Bootsie said:

I have always lived in a warm climate and am not familiar with many house heating issues.  I know hot air rises, but how much impact does that typically make in temps within a home?

The original part of our house is about 100 years old--pier and beam, with paper-thin windows.  I know that there are drafty areas.  One area I realize LOTS of cold air comes through is the downdraft oven vent. The house has been added on to over the years.  A family room is in the back of the house on a slab. Above that family room are two bedrooms and a bath on a separate HVAC unit.   We have the downstairs temp set on 65 (and some rooms remain cooler than others).  The upstairs temp is set on 55, but I just went up and it is a toasty 70 degrees up there and the heater has not been on up there all day long.  we really lose that much heat from downstairs to the upstairs rooms?

My house is about 20 years old and insulated very well.  We had our home tested and they said it's one of the tightest homes they had tested (which isn't always good as we always are dealing with mold and icy build up on the windows) that said, we typically have a 10-15 degree difference between our upper and lower levels.  However since our main rooms are upstairs the warmer temp up there is very much appreciated.

[TheReader]

I believe it, yes. 

We're in a 2-story, and in the winter we close/mostly close the upstairs vents to force the air down. Today, we have the heater set to 71* -- the indoor thermometer (which is downstairs, while the thermostat for the hvac is upstairs) says it's 68-69 in here.  Upstairs does not feel cold (we do not have a separate thermometer up there, though I suppose we should; the thermostat is there, though, and apparently registers it as being at least 71* b/c it's not kicking the heat on very often).  

Normally, it's warm enough downstairs/outside that our downstairs is able to reach the desired temp indoors. Today, not so much. 

We have one of those "electric fireplace" entertainment center heater things for the main living space downstairs. (also, this would be *way* different if we didn't close the vents upstairs in the winter; we do the reverse in the summer, close the downstairs ones, and open the upstairs ones). 

 

[KungFuPanda]

3 minutes ago, TheReader said:

I believe it, yes. 

We're in a 2-story, and in the winter we close/mostly close the upstairs vents to force the air down. Today, we have the heater set to 71* -- the indoor thermometer (which is downstairs, while the thermostat for the hvac is upstairs) says it's 68-69 in here.  Upstairs does not feel cold (we do not have a separate thermometer up there, though I suppose we should; the thermostat is there, though, and apparently registers it as being at least 71* b/c it's not kicking the heat on very often).  

Normally, it's warm enough downstairs/outside that our downstairs is able to reach the desired temp indoors. Today, not so much. 

We have one of those "electric fireplace" entertainment center heater things for the main living space downstairs. (also, this would be *way* different if we didn't close the vents upstairs in the winter; we do the reverse in the summer, close the downstairs ones, and open the upstairs ones). 

 

I never once thought of messing with the vents like that!  I’m about to get Dh to turn on the humidifier that’s connected to the furnace. We’ve been here for twenty years and I’ve never bothered to learn what he does down by the furnace before turning the knob that’s upstairs. 

[TheReader]

1 minute ago, KungFuPanda said:

I never once thought of messing with the vents like that!  I’m about to get Dh to turn on the humidifier that’s connected to the furnace. We’ve been here for twenty years and I’ve never bothered to learn what he does down by the furnace before turning the knob that’s upstairs. 

Oh, happy I could help! So many have the split units, or one for upstairs/one for down, etc. but we do not. The thermostat is upstairs, all the stuff is in the attic, and the unit is right on the border for being big enough to efficiently heat/cool our square footage. So, the seasonal effort with the vents pays off and makes it quite reasonable. The trick here (Texas) is gauging when it's "cold" for real vs that first time the heater comes on. 

[Miss Tick]

Our 1.5 story house has a single furnace and it is set at 66° upstairs in the kitchen, downstairs it is about 60° We added some insulation to the downstairs walls and put storm doors in the three (!!!) essentially unused exterior doors down there. It used to be 5° colder. The house is about 75 years old.

3 minutes ago, TheReader said:

Oh, happy I could help! So many have the split units, or one for upstairs/one for down, etc. but we do not. The thermostat is upstairs, all the stuff is in the attic, and the unit is right on the border for being big enough to efficiently heat/cool our square footage. So, the seasonal effort with the vents pays off and makes it quite reasonable. The trick here (Texas) is gauging when it's "cold" for real vs that first time the heater comes on. 

Same, except I'm in the Midwest.

Edited December 23, 2022 by Miss Tick

[saraha]

Our house is 140 years old and has no heating upstairs. The house was built with “gravity vents” basically holes in the floor through to the downstairs with fancy grates over them so the heat can float upstairs. It works surprisingly well.

[Carrie12345]

My old house has a vaulted ceiling that runs from the south end of downstairs to the north end of upstairs (just a loft and primary suite up there. I RARELY turned in the upstairs heat, and sometimes left my balcony door open a bit! (Built in ‘91, not well insulated, no attic space.)

Brand new house doesn’t get much upstairs heat from the downstairs. We only have single zone, so it wasn’t really doing anything when the wood stove is burning. It’s gotten chilly in the bedrooms, but not quite as much as I would have expected. 
(We recently found the right way to circulate.). 

Our loft space, however, got VERY toasty with the stove running. I suspect the bedrooms would if we left doors open, but that’s not gonna happen while we’re sleeping and burning wood!

[Insertcreativenamehere]

We live in a rambler-style house with a basement walkout that is about 25 years old. My husband sets the daytime temp at 67 and it is about that temperature in the two bedrooms upstairs but quite a bit colder in our basement where three of our kids have their rooms. At night time, he sets it at 62. (This is colder than I prefer but this has been an ongoing battle!) One of our kids' rooms was 51 degrees this morning when I woke up! The other two are a bit more moderate because they are on the side of the house where the basement is underground. I think 51 is absolutely insanely cold but other than running a space heater during waking hours, I'm not sure how else to fix it. We tried turning off the vents upstairs and it got extremely cold up here and not much warmer downstairs. We also get a lot of ice on the windows so closing the shades as insulation doesn't seem like a solution, either. 

[kbutton]

We have an open stairwell. We have to close the bedroom doors all year round—it keeps bedrooms cooler in the summer from rising heat and cool enough to sleep in the winter from the rising heat. Our thermostat is on the main floor and is not zoned. We close vents downstairs in the summer but open them in the winter. 

You can also experiment with how often to have the air recirculate or put a fan at the top of the stairs pointing downwards to move warm air back down.

[Miss Tick]

1 hour ago, Insertcreativenamehere said:

One of our kids' rooms was 51 degrees this morning when I woke up!

DS has a room downstairs. I ordered storm doors when he was telling me about the frost forming on the inside of his windows. I also got him an electric mattress pad and a (faux)down blanket. Those seemed to really do the trick.

[KungFuPanda]

2 hours ago, TheReader said:

Oh, happy I could help! So many have the split units, or one for upstairs/one for down, etc. but we do not. The thermostat is upstairs, all the stuff is in the attic, and the unit is right on the border for being big enough to efficiently heat/cool our square footage. So, the seasonal effort with the vents pays off and makes it quite reasonable. The trick here (Texas) is gauging when it's "cold" for real vs that first time the heater comes on. 

We have a single unit that services all three stories.  It's the flipped version of yours. We have a gas furnace/AC in the basement, a thermostat on the main floor, then the bedrooms are upstairs.  I think I'll try leaving the basement door open tonight and see if the cold air sinks down there.  It's an unfinished basement, but it's pretty warm down there.  Our furnace works pretty well, but it was in the house when we bought it 20 years ago, so I have trust issues.

[Bootsie]

We have a staircase up to the second floor and a small landing area (maybe 15 sq feet) then a bedroom to the right and one to the left of the landing.  Even if we close both of those doors, those bedrooms are toasty without the heater running upstairs.  I thought the upstairs bedrooms might have more "exposure", getting hit by the wind from three sides each.  And the floor upstairs is carpeted (only place in the house), so I thought we might have a bit more insulation through the ceiling area to hold in the warm air downstairs.  

[MEmama]

11 hours ago, saraha said:

Our house is 140 years old and has no heating upstairs. The house was built with “gravity vents” basically holes in the floor through to the downstairs with fancy grates over them so the heat can float upstairs. It works surprisingly well.

We knew a guy who heated his house (in eastern Canada, so a cold climate) with a fireplace in the basement and holes in the floorboards like you’re describing. He’d super heat the basement and apparently it warmed the whole house.

Now that I think about it, I’m not sure why he went through the bother. His house was modern and suburban and definitely had electric baseboards like all the others in the area. 

[catz]

Our house was built in 1915 so OLD.  A number of years ago we paid to have insulation blown into our walls and wow that made a HUGE difference with drafty spots, holding heat, etc.  We do have radiator heat.  

All that said, with the weather we're having in the upper midwest right now, our upstairs is running warming than our main level.  LOL - we turn down our heat at night (we have a timer on our thermostat) and I got up early.  Our main level where I'm sitting is 59 right now.  🤣  I know it was 68 yesterday afternoon.  I think I need another layer. 

Edited December 24, 2022 by catz

[HomeAgain]

Our house has five zones: basement, living area, bedroom 1, 2, and 3.

The basement heat doesn't go on.  It'll stay about 50 (10c) down there all winter, and when I take my zoom classes I just plug in a heating pad for my feet.

The living area is set to 63 (17c) right now.  Every room has a rug, I've blocked the AC vents, taped around the dryer vent, and hung heavy curtains over the back door after used draft stop tape and a weighted draft dodger in the slider.  The heat doesn't pop on much during the day because of all the activity.

Bedroom 1 is set to 61 (16.1c).  It's right above the kitchen and the extra heat will make it about 63 before bed.

Bedroom 2 is at 62 (16.6c) right now.  It's ds12's room, and right above the garage. He has a large, thick carpet at the foot of his bed for a play area and that helps to keep the chill off. 

Bedroom 3 is at 57 (13.9c).  It's ds23's room.  He has 3 computers and the heat is mostly just on because it was 18F (-7) overnight.  He stays pretty comfortable.

We did Christmas this morning.  DS12 opened the first gift and was thrilled to get fleece lined socks. 🤣 They're a pretty important accessory here. I will say I miss the radiant floors we had in a previous home.  It's high on our list if we remodel the bathrooms here.  I want to remove all the radiators in those rooms and have the floors heated instead.  Also, redo the front entry.  It seems to have been added after and is a cement slab that isn't part of the rest of the home.  It is so blasted cold in that 15 square feet that we tend not to use it except as shoe storage.

 

 

 

[skimomma]

I actually do find that a bit odd.  Yes, heat rises, so some variation makes sense but usually the upstairs of older houses have less insulation so the heat is lost after it rises.  That is the case with our 1880s house.  We now have normal forced air ducts but then the house was built, it had a coal furnace in the basement and holes in the floor for gravity feed to the upper floors.  The rise of heat was necessary to adequately heat the house.  The insulation has never been upgraded so whatever was used in 1880, is mostly broken down and has settled into the lower half of the walls.  Even with (not-zoned) ducting and all of our vents fully open on the second floor, it is at about 10 degrees cooler (give or take) when he heat is on.  The colder it is outside, the less the heat difference between floors.  We call this "too much delta." (dh and I have mechanical engineering degrees....).  When the difference in temp from indoors and out if high, the heat moves out the uppers floors making it warmer at any given time.  So, ironically, the upper floor is colder the warmer it is outdoors.  We are in the middle of this crazy blizzard, like everyone else, and out upper floor is more comfortable than normal (as long as you are not leaning against a wall).  OP, your house might have insulation updates on the upper floor?  Or your delta is high enough that you are pulling more heat to the upper floors than normal.

[Corraleno]

I have in a two-story house with a double height entry, built in the 70s and pretty well insulated. It has forced air heat/AC with floor vents, and the whole house is controlled by one thermostat downstairs. I keep most of the upstairs vents closed in the winter, but enough heat rises that the bedrooms usually stay around 62-64 when the downstairs is 68. I generally do the reverse in the summer, closing the downstairs vents to force the cooler air upstairs.

[Bootsie]

2 hours ago, skimomma said:

 OP, your house might have insulation updates on the upper floor?  Or your delta is high enough that you are pulling more heat to the upper floors than normal.

The back of the house is an addition; I am assuming that the downstairs family room and the bedrooms above it were put in at the same time (but I do not know that for sure).  If so, I would assume at least in that area the downstairs and upstairs have similar insulation;  The upstairs area has four times as much window area as the room below it and unblocked exposure on all four sides.  We have had high winds and clouds, so it is not sun warming the upper rooms.  The downstairs room has interior walls on two sides, so it does not have as much exposure.  I am just surprised if hot air rising makes that much difference that the hot air doesn't just escape through the roof.  

[KungFuPanda]

5 hours ago, catz said:

Our house was built in 1915 so OLD.  A number of years ago we paid to have insulation blown into our walls and wow that made a HUGE difference with drafty spots, holding heat, etc.  We do have radiator heat.  

All that said, with the weather we're having in the upper midwest right now, our upstairs is running warming than our main level.  LOL - we turn down our heat at night (we have a timer on our thermostat) and I got up early.  Our main level where I'm sitting is 59 right now.  🤣  I know it was 68 yesterday afternoon.  I think I need another layer. 

What did that cost/involve.  Our upstairs bedrooms get chilly and I'm convinced the insulation needs to be redone up there. I replaced the windows thinking that would solve the problem and it did not. It's the two bedrooms on the corners, but they're the bigger bedrooms.