Soon after purchasing our first split-entry home, we realized that our beautiful lower level family room was cold in the summer and cold in the winter! There were heating and air-conditioning vents in the ceiling that did not provide enough heat in the winter, and since warm air rises all of the warm air coming out of those ceiling vents went up the open stairway of our split-entry home.
In the summer, we closed the air-conditioning vents in the ceiling on the lower-level; however, cool air from the air-conditoning on the upper-level flowed down the open stairway, making the lower level too cool.
We thought about closing off the open stairway, but nixed that idea as we liked the design of the open area in the entryway.
We purchased a small vent-free gas heater wall unit from Lowes and installed it on a wall in the lower-level family room. This provided some heat in the winter, but this warm air also travelled up the open stairway and really did not heat all areas of the large family room. We also worried about children touching the heater when it was on. Of course, this did not change our summertime problem either of the temperature being too cool on the lower level.
Our next attempt to solve this dilema, was to install a ceiling fan in the entry-way, at the top of the open stairway, between the lower-level and first floor. This did help push the warm air down in the winter, but didn't draw the cool air up in the summer, and the ceiling fan needed to be on almost all of the time in the winter to keep pushing the warm air downstairs.
We also decided to replace the small unvented gas wall heater with an unvented gas fireplace. This feature added a nice look and more heat to the family room, and we put a protective screen in front of the fireplace when it was on, to keep the children from getting hurt. Although this helped somewhat, it still did not solve the problem of the family room being too cool in the summer, and we also started to get paranoid about the unvented fireplace fumes in the winter, as we needed to keep the fireplace on alot when we were in the family room.
We thought about replacing the unvented gas fireplace with a woodburner, or a wood-burning fireplace, but knew that we didn't want to have the hassle of constantly keeping a fire burning, hauling in wood, etc.
Our last and actually successful attempt to keep our lower-level family room warm in the winter and not-too-cool in the summer was when we decided to have an Xtrordinair (name brand) vented, gas fireplace installed that had an automatic thermostat and blower.
When the installer for our fireplace came out to measure and look at the room, we talked to him about the problems we'd been having...trying to keep an even temperature in our lower level. He said, "all you need to do is to add some cold-air returns in your lower-level". He advised us to put one cold-air return on the wall near the floor opposite the fireplace, and one in the ceiling above our new vented gas fireplace.
Although, the cold-air return in the ceiling would not be picking up cold air from the room in the winter, it would pick up the warm air from the fireplace and distribute it throughout the house by way of the existing furnace ductwork. This enabled us to lower our furnace thermostat in the winter, yet still keep the upstairs warm.
In the summertime, the cold air return on the lower-level wall near the floor took the cold air from that level and distributed it throughout the house by way of the existing furnace ductwork. It was during the summer that we had our new fireplace and cold-air returns installed, and we immediately noticed a drastic difference in our lower-level family room temperature. It was as comfortable as our upper-level, and all of the cold, damp air seemed to be gone.
In the winter, we set the vented gas fireplace remote- control thermostat in our lower-level family room to the desired tempterature, and turn our furnace blower on manually (there is a switch to do this on the furnace). This keeps the warm air circulating throughout the house at an even tempterature. (This was another suggestion made by our fireplace installer.)
So, after much trial and error, we now have a lower-level family room, in our split-entry, open-stairway home that has a comfortable temperature all year long. Adding the vented gas fireplace and cold-air returns in the lower-level solved our problems. Hope these tips help others who may have a similar problem. Maybe it will help other homeowners to avoid the long process we went through looking for a solution.
In the summer, we closed the air-conditioning vents in the ceiling on the lower-level; however, cool air from the air-conditoning on the upper-level flowed down the open stairway, making the lower level too cool.
We thought about closing off the open stairway, but nixed that idea as we liked the design of the open area in the entryway.
We purchased a small vent-free gas heater wall unit from Lowes and installed it on a wall in the lower-level family room. This provided some heat in the winter, but this warm air also travelled up the open stairway and really did not heat all areas of the large family room. We also worried about children touching the heater when it was on. Of course, this did not change our summertime problem either of the temperature being too cool on the lower level.
Our next attempt to solve this dilema, was to install a ceiling fan in the entry-way, at the top of the open stairway, between the lower-level and first floor. This did help push the warm air down in the winter, but didn't draw the cool air up in the summer, and the ceiling fan needed to be on almost all of the time in the winter to keep pushing the warm air downstairs.
We also decided to replace the small unvented gas wall heater with an unvented gas fireplace. This feature added a nice look and more heat to the family room, and we put a protective screen in front of the fireplace when it was on, to keep the children from getting hurt. Although this helped somewhat, it still did not solve the problem of the family room being too cool in the summer, and we also started to get paranoid about the unvented fireplace fumes in the winter, as we needed to keep the fireplace on alot when we were in the family room.
We thought about replacing the unvented gas fireplace with a woodburner, or a wood-burning fireplace, but knew that we didn't want to have the hassle of constantly keeping a fire burning, hauling in wood, etc.
Our last and actually successful attempt to keep our lower-level family room warm in the winter and not-too-cool in the summer was when we decided to have an Xtrordinair (name brand) vented, gas fireplace installed that had an automatic thermostat and blower.
When the installer for our fireplace came out to measure and look at the room, we talked to him about the problems we'd been having...trying to keep an even temperature in our lower level. He said, "all you need to do is to add some cold-air returns in your lower-level". He advised us to put one cold-air return on the wall near the floor opposite the fireplace, and one in the ceiling above our new vented gas fireplace.
Although, the cold-air return in the ceiling would not be picking up cold air from the room in the winter, it would pick up the warm air from the fireplace and distribute it throughout the house by way of the existing furnace ductwork. This enabled us to lower our furnace thermostat in the winter, yet still keep the upstairs warm.
In the summertime, the cold air return on the lower-level wall near the floor took the cold air from that level and distributed it throughout the house by way of the existing furnace ductwork. It was during the summer that we had our new fireplace and cold-air returns installed, and we immediately noticed a drastic difference in our lower-level family room temperature. It was as comfortable as our upper-level, and all of the cold, damp air seemed to be gone.
In the winter, we set the vented gas fireplace remote- control thermostat in our lower-level family room to the desired tempterature, and turn our furnace blower on manually (there is a switch to do this on the furnace). This keeps the warm air circulating throughout the house at an even tempterature. (This was another suggestion made by our fireplace installer.)
So, after much trial and error, we now have a lower-level family room, in our split-entry, open-stairway home that has a comfortable temperature all year long. Adding the vented gas fireplace and cold-air returns in the lower-level solved our problems. Hope these tips help others who may have a similar problem. Maybe it will help other homeowners to avoid the long process we went through looking for a solution.
1 comment:
Wow! thanks for this post. I have the same problem and have been contemplating all of the same things you tried. Your post has been very helpful.
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