Above Garage Bedroom is hot!

Heir

I've noticed now that temps are reaching the 90s here in the Denver area that the only way to meaningfully cool our bedroom (which sits directly above our garage) at night is to set our thermostat quite low (65-66 usually). It helps, but the side effect (beyond our electric bill) is that our first floor is freezing!

So...what do you typically do to keep things cool? We have a newborn sleeping in a bassinet in our room and he's woken up covered in sweat a couple times due to the temps, so we're feeling anxious about figuring out a solution.

Additional info: This house is about 25 years old. We purchased it last October so this is our first summer in the home. We had someone come out this winter to do some regular maintenance on the furnace, but haven't had them do anything yet on the entire HVAC system. I also know (based on inspector report) that the insulation in the attic is a bit thin. As for our bedroom, it has very high ceilings so so I get the impression there isn't much (if any) attic above it...just the roof itself. Finally, I am pretty sure our bedroom is the farthest from the blower as the air pressure coming out of the vent in that room is pretty low.

I've seen suggestions for whole house fans (my parents actually have one that they love and they live in the metro area as well), suggestions for single zone A/C units (either window or the ductless ones), or something else.

So where do I start? I'm going to have someone come out and just check out the HVAC system, do some regular maintenance and all that. But beyond that, where do I start? Insulation? Inspect the ductwork? Whole house fan?

Any suggestions are welcome!

NightDragon

It seems like a single A/C unit in your bedroom would be the cheapest/fastest/easiest solution, if your bedroom is the only area you're having an issue with temperature-wise. I don't really see the point in worrying about changing/installing something for the entire system of the house in this case.

Cambiata

I don't know if it will help, but just yesterday I had an HVAC guy come to our house for a similar issue, that the bedroom is the warmest room in the house and the vent seems to blow much less to that room than to any other. The HVAC guy found the problem in the vent itself - there's actually a house beam blocking that vent, which is the reason no air can get there. He's going to quote us a price to put an elbow duct in there to bypass the beam.

My house was also built about 23 years ago, and we just bought it last fall as well.

Heir

To be fair, our entire upstairs is warmer than the rest of the house, which doesn't come as a surprise. However, our master bedroom definitely is way hotter than the other rooms, which stay fairly cool with the existing A/C system.

mts

You could always try insulating the garage. Is your garage door insulated? That could help as could insulating the garage roof

zepherin

Heir wrote: »

I've noticed now that temps are reaching the 90s here in the Denver area that the only way to meaningfully cool our bedroom (which sits directly above our garage) at night is to set our thermostat quite low (65-66 usually). It helps, but the side effect (beyond our electric bill) is that our first floor is freezing!

So...what do you typically do to keep things cool? We have a newborn sleeping in a bassinet in our room and he's woken up covered in sweat a couple times due to the temps, so we're feeling anxious about figuring out a solution.

Additional info: This house is about 25 years old. We purchased it last October so this is our first summer in the home. We had someone come out this winter to do some regular maintenance on the furnace, but haven't had them do anything yet on the entire HVAC system. I also know (based on inspector report) that the insulation in the attic is a bit thin. As for our bedroom, it has very high ceilings so so I get the impression there isn't much (if any) attic above it...just the roof itself. Finally, I am pretty sure our bedroom is the farthest from the blower as the air pressure coming out of the vent in that room is pretty low.

I've seen suggestions for whole house fans (my parents actually have one that they love and they live in the metro area as well), suggestions for single zone A/C units (either window or the ductless ones), or something else.

So where do I start? I'm going to have someone come out and just check out the HVAC system, do some regular maintenance and all that. But beyond that, where do I start? Insulation? Inspect the ductwork? Whole house fan?

Any suggestions are welcome!

Have your HVAC person check load balancing. unbalanced HVAC is one of the things that is often neglected in ac installs and renovations. Your condenser may also be under sized, or a few other things.

Insulation helps but if your HVAC can't be balanced (it's a possibility) then pick up a window ac or swamp cooler in the garage bedroom to help.

A Dabble Of Thelonius

Lack of proper insulation is most likely your culprit.

Age of house leads me to believe it's poorly insulated. Combine that with - above garage & heat rises, you've got yourself a hotbox.

chromdom

Seconding (actually, thirding) the suggestion to check into the insulation between the garage and bedroom.
Also, not to panic you with internet speculation, but if you don't have good separation between the garage and the bedroom, you're also going to want to make sure there's a vapor barrier between the two -- you don't want your baby, or anybody else, breathing carbon monoxide from below.

knitdan

This may sound flippant but is there any way you can sleep downstairs in the short term?

Heir

I think we're ok there. The garage is vented and we have a CO detector in our bedroom.

Heir

And for the record from what I can tell every part of the bedroom the "touches" the garage appears to be insulated. Or at the very least has drywall up.

Elvenshae

I have a brand-new house and a similar, though far-less drastic, issue - it's basically always going to happen whenever you have a big, open-to-the-outside-heat-and-cold garage below a bedroom that's at the tail end of the AC system.

In addition to the good advice upthread, we found that putting an additional rug on the floor helps with providing insulation from below. We also recently installed some far better window shades - 2-in-1 room-darkening and light-filtering - to help prevent the room from getting warmer during the day, so less cooling is needed at night. (EDIT: Side benefit: easier to replace a rug than the whole carpet if baby ends up spitting up / spilling milk / other fun bodily fluids over it.)

If you're really looking for a good, long-term (and much more energy efficient) solution, consider upgrading your AC system to have two zones. That way, you can cool the upstairs and downstairs separately, and not pay for cooling an entire house down to ~70 when you really just need to knock a couple of degrees off upstairs. If the house wasn't designed for this, it can be a bit expensive, though it can be really nice in the long-run.

Also, possibly a silly question, but some AC systems are built with a kind of diverter in them to start with, which can be set to either force more air into the first floor or into the second. You're supposed to switch it back-and-forth with the seasons, so that you cool the upstairs better in the summer and warm the downstairs better in the winter. It's not always immediately obvious if you've got this type of thing, especially if you're new to the house. Might be worth looking into! A lower-tech solution to that is, if you have floor or ceiling registers in rooms that are generally always cool anyway, you can close some or all of them off, to achieve a similar result. Usually works really well if you've got a below-ground basement that's always cool, so you can close 3-out-of-4 of the vents so that more cool air is sent elsewhere.

mts

1st. Drywall doesn't always mean insulation. i have some sort of ceiling in my garage that is sort of stuccoy, but there is no insulation on the other side.
2nd. its one of those problems that is almost never completely resovled. mostly abated.

another thing to keep in mind is garage windows. huge source of heat or cold and most don't think of insulated them/blocking the light

zepherin

Elvenshae wrote: »

I have a brand-new house and a similar, though far-less drastic, issue - it's basically always going to happen whenever you have a big, open-to-the-outside-heat-and-cold garage below a bedroom that's at the tail end of the AC system.

In addition to the good advice upthread, we found that putting an additional rug on the floor helps with providing insulation from below. We also recently installed some far better window shades - 2-in-1 room-darkening and light-filtering - to help prevent the room from getting warmer during the day, so less cooling is needed at night. (EDIT: Side benefit: easier to replace a rug than the whole carpet if baby ends up spitting up / spilling milk / other fun bodily fluids over it.)

If you're really looking for a good, long-term (and much more energy efficient) solution, consider upgrading your AC system to have two zones. That way, you can cool the upstairs and downstairs separately, and not pay for cooling an entire house down to ~70 when you really just need to knock a couple of degrees off upstairs. If the house wasn't designed for this, it can be a bit expensive, though it can be really nice in the long-run.

Also, possibly a silly question, but some AC systems are built with a kind of diverter in them to start with, which can be set to either force more air into the first floor or into the second. You're supposed to switch it back-and-forth with the seasons, so that you cool the upstairs better in the summer and warm the downstairs better in the winter. It's not always immediately obvious if you've got this type of thing, especially if you're new to the house. Might be worth looking into! A lower-tech solution to that is, if you have floor or ceiling registers in rooms that are generally always cool anyway, you can close some or all of them off, to achieve a similar result. Usually works really well if you've got a below-ground basement that's always cool, so you can close 3-out-of-4 of the vents so that more cool air is sent elsewhere.

The diverters are part of HVAC load balancing. Generally a professional will be able to set the system so the air blown is consistent through all rooms. With minimal temperature differential.

azith28

Also may want to look into if the room has the correct size airflow for the central AC. If its an older house they may not have run ductwork. You could get a window unit but if the roof is not insulated properly its going to be fighting a losing battle in the summer i would think.

Heir

Thanks everyone. We have a HVAC person to do an assessment this week.

We found a solution that helps a little. I didn't realize you can just run the HVAC fan without the AC running. It seems to redistribute air from the basement to the other two floors. Our room was a bit cooler last night due to that.

dlinfiniti

is it dry in denver?
evaporative (swamp) coolers are the best

SatanIsMyMotor

It's been said above but often times rooms built above garages aren't insulated/aren't insulated properly (particularly the floor). I'm about 90% sure this is your problem as your room isn't retaining cool air.

I second the recommendation to get an HVAC guy in too but know that, absent proper insulation, any work that guy does is meaningless.

Figgy

Does the sun set on that side of the house? Try keeping the blinds closed--or buy thicker blinds if you don't already have some good quality ones. You'd be surprised how much that helps keep the room cool.

zepherin

dlinfiniti wrote: »

is it dry in denver?
evaporative (swamp) coolers are the best

It is indeed dry in Denver.

143999

Elvenshae wrote: »

A lower-tech solution to that is, if you have floor or ceiling registers in rooms that are generally always cool anyway, you can close some or all of them off, to achieve a similar result. Usually works really well if you've got a below-ground basement that's always cool, so you can close 3-out-of-4 of the vents so that more cool air is sent elsewhere.

I can't speak to the effectiveness of this in two-floor situations, but I've seen some relief with this method in an old single-floor house with a south-facing bedroom. Keep in mind, though, that if you close off enough registers in the part of the house with the thermostat, you might get some more or less false positive results where the bedroom is cool, but the thermostat still reads hot, so the bedroom gets cooler and cooler because the HVAC is still running. We have a programmable thermostat, so we work around that consequence that way.