Who do we call about a 15-25 degree difference between floors in the winter?

[Anonymous]

It is clearly an issue with the air ducts and there being fewer air ducts in the basement than on the main floor and even more on the top floor -- but who do we call to help us figure out how to fix this? Are there duct work people who can help us figure out if we want to cut new vents into the basement and main floor walls or close up the excessive ones on the top floor?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is clearly an issue with the air ducts and there being fewer air ducts in the basement than on the main floor and even more on the top floor -- but who do we call to help us figure out how to fix this? Are there duct work people who can help us figure out if we want to cut new vents into the basement and main floor walls or close up the excessive ones on the top floor?

I think I mean vents instead of ducts in my first sentence.

[Anonymous]

Most likely a plumber.

What kind of heating system do you have. Do you have heating vents that can be opened and closed?

Lastly, do you live in a town house? When friends have lived in town house, the first floor was usually freezing and the mid floor comfortable, top floor overly warm. (Hot air does rise.)

Maybe ceiling fans would help with air circulation? (That would be an electrician.)

[Anonymous]

Whoever services your heating system, which you should be doing annually. I actually adjust my own ducts so that I have my floors at the temperature I want, which varies throughout the year.

[Anonymous]

Call your HVAC company. They can look at your ductwork and heating system to determine what needs to be done and should be able to refer you to someone if there's work that needs to be done that they can't do.

[Anonymous]

HVAC company or person.

[Anonymous]

You can also call a energy audit company-- pepco will usually subsidize it down to $100 or so and they may be able to give you a good sense of what's going wrong and how to fix it.

[Anonymous]

It's not winter

[Anonymous]

shut some of the vents on the main floor and open all of them upstairs/basement. You talking heat, right?

[Anonymous]

We have this same problem, so I am watching this closely. Just closing the ducts in the basement and 1st floor hasn't solved things, unfortunately!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most likely a plumber.

What kind of heating system do you have. Do you have heating vents that can be opened and closed?

Lastly, do you live in a town house? When friends have lived in town house, the first floor was usually freezing and the mid floor comfortable, top floor overly warm. (Hot air does rise.)

Maybe ceiling fans would help with air circulation? (That would be an electrician.)

OP here -- we have a 3 story townhouse with a heat pump. No gas lines to our house and yes, we can open and close vents, but that doesn't help as much as I would expect. We are planning to put in ceiling plans, but I don't think that will help with the huge temperature difference that makes the basement basically unusable in the winter. We used tons of space heaters this past winter, but now with a mobile toddler, that would not be safe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Call your HVAC company. They can look at your ductwork and heating system to determine what needs to be done and should be able to refer you to someone if there's work that needs to be done that they can't do.

OP, we just moved in the fall, so we don't have an HVAC company or service contract. The one issue we had, was serviced through our home warranty. I would appreciate recommendations. We are in Falls Church.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not winter

Your point?

[Anonymous]

OP here again. Yes, I'm talking about heat in the winter. I don't anticipate having any problems in the summer b/c the basement will stay cool and hot air rises.

I'm asking this now because I want to take care of it before next winter.

We've tried closing almost all the vents on the top floor and some on the main floor but that doesn't help. I think the issue is more that there are, say, 2 vents in the basement, 4 on the main floor, and maybe 8 on the top floor and clearly closing them does not seal off the vents. I think we may need more in the basement that do seal in the summer.

I just want to know who to call about the ductwork and advice on installing new vents. Sounds like an HVAC company is the first step?

[Anonymous]

You can add dampers to the lines going upstairs to control the flow much better. Yes this is an hvac company. Argent is pretty good.