Specialist · Portland, OR · Member since 2010 · 3k+ posts · 1k+ votes
Complaints about lack of heating and cooling in upstairs new townhouse. Buying a 6 month old townhouse. How can this be remedied?
Putting ducts in the ceiling seems stupid to me but apparently common practice these days. Do I need to add a second source of heating and cooling?
Property will be a higher end rental as required by the IR in an exchange and need to keep at least a year before trading or 2 years before moving in which I would not mind doing.
Investor · Narragansett, RI · Member since 2013 · 8k+ posts · 4k+ votes
5y
@Jeff S. are you getting complaints or are you assuming there are complaints? Has anyone checked that the ducts are sealed and is it losing heat because the attic space it goes through is cold/hot. Insulation ? or is the thermostat location an issue. A seperate heat source could be something like and an electric fireplace.
Specialist · Portland, OR · Member since 2010 · 3k+ posts · 1k+ votes
5y
@Colleen F. no assumptions here actual complaints from owner. Have experienced this myself as have others I know in 2 story houses both old and new. It is a long way from the furnace and when over 1500 sf you are bordering on needing 2 heat pumps.
You need to speak with a few 'honest' contractors, first. Sometimes, buildings don't heat or cool right because return ducts need to be installed, or both feed and return ducts. The last thing you want is to have two separate systems you need to pay to maintain. One is expensive, enough. You can do the calculations, yourself, to know whether or not the existing unit is large enough. You only need the square footage, height of the ceilings and look on the furnace and condenser for the capacity in 'tons' and not btu's. Then, go to the internet. A 1200 sq ft home required about a 3-ton heating and air conditioning unit and I always install 1 3-1/2 ton unit (not supposed to). I am an HVAC contractor and hate to admit that I always prefer to over-size units just a little to avoid hearing that the unit I installed is not large enough even though it is the correct size. The numbers can usually be tweaked a little to get inspectors to pass the job.