Hot Spots in My House | Home Performance

When it comes to home performance, many homeowners blame the heating and air conditioning system when they have a room that is hot in the summer and cold in the winter.  The poor HVAC system might have nothing to do with this problem, which might, in fact, be a duct issue, insulation problem, or construction error. Poor Airflow  Before blaming your hardworking HVAC system for hot or cool spots in your home, check the airflow.  In some cases, poor home performance, like hot spots, is actually due to improper airflow.  Properly heating or cooling a room requires a certain volume of airflow.  Air volume is expressed in cubic feet per minute, and several factors can affect this measurement, including:

• Room size
• Purpose of the room
• Number of windows
• Amount of insulation
• Location within the home

If air is not flowing through the ducts as it should, the HVAC system cannot heat or cool all rooms properly. Problems with Ductwork  Ductwork that is poorly designed or improperly installed can also lead to less-than-optimal home performance.  If you notice that hot spots exist after you retrieved all those holiday decorations from the attic, it is possible the ductwork was damaged when you tripped over it for the fifteenth time.  If your family room is so warm you prefer watching television in your bathing suit, while the master bedroom is so cold you need your ski parka, you may have an air balance issue—which a trained technician can resolve simply by balancing dampers. Construction Issues  If the problem exists after construction or a remodeling project, it is possible that the contractor neglected to install insulation, or installed an improper type of insulation.  A simple visual inspection is often enough to determine if this is the case, but there may be the need for more sophisticated tools, such as a Thermal Imaging Camera.  Spencer AC & Heating can perform a home energy test to pinpoint the cause of the hotspots to improve home performance and eliminate the tropical feeling in your bedroom as well as the North Pole feeling in your kitchen. For more information on how to eliminate hot spots in your home, visit our website and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn!