Now that fall brings cooler temperatures, you’d think it would be easier to keep your Florida home comfortable. Unfortunately, there’s still plenty of humidity in the air, which means that discovering hot and cool spots in your home is even more frustrating.

Hot and humid is bad enough, but no one likes it cool and clammy. What could be causing it?

Summer Heat Load

Summertime means a lot of work for our air conditioning systems. While mechanical devices don’t get tired the way people do, overwork can still cause them to malfunction. Some of the ways we use our AC in summer can result in hot and cold spots.

Ductwork disintegration

Our wet, stormy summers can affect the integrity of your ductwork. Water damage to ductwork insulation can lead to unequal performance down the duct run.

Dirty filters

With lots of use, and probably a lot of traffic in and out of your home, your air filter can become extra dirty, extra quick.

This can cause your system to overwork and short cycle, meaning it cuts off before it has cooled the air adequately. In the humid Florida fall, it can also freeze up your coils. This means your system will blow warm air instead, even with the thermostat cranked down.

Blocked vents

If you closed vents over the summer to reduce cooling to unused rooms, it can cause hot and cool spots in your home. Your system needs to be balanced for proper conditioned air distribution.

Make sure all of your registers are open and unobstructed, including the intake vent on your air handler.

Improving Air Flow

Poor air balance is the main cause of hot and cool spots in your home. Air balance means that there is steady, unobstructed airflow throughout all of the rooms. This ensures that cool (or hot) air is evenly distributed to every room.

While you may not be able to perform the exacting measurement and adjustments of an AC technician, there are ways to improve the airflow throughout your home:

  1. Replace the air filter

  2. Install and use ceiling fans

  3. Make sure vents are all open and unobstructed

  4. Make seasonal adjustments to thermostat

  5. Check and block drafts

Out of Balance

Finding pockets of cold or hot air in any of the rooms of your home is a good reason to call in a technician to perform air balancing. Not only will it provide even heating and cooling, it will also provide you with an excellent snapshot of your system’s performance and efficiency. This will help you avoid expensive emergency repairs in the future.

Remember that adjusting the thermostat and using fans is just a temporary measure. For best results, call in a certified technician with access to the professional tools and expertise to measure and adjust your system’s performance.

Make an appointment with One Hour Air in Stuart today to eliminate these hot and cool spots in your home for good.