In a perfect world, heat distribution throughout your home would be even, making every single room and inch of your home the exact same temperature. However, this is very rarely the case. One room of your home is probably significantly warmer than the others, or maybe one is always very chilly. Uneven heating can make places of your home very uncomfortable.
No matter the cause, it can be very frustrating, but to solve the issue, you need to be able to determine the original problem. Here are a few causes of uneven heating.
1. Lack of Preventative Maintenance
You’ve heard us talk about preventative maintenance a hundred times. There is a good reason for this. A lot of little things that lead to bigger problems, like uneven heating, can be caught before there are any signs of a problem.
During a preventative maintenance check, a technician will inspect your furnace and perform any repairs or tune-ups that you are in need of at that time. At Cates, we offer these checks twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall to make sure your whole HVAC system is in proper working order.
Improper Insulation
Insulation helps keep the warm air inside of your home during the cold winter months. If you don’t have enough insulation in your home, the cold air from outside will start to seep into the house you are paying to heat. Old insulation can also cause the same problems.
If you notice that your home is starting to feel unevenly heated, you might want to investigate your insulation a little bit to see if it could be the cause of your heating issues.
Another insulation problem could be that windows and doors in your home aren’t sealed properly, which allows cold air to penetrate your home. You may need to caulk around the windows and doors to ensure that cold air can’t cause problems in your house.
2. Leaky Ducts
Leaky ductwork can cause a number of issues, but the biggest impact you will notice in the winter is uneven heating. Rooms that are the farthest away from the unit will often not receive enough warm air to adequately heat the space. Ductwork with holes or cracks can leach too much warm air into some rooms of your home while providing no heat to others.
Clogged ducts can also cause heating problems. If your ductwork is full of dust, dirt, and other debris, it can be difficult for air to get through, which means that it can’t reach all of the rooms in your home. A professional HVAC technician can clean your ducts out to ensure that the maximum amount of air is traveling through the ductwork of your home.
3. Closed Vents and Registers
When you notice hot or cold spots in your home, it is a good idea to start checking the vents and registers throughout your home. It could very well be that you have places in your home where the vents and registers are closed, and the warm air you are paying for is unable to reach the rooms that feel extra cold. To solve this problem, you will need to check for closed vents and registers. Any that are closed should be opened. This issue tends to be more prevalent in homes that are larger than 2,000 sqft.
4. Unheated Spaces
If you have places in your home that aren’t currently being heated with your HVAC system that feel cold, it might be time to consider a way to heat them. Garages, closed-in porches, new additions, and other spaces might not be on your current HVAC system. If you need to add heat to any space in your home, you should speak with an HVAC specialist to discuss your options. One option might be a window or wall unit that will heat only that space. You might also be able to extend the ductwork of your home into that new space.
Fixing Uneven Heating
The easiest way to fix uneven heating is to have a professional diagnose and solve the issues for you. Once the cause of the problem is determined, we can come up with a solution and make your home more comfortable, no matter what room you are in.
If you are experiencing uneven heat in your home, contact Cates Heating and Cooling today. One of our technicians can come to your home to determine the cause of the uneven heating in your home. You can reach us at 913-888-4470 in Johnson, County Kansas, or 816-944-1844 in Missouri.
