Cold front bedroom?
 

Seeking others who experience a cold front bedroom during cooler/cold days.

Warms up OK, but cools much faster than the rest of the house. Insulation was added to ceiling. Airflow re-balanced and increased to that room. There are plenty of others with the same problem out there I'm told.

Two year old designer house. Problem was initially noted on the "New Home Checklist" right after purchase. HVAC installation company unable to find a problem with their system. Warranty Department seems unwilling or unable to fix.

The fundamental problem is single zone HVAC and the thermostat is in the main living area. Many of the the front bedrooms have 3 outside walls and perhaps a lot of windows space. The insulation of the walls in relatively low, as is the windows. The main living area will maintain it's temperature better and the HVAC will not kick on often enough to maintain the temperature in the front bedroom.

You could try setting the fan to "on", instead of "auto". This will keep air circulating, even when the compressor is off, and may even out the temperatures but this approach is not without other issues. You could also try relocating the thermostat to the front bedroom but this may result in the rest of the house being too warm. To properly address the issue you need an HVAC system with multiple zones.

we have a Holly with a big front bedroom with a walk in closet and bumped out bay type windows. It is colder than the rest of the house. I think it's because it faces north, and has no sunshine. Also because it bumps out it has only one wall connecting to the rest of the house. and the area around the windows is cold. It is fine in the summertime. I have considered using one of those small ceramic heaters in it when I am sewing or watching TV ( I use it as my TV/crafting/sewing/computer/office ) So I am in there a lot!

If you have a cold air return in that room throttle back or restrict the wild return in the main part of the house. That will cause more air flow to another part of the house.You may have to restrict the delivery air in the main part of the house also. Florida HVAC guys dont normally understand air returns. Most of them just use what we called wild returns which is only one return . If you have questions PM me maybe I can help. This will help only when AC or heat is running.

When I was being shown around some new construction homes in TV, 3 of the 4 homes I was shown had a second heat pump dedicated to the master. I guess that’s how they’re handling that issue these days.

A simple and not too expensive fix is to install a dedicated return from that bedroom/side of the house. That should improve the issue, if not totally fix it.

Nope, that won't address the issue. The problem, as I already stated, is that there is insufficient runtime to maintain the temperatures in the bedrooms on the periphery with the thermostat installed in the main living area. The bedrooms cool faster than the main living area. If the system isn't running because heat is not being called for by the thermostat it doesn't matter how many returns you have. The OP already stated that the room warms up OK.

Yes, you need multiple zones if the heat gain/loss is not uniform in the house, otherwise you will see temperature variations.This can be achieved in one of two ways. The first is multiple systems. The second is a single system with dampers in the duct work to vary the air flow to each zone. The latter generally requires carefully designed duct work and may be problematic if trying to retrofit existing duct work. The Carrier Infinity system is an example of an intelligent system that supports multiple zones with a single airhandler/condenser.

I THINK that is only in Premier homes.

Same here
 

We have the same thing. Our front bedroom is colder in the winter and warmer in the summer. We had HVAC people here and they tested the temp between the rooms and said it was within the limits of what is acceptable for how much air/heat was being put into that room. We didn't agree but didn't pursue. What could they do anyhow? It's only our guest room so it doesn't get used that often.

It worked in my home. Guess my A/C didn't know any better.

Cold front bedroom
 

Thanks for responses so far.
The room does have a return vent in the ceiling and measurements by HVAC company show it is working properly. The main duct that feeds that area of the house was also replaced with a larger one. Other vents on that line partially closed by them to blow even more air to the cold room. No change. The room heats up just fine. It just cools down much too quickly. The rest of the house is OK but when you walk into that bedroom (office now) it's freezing on a cool (or cold) day. Although North facing, sunny or cloudy days make little difference. Home inspector checked with IR camera and no obvious problem with insulation.

It's a Lilac style house. Bedroom on the other end of house is fine. Similar outside wall exposure and similar glass area. Builder has asked what I thought was wrong. I hadn't considered a second zone being the solution.

So you claim. You might want to reread the OP. My home also has a cold bedroom and the issue is it has higher loss than the main living area where the thermostat is located. The system doesn't run enough to counter the heat loss. Pretty basic stuff.

I have essentially the same issue. All homes in my area have returns in each room (as they should). The front bedroom has 3 outside walls plus the front wall is covered with windows. Windows, even double pane, have low insulating value and the walls are pretty low also.The heatloss is greater than the main living area where the thermostat is located. When our system kicks on the room also warms quickly but the system runtimes are not very long and the room cools down quickly. I see about 4 degrees difference between the main area on a cold day, before the system kicks on. The volume/area ratio works against smaller rooms on the periphery.

Its an old problem that nobody wants to address !!!

I totally agree with tuccillo. However another aspect to this discussion is that bedrooms should be cooler because it makes for better sleeping.

We built one house in Syracuse New York and had gas heat allocated to the lower level and electric heat for the four bedroom located on the second floor.

We never found a need to use the electric units in the bedroom and seldom for the bathrooms. And because our home was located at the highest elevation in Syracuse we only needed to use a fan once in the four summers we lived there

A 2000 sq ft house will never work with one zone.

Agreed 110%. My last home was 3200 sq ft with 4 zones. The sad part is the incremental cost of doing it right initially, via zoning, is small, relative to the cost of the house. The retrofit cost are greater. It is what it is and it is mostly an issue in the winter - I wear a sweater in my office.

I just use an extra blanket.

Our house is 2900 sq ft with a single zone and we don't experience the problem with the temperature as described.

nothing could possibly be "built on the cheap" here?

Some people are more finicky then others. A 2900 sq ft house should be zoned so that guest quarters are separate from the main living areas. It is a waste of energy to condition a house equally in areas a homeowner doesn't frequent.

Does it have a northern exposure? I have a bedroom with a southern exposure that is very hot. I asked the builder about it and I was told that it's just due to the southern exposure and there's nothing that can be done about it.

As mentioned, a multi zone heating and cooling system would probably solve the problem if you want to go to that expense.

A single zone house can be somewhat balanced by adjusting the vents. If the vents by the thermostat are partially closed, more air will be forced through the other vents. This will also keep the system running longer because less air will be getting to the thermostat. Not an ideal solution but it makes it better.

I believe what most HVAC companies strive to do is have the thermostat near a return vent. In my house, they have done that (there are actually 4 return vents in my house). The rational is the air going to the return is most representative of overall air temperature in the house. It would not be a good design to have a supply vent near the thermostat.

When you say return vent, are you saying you have an outlet AND a return in that room? I have yet to see an outlet and return in a TV house individual bedroom. Usually there is only one return and it should be in a hall or central location, usually near your thermostat. Adding a return back to the blower will increase the air exchange in that particular room so that the heat exchange in that particular room will be improved. Also, increasing the size of the outlet can increase the air flow in that room, which could also help.

Not a great solution but I have used a fan sitting on the floor blowing the cold floor air out of the room which in turn brings some warmer air in at the top of the door.

I have 7 return vents. All of my 3 bedrooms have a return and a outlet.

Disagree. I have 2 year old Laurel Oak. Front room has 2 supplies and 1 return. Middle bedroom has 1 supply and 1 return. Master has 1 supply and one return. Great room has 4 supplies and 1 large return. None of them are located near the thermostat.

A supply and return in the bedrooms is common, at least in the homes built in the last 2 years in The Villages, which apparently the OPs house has. All of my previous homes, not in The Villages, had supplies and returns in all rooms. A single return for an entire house is not a good design, for a number of reasons.

Not the best solution. This will over cool in the summer and overheat in the winter.

Cold front bedroom
 

More info on this at post #12 and yes, all 3 bedrooms have both a supply as well as a return vent. There is also a large return vent in the main (dining) area away from the supply vents in the living room. Remember, the problem is not receiving enough heat in that room as it will warm up nicely. It just cools down too much between heating cycles, resulting in a cold room. Air conditioning is fine in that room.

Thank you everyone for the input.
I was simply wondering how extensive the cold room problem was and am finding it's more extensive than I thought. Also received some potential partial workarounds here, but the bonus is I've now learned what the actual fix seems to be. Tuccillo is right, a second zone according to a different, large local HVAC company.

Warranty department denies there's any problem at all saying the house was built and engineered according to all building codes and permits were issued by the county. There's nothing more that they will do.

I know. I guess you didn't read the last sentence in my post. I think your statement is incorrect. Balanced is balanced. It's true that the unit may run longer but that is because air is being diverted away from the thermostat.

At the risk of boring people to tears, here is how this stuff actually works. It starts with a so-called "Manual J" calculation. This is essentially a heat gain/heat loss calculation for the house that takes into account the dimensions of the home, location and number of windows, the insulating factor for the window, whether the windows have coverings, the orientation of the house (north, south, east,or west), the insulation of the walls, the insulation of the ceiling, the number and insulation of the doors, etc., the climate temperatures and humidity in the summer and winter, and your summer and winter temperature setpoints. From these calculations, you obtain the heat gain (in the summer) and heat loss (in the winter) for each room in the house in BTUs. The total for the house will size the HVAC equipment in terms of tons (12K BTUs is a ton). From this information you can then determine the number of CFM (cubic feet per minute) of airflow needed in each room to maintain the desired setpoints. A so-called "Manual D" calculation is then done to design the duct work to deliver the needed CFM.

By code, this is all done and what they told you is correct about the engineering work and permits. And it is probably correct for the house on average. But, without zoning you are still going to have some issues with temperature uniformity as a centrally located thermostat cannot react to rooms on the periphery that lose heat/gain heat faster than the main living areas.

In my previous house, I did the Manual J calculation myself, designed the 4 zones, and selected the equipment. I hired a local HVAC contractor to do the Manual D and the installation. The results were very good in that there was complete uniformity of temperature and outstanding humidity control because of a variable speed handler. The typical designer home should have 3 zones, in my opinion: the guest bedrooms, the main living area, and the master suite. In the premier homes, they do a little better with 2 zones. Part of that is probably necessary because residential equipment is generally limited to 5 tons and if the Manual J calls for more than that you have to have multiple systems.

Cold front bedroom?
 

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A portable electric baseboard heater in that bedroom will solve the cooler (winter) problem. Set the temp on it to slightly less than what your house thermostat setting. It will only operate when the temp in that room gets below the setting in the main part of the house and will shut off when the furnace runs and catches up with the desired temp. Much cheaper than having professionals rework the system.

Have you checked to see if there is any/sufficient blown insulation in the attic over that bedroom? In one of my houses, I had one room that the builder failed to insulate in the attic.

Cold front bedroom
 

Yes, thank you. That's one of the first things they looked at and they blew in more just in case. I also had Frank D'Angelo the home inspector pay particular attention to that room using his infrared camera when he did the warranty inspection.

Everyone on my side of the street has the same complaint about their front bedrooms. We face north, and room gets light but no sun. We're also complaining about all this rain and our gardens turning to mush, but that's another problem.

SteveO,
Back up North, we had a cold room, and as noted above single zone heating system. One of the fixes I found that actually worked was to use insulating paint. The link below is for a ceramic additive that is added to any paint that makes it insulating.

Insulating Paint Additive Makes Paint Insulate

Please do your own research, but we had good success with the product. Also, this may be the lowest cost option, after a small space heater, but this has no monthly cost, and it is do it yourself.

NOTE: VERY IMPORTANT. Since you are adding the insulating material to the paint, YOU WILL HAVE A DIFFERENT FINISH TO THE NEW PAINT. It will be a rougher finish. I actually have some of this material left over, so if you would like to paint a small area to see the difference, send me a PM.