Temperature in primary bedroom 3-5 degrees higher than rest of house
 

I have a 6 year old Charlotte CY Villa and the primary bedroom is furthest away from the air conditioner. I bought a room thermometer as the bedroom felt unusually hot (to me) and it does show the bedroom is 3-5 degrees warmer than the front of the house. This seems like a lot - is this normal? I keep the blinds shut and my bedroom has an Eastern exposure so it gets sun in the morning but remains hot all day and night. I turn the air conditioner to 72 at night just to get the bedroom down to 77 which is still too warm for me. Any ideas other than keeping the air conditioner temp set really low?

Thanks,

Cindy

That is not normal. Are you keeping the bedroom door closed? If so, try opening it and see if that makes a difference. Also, consider buying a device to measure that air flow through the supply duct, for about $14 from Amazon and compare it to the other rooms. Here is a link. Also, you should have a return duct in the bedroom that transfers air from the bedroom into the living room, when the bedroom door is closed. Make sure this return duct is not obstructed.

Amazon.com

If that doesn't show the problem, you may need to hire an HVAC technician.

Thanks. I am scheduled to have the ducts cleaned on Monday. I do keep the bedroom door open. Fingers crossed the duct cleaning solves the problem.

Cold air has to travel further through a hot attic to get to the back rooms, therefore they will be warmer.

Note that other threads on duct cleaning have recommended not cleaning flexible ducts because it is not effective, and the equipment can puncture a hole in the duct and cause a serious problem. Do a thread search. If you suspect a clog in the duct, it would be better to have a camera inspection done to find the clog.

True.

Questions:

Which rooms are getting hit with afternoon sun.

You can close down (not all the way) on cooler rooms and force more to the bedroom.
(The other poster is correct, lots of heat in your attic)

The garage gets the afternoon sun. I had wanted an Eastern exposure for my backyard (and primary BR which is what I got).

Something to note. The prior owner insulated over the garage too. We never did that in Arizona as it trapped heat making the garage even hotter. I am wondering if doing that here makes my attic hotter?

I am having Sun Kool do the ducts since they installed the air conditioner originally and I had signed up for their Kool Club. I hope they are aware of the flexible duct issue?

You might check the insulation above that room and around the cold-air ducts going to that room. All of that should be fine but it's worth looking at.

Duct cleaning is a somewhat controversial topic. Buildup in the duct would affect airflow but it seems like it should take an awful lot of buildup to cause that much of a temperature difference.

I don't know if any of the ducts can be shut off but it's worth taking a look at that.

The long run through the attic could result in cool air taking longer to reach the room but if the AC runs for more than a few minutes then it shouldn't cause a significant difference. But you have the new thermometer so try measuring the air leaving the duct in that room and one of the cooler rooms.

While this would not correct whatever is causing that room to be warmer, one thing you could try is to set the fan to "on" rather than "auto." This will keep air moving through the ducts and circulating in the home and hopefully would balance the temperatures. Colder air from the front rooms would be drawn to the back and warmer air from the back would mix with the front. With air continuously moving, there wouldn't be a chance for the ducts in the attic to get overly warm and send heated air into the bedroom. I did this in my old home that had a thermostat on the first floor but bedrooms on the second. The fan runs more but the compressor should run less so hopefully it keeps the bedroom more comfortable at less cost than setting the thermostat to 70.

In my opinion, insulating the ceiling in the garage has very little effect on the attic temperature or the garage temperature.

Make sure the dampers on the registers are adjusted properly. Are they fully open in your primary bedroom, and are the dampers in rooms that are cold partially open/mostly closed?

At construction, we insulated out garage.
Our garage is 20 to 30 degrees COOLER on hot days.
Strange yours is hotter.

I think most homes have one room that is warmer than the others. I know that we do and have had similar experiences in other homes. I just us a floor fan to move the air around, turn it on a couple hours before bedtime and it seems to keep it cooler. I tried blocking or reducing the flow in other rooms but it didn't help.

I also agree with others, don't get your flexible ducts cleaned, if you can cancel that service it would be a good idea.

In my opinion, cleaning the ducts is a waste of money, and I don't think it has anything to do with the Kool Club.

I agree. Cancel the duct cleaning service.