what about installing dampers in ducts to upstairs rooms?
then you could cut back on air flow at the supply plenum & that air would flow to cooler areas. (depending on configuration of ductwork)

manually adjustable dampers aren't hard to install..just make sure you mark open closed positions & mastic seal
everything.

best of luck.

What fuel do you use to heat the house? This will determine if it will cost you more money or less money to use space heaters.

Portable electric heaters are the most expensive way to heat a room. However in your case if the heater can help satisfy the thermostat in the living room then it may not cost you more money.

See what you can do to direct less air flow to the bedrooms and more to the living room. If the air flow is cool, then your ducts need to be insulated. Most of the heat is being lost before it arrives. It seems this is your biggest problem.

Thanks all! And you're right, it would mostly be to help "trick" the thermostat into kicking on less, while adding a small amount of warmth to the main living areas.

Also, I will look into installing dampers. It sounds intimidating, but the uneven heating drove me crazy last winter, and I really don't want to deal with it again.

I was also wondering if there is a way to guide the heat in my son's room to the hallway area (where it might spread more easily to the rest of the house?). I tried using fans last year, but couldn't get anything to work right. His door doesn't need to be closed, and the vent into his room is RIGHT by the door, so maybe some sort of deflector would help?

We have a gas furnace. I know VERY little about furnaces, but I've done more work on the furnace/ductwork/insulating stuff than my landlord or husband.
I put the insulation on the ducts in the crawlspace, after the guys insisted that it wouldn't help enough to bother, and I found that a damper was partially closed and opened it (after being told that we'd have to call a professional).

All of our ducts have been sealed with duct tape at the seams, and even over gaps. There was a HUGE open hole (like where another duct could have been connected) that was covered in multiple layers of duct tape. Sometimes, it would come unstuck, and there would be hot air blowing into the crawl space. I mentioned covering that hole with the silver bubble wrap type insulation, and was told that it wouldn't help any. (sigh). I did it anyways, and it definitely helped, a lot.

Yesterday, I found a duct that doesn't seem to have any heat going through it, but I can't find a damper on it. Due to it's location, it SHOULD be the hottest vent in the house. So I have to do some investigating there.

It hasn't been maintained much since we moved in 7 years ago, and who knows for how long before that.

It sounds like you have multiple problems and someone is giving you bad advice.

Hallways usually don't have registers, but may have a return. Trying to send warm air into the hallway is probably not going to solve your problems. Hot air tends to rise so it is not going to help any rooms below.

It looks like you have dampers so the trick would be to partially open or close them to try to balance the air flow. Any air leaking into the crawl space must be addressed. That is a big waste of energy. Cheap duct tape is not a good solution. The huge hold needs to be sealed properly is not being used.

Have you spoke to your landlord about the problems? Who is paying the gas bill? If it is you then you have a right to ask duct work be fixed so you are not spending extra money on fuel.

lets back up...
what type of ductwork do you have?
where is the location of ductwork?

is there a long supply plenum
with ducts taken off the plenum...
or a tall plenum with ducts?

where is gas furnace located?

are all ducts accessable?

having done some insulating of ducts already..
what did you use?

will landlord assume responsibility of addressing
this issue...or at least buy materials for you to
do the work?
maybe you do the work & deduct from rent?
I'd look for a way to share the costs.

it is hard to address comfort issues online...but
we can guide you if you give us information.

draw a simple layout of the floor plan of your house
with supply & returns marked on drawing.
include duct type, location etc as asked above.
include location where you live (generally of course)

it is difficult to get hvac co's to address duct issues
properly. they run the ducts but seldom seal them
properly. and it isn't rocket science.
I do a lot of ductwork retrofits and if you are willing
to do the work, can guide you through it.

materials are not very expensive, but you do
need to understand the need to use the right materials.
paint on mastic (I use CWI-181 @ $13 per bucket)
paint brush to apply mastic
Hardcast brand #1402 mastic tape
hvac supply houses stock these items, and can
order Hardcast if they don't stock it.
same for dampers..measure & buy from supply house.

the great thing about this forum is that we can
diy, and talk prices. so take advantage of that!

if you are the one to end up doing the work...
with the drawing of the house layout include
some pics of the ductwork.

there are things to do that direct air flow
dampers, turning vanes, directional supply
grills. knowing what will work best is the hard part
as we are not there to 'see'.

best of luck.

I think your problem as you have all ready found is that the ductwork is totally deficient. Duct tape is good for just about everything except what it is named for. It will typically blow away in 6 mos or so. I think the first job is to seal up the ducting properly. I'd check out Hardcast. They make a mesh scrim tape that can be wrapped around the duct joints and then a mastic is applied. This creates a really good seal and is really the only proper way to seal ductwork in the condition that yours is in. Kingco and Polymer Adhesives are othe companies doing the same materials. The duct seal you should use should have a bit of fiber in it to help hold together. Polymer 33 is the one I am most familiar with. This is a miserable job in a crawl space.

For fans I would suggest you look at Tjernlund Airshares. They make through the wall and floor units to assist in air flow.

Your big decision is whether to try to rescue this system or to eliminate and replace with different equipment. I pulled the entire ducted heating and cooling system out of my house and replaced with a couple Rinnai Energysavers and Mini-split heat pumps. In your situation I think I'd try a Rinnai in the lower section of the split and see how it goes this winter. I think you will be quite pleased if you do so.

You are just in a fix. Your equipment may be fine but restricted air flow due to poor ductwork will lead to furnace problems in the future.

mike_home said: "It sounds like you have multiple problems and someone is giving you bad advice."

That's half true. We definitely have multiple problems, but up until these responses, no one has been giving me advice. lol. These are all solutions that I'm trying to come up with, knowing that I know next to nothing about the problem that I'm trying to solve!

As evidence (this is probably going to sound pretty dumb): I just yesterday realized something that seems pretty basic. So, on the furnace (which looks ancient, btw), there are two big square ducts attached. One on the side on the bottom, and one on the top. I thought they were just different places that heat came out. I realized yesterday that the one on the bottom is the air intake, and the one on the top is where the heat comes from.

So THAT'S the level of knowledge I have about the whole system!

This post was edited by DevaFreya on Tue, Oct 1, 13 at 15:09

Could it possibly be a decent option to partially close the vents themselves? I'd read last year that it wasn't an energy efficient option, so I didn't do it, BUT I just discovered yesterday that the ducts going to those vents can't be more than a few feet long. I can't see the ducts (or whether they have dampers) because they are in the ceiling, but the vents are right above the furnace, so it has to be a pretty short line.

All of the questions that were asked earlier, I am going to try to answer, but I'm sort of overwhelmed with knowing how much I don't know!

I'm going to look for the supplies for the duct joints. That seems like something I can do. I went crazy with the insulation on the ducts in the crawlspace last year, and I don't feel ANY heat blowing, though I can feel a small amount of radiant heat when I touch the insulation around the ducts. The insulation I used is Ayr Foil Reflective Insulation.

The landlord...he's a nice guy, but he's not very quick about making repairs that aren't emergencies. If I buy some materials, he would probably reimburse us, BUT I don't want to nickel and dime him, as we have an *amazing* rent rate for this neighborhood, and I'd like to keep things positive. kwim?

I looked up supply plenum- is that the big square duct-like thing coming directly off the furnace? If so, it comes UP from the furnace, goes up to the ceiling (THIS is where I think the ducts going upstairs branch off), turns a corner, runs about 10 feet along the ceiling, turns to run halfway down the wall and into the crawl space. Immediately inside the crawlspace, it branches into 3 round ducts. Each duct is from 10-15 feet long before it reaches it's vent. Those are the ducts that I insulated last year. There are no vents in between.

It seems to be just a very inefficient system, due to how far the heat has to travel to get to it's destination. Or maybe that's not necessarily inefficient? But if it is, then maybe using something to help heat the living room, while turning the furnace down a bit, would be useful?

I guess I need to focus on weather proofing the downstairs/living room area. I am NOT going to put plastic on the windows that will cover the windowsills (that's where my plants live), but I'm open to pretty much any an all other suggestions. Even if they aren't especially pretty to look at.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ayr Foil