Just bought a new house, a beautiful Cape Cod built in the late 1940s. Central HVAC in the basement. No return on the 2nd floor.
I have a fantastic HVAC guy who I trust completely. He was out to look at an issue in the basement (ducts are sweating & dripping condensation everywhere). His recommendation is to wrap the ducts, BUT...
He says my system is oversized for the ductwork that's installed (it's pushing about 2 tons but it's a 3-ton unit). And the fact that there's no return on the 2nd floor means it'll never be comfortable up there no matter how low I set the t-stat. And the thermostat would be short-cycling constantly if it were on the 2nd floor.
The house is going to be a nightmare to re-duct to get a return up there, and he wants no part of it - said to hire a general contractor if that's the way I want to go, and be prepared to rip up the house. The walls are beautiful plaster so I don't really want to go this way. Also my HVAC guy says this won't even 100% solve the issue.
His recommendation is to get a high-velocity system in the attic if we can fit one (the attic is very small), or a ductless split. He doesn't install these types of systems so I'm getting estimates which I will run past him. But I think I may not be able to afford several thousand dollars right now, with all the other costs of a new home adding up as we speak.
BTW he says the heating is most likely fine, but during the summer (I'm in the DC Metro area) it's going to be uncomfortable to miserable upstairs unless I solve this. (so far he's right, we had a night in the high 70s this week and it wasn't nice)
The previous owners did something semi-ingenious in my opinion. In one of the upstairs rooms they put a bathroom fan that vents to the attic. I do have an attic fan as well. When I turn on the fart fan and the ceiling fan in that room, it cools off nicely.
As a stopgap while I save money for a spacepak, what do we think of using a 2nd fart fan in the master bedroom? I realize they aren't made for this but it's a low-cost easy solution I can do right now to increase comfort where I sleep.
To be clear: the long-term solution will be the correct one, either a ductless split (which my HVAC guy says I'll need a unit in each room unless I can always leave the doors open which I can't) or a high-velocity system in the attic... BUT for now could I get away with this?
I'm open to other ideas and will answer questions as best as I can. Thanks in advance.
tl;dr: new house isn't comfortable in the summer on teh 2nd floor; I want to use a combination of a fart fan + a ceiling fan to cool it off until I can save money for a proper solution
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