How to Prevent Uneven Cooling and Heating in Your Apartment

Uneven heating and cooling in homes, apartments and other living spaces is one of the most common HVAC issues. In apartments, however, the problem can be especially uncomfortable. If you live in a one-bedroom apartment, the living room could be the perfect temperature, but move into the bedroom and it could be too cold or too hot. Depending on the season, this could be very unpleasant. If it’s the winter you want the whole apartment to be warm, and if it is summer you want every room to be cool enough to beat the outside heat. Whatever the circumstance is, though, there are measures you can take to ensure that every room in your apartment is the ideal temperature. Here is how to prevent uneven cooling and heating in your apartment.

The first step to take – if you want to remedy this problem yourself – is to inspect the ductwork. When it comes to uneven cooling, the culprit usually has to do with leaks. If there is a leak in a section of ductwork that is meant to cool or heat a certain room, it can cause uneven cooling and heating. It is recommended to close the leak using a type of resin epoxy and electrical tape. If done correctly, this should seal the leak for good.

Another option is to improve the insulation in a certain section of the ductwork – especially if that section is running through the room that doesn’t appear to heat or cool efficiently. You might be able to install extra insulation yourself by crawling into the crawlspace of your apartment, but if you don’t want to risk causing damage – either to yourself or to the system – it is wise to call the superintendent of the building.

If it is not your ductwork that’s the problem, it might be that the coolant you are using to air condition your home is not energy efficient enough. There’s a reason why you can tell a room is air-conditioned immediately when you walk in. There’s that subtle yet very distinct smell. That is a refrigerant called r22, which is used by your air conditioning system to cool your home. Not only does it cool your home, it also wreaks havoc on the ozone layer as well. Now people are switching to something called r410a, which is far more energy efficient and effective at cooling your home. Switching from r22 to r410a should improve your uneven heating and cooling problem, and it will significantly reduce your carbon footprint.

Lastly, your uneven heating and cooling problem might have a much simpler solution. For instance, perhaps the vent gates aren’t open all the way. The vent gates are basically rectangular windows covered by a grill, which allows for airflow when we are trying to heat or cool our homes. If these vents aren’t open all the way, it could be causing those rooms to be uneffected. You can usually open these windows by flipping a little switch back and forth. You can also use these switches to manually control the airflow in those rooms.