Why Are The Rooms Above Your Garage Always Hot?
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2024
- Ever wonder why some rooms get hotter than others or why one rooms can't get cool in the summer time? Rooms above garages are notorious hot rooms. Your Arizona home energy auditor explains what causes this and adds caution to avoid falling for hot room fixes that don't do the job goo.gl/bh3wjE
Hi,
Great info! I live in Miami, FL and have a 2 story home built in 2015. One of the rooms on the second floor (located above the garage) is partially cut off from the rest of the attic with a masonry wall. This wall is about two feet into the room leaving just enough space for the flex duct and diffuser to be installed. Its as if the shell contractor thought that was the gable end of the home and took that wall, as well as the perimeter wall all the way up. The room is closest to the air handler and I have not measured the CFMs but it appear the supply is plenty based on the air flow feel. My first theory was there was no insulation in the attic inside the room (since it does not connect to the rest of the home in the attic) so I had to create another attic access in the closet of this room to peek in. I found a lot of insulation with some of it covering the eave vents so I pulled it back to expose the eave vents and allow more air to flow into the attic. This helped a bit; however, the room is still the hottest room in the house, BY FAR. It is so noticeably hot, that is where I have my in-laws sleep when they visit reducing their stay ;-). I was thinking about venting the attic space so I started researching and found your video. The room has two windows, one facing East and the other facing North. Any suggestions? Do you have a consultant you recommend to do an evaluation here in South Florida? Thanks again for taking the tome do do these videos.
Townhome apartment the bedroom above the garage is ridiculous hot... trying to regulate the air flow by closing partly the vents downstairs with a fan above the register and another fan to circulate the air... not the greatest but it helps...
We live in central Florida, our two-story house (built in 2008) is west facing, so the garage is hit with sunlight most of the day and the bedroom above the garage is always pretty hot. The garage has no windows and the house is concrete/stucco, so cutting a hole in the wall would be the only way to install a fan to pull heat out of the garage. There's a vent and a return in the room and a return just outside the room. To remedy the garage I could try insulating the garage door to block some of the heat, cutting holes in the garage door to install vents and/or fans, other than that, I'm not sure what else we could do.
Hi Dave! Great video, thank you for the information. I live in Seattle and the room (master bed) above the garage in our split-level house gets noticeably hotter than the rest of the house, and there is no AC or ducts. What should I check/fix?
Dave, nice presentation. I have two rooms over the garage. One is a reading room and the other an office. The reading room is 3 to 5 degrees cooler than the office. The office is 82 to 84 degrees pretty much all of the time. In experimentation, I have turned off the three computer systems, two printers and a flat-screen television for one normal summer day. The temperature remained the same. I removed the office refrigerator thinking it was pushing heat. Still no improvement. My garage door faces the afternoon sun where external temperatures average 95 to 101 during the day. Of course the garage was hot so I installed 1" Styrofoam garage door insulation in hopes of reducing garage temperatures during the afternoon, theoretically reducing heat radiation through the office floor. Nope. I have one A/C duct and one return air vent. Inspection of air pressure via cracking the door open and activating the A/C had no influence on the doors position. I just don't know where else to look. Any ideas what I've missed or can do?
Hi Jerry, thanks for the summary. Your helpful investigation shows that the additional heat gain is not from the computers or from closed doors. I would suspect the attic ductwork next, then the insulation. The way the ductwork is run off the supply plenum and branches to each room may causing a "dead spot" in the airflow. An inspection of the ductwork and leakage measurement would shed light if your issue is from leakage or a design fault.
If you look outside at your roof, if you notice the two rooms above the garage are on a different roofing plane (that section jets out from the main roof area), then the insulators likely used fiberglass batt insulation above that area of the house. Fiberglass batts are notoriously hard to install correctly and may be causing the hot room also. If you have a temperature gun, you can spot check the ceiling for hot spots. Hope that helps and let me know if we can help you further.
i bought a home with an addition above the garage. they used flex pipe to go up to the bedroom, although for a space as large as a 2 car garage they only used 2 ducts and 1 tiny return near the base of the door. I was thinking of adding a couple jumpers down to the opposing bedrooms. Thoughts?
If the interior doors on the 1st floor close by themselves when the air is on, then yes, it will help
7:48 teenager😂😂 that was definitely me
My ceiling above my garage didn’t have insulation.
So I have a question my garage is actually cooler than the rooms above it, what does that mean my room is directly above the garage and its literally hotter and what can I do to fix that
The ductwork may be leaking air to the cavity between the 1st and 2nd floor and indirectly cooling the garage.. We could do a thermal camera scan to find if the ductwork is disconnected and blowing cold air on the drywall ceiling
@@GreenintegrateddesignPages thanks ill have to check that out
My bedroom is the hottest. I removed all the registers and kept all the doors open, including the bathroom, closet, and entrance. It's consistently much cooler, only three degrees warmer than my thermostat in the kitchen. One corner of the bedroom, though, can get up to 15 degrees hotter than the entire room. I'm guessing it's like you said in your video. That corner is the furthest away from the attic hatch, so the insulators decided to go a bit lighter around that perimeter of my bedroom. I might have to go up there and add some more direct contact insulation. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Hi Dave, over master bedroom over the garage gets very hot in Summer and its cool in Winter.
Are you keeping the doors open?
Green ID The bedroom door we just shut it, don’t lock it.
Same happens to me
I’m in Tucson home is about 15 10 years old, master above garage have to have two fans in front of door to blow air into the room. I’m guessing after eating your video the duct work is probably not ideal
I have two hot rooms and the east side of my house. One is above the garage and the other isn’t. They get the hottest when it is sunny. The house was built in early 2017. I have tried putting sensors for my smart thermostat in those rooms to combat the problem but it hasn’t helped much.
We've had success installing dampers int he ductwork to push more air to the rooms. Your house is new so you're insulation and ductwork leaks are probably not the issue. If you are in AZ, give Green ID a call for help
My master bedroom in over the garage an it is the coolest room on the second floor. All of the other rooms on the second floor are extremely not. I even installed ceiling fans and they have made little difference. What can it do?
Hi. I have a room right above the garage, half of the garage to be exact. It’s always hot there, even with the A/C on. The ducts are good and there is enough insulation above it. I don’t have access above my garage’s ceiling. I have a new insulated garage door but still the same. Should I cutout a ceiling hole in my garage just in case
Sure, you could check it out. A thermal camera would show the presence of insulation. That room likely needs more airflow to it. If you're in Phoenix, give me a call and I have some ideas.
Green ID thank you, I will try getting a thermal camera before cutting into my ceiling. I’m in SoCal. Thanks again. I appreciate the reply.
I heard having a separate mini split as the HVAC system is a cost effective and efficient method of conditioning the air in the bonus room over the garage in all seasons?
Yes mini splits are very efficient, quiet to operate and you use only as needed, would definitely recommend
@@GreenintegrateddesignPagesgreat solution in phones, not o much in climate with lots fo humidity-min splits are notoriouly weak at handling. Latent laods.
Hot room right above dining room/kitchen. Any thoughts?
I've got 3 bedrooms above garage and a bathroom the two north bedrooms are incredibly hot , it was 92 in the bedrooms yesterday, the ac ran all day but couldn't change the upstairs temp. I've had energy audits, air sealing, and insulation blown into walls and in the attic. Both insulation companies refused to insulate the garage, even just the garage ceiling.. I know there is no insulation because I have done some work in the garage and can see into the floor joist from a piece of drywall I had to cut out to replace. I've also had the ductwork redone so it's the shortest run to each room . The longest run I have is to the first floor which use to be a problem area until I added a booster fan and now the down stairs stays very comfortable and with the fan on can be cold. But there is over a 25 degree difference from downstairs and those bedrooms upstairs above garage. Vents were removed to check restriction and I have also snaked a camera through the ductwork to check for blockage and disconnections but the runs aren't long one is 4ft 9 inch to a wye then 3 feet 7in to one room , then 8 foot of 7 inch to the other room , both rooms are 11x12 . Both are nice and straight and no extra duct to help prevent drag. The odd part is the garage is usually pretty nice , it's not as hot outside , and not as hot as upstairs. I've even covered the windows and exterior wall with insulation foam board just in case there is heat gain. I may just have to add a booster just before the wye to increase the flow like I did downstairs.
Mine is cold
We have a ranch style house with a bonus room over the garage that was built in 2001. Feeling my air coming thru the vents is very low basically non existent. I bought energy saving curtains to keep the heat from the windows and bought a portable air unit for the room. I have noticed a thin carpet and wondered if I should get double insulated carpet when I do get it done. Just don’t know what to do.
Have you had an energy audit done on your home?A good audit can shed light on your issues causing your hot room. It could to insulation, bad duct design, duct leakage to name a few common causes.
U don’t get real winter don’t u?
We transformed the garage into a 'room' for extra space sometime ago however being that we live in one of the hottest places in the US keeping cool is vital and the room in question gets hot and stuffy. Looking in the attic the builders used this lent type of insulation for the house but forgot to place some above the garage. Should I use the same type of insulation or go with something better?
Cellulose has the highest R-value for blown in insulation of 3.2 per inch and is the cheapest
Loose fill fiberglass has a lower R-value of 2.8 per inch
Spray foam would be the best but is the most costly and would require more drywall repair work. It would create a good seal and insulator though for your hot room. Open cell has a R value of 3.6 per inch and closed cell spray foam has an R value of 6.5 per inch