In the summer I set our AC to 68* on the upstairs and downstairs unit and it just stays there.
Makes no difference where you go in the house it is the same temp.

In the winter I set both units to 68* every freaking room is a different temperature and I am constantly having to jockey the thermostat 2-3* to keep it comfortable!

Electric heat pump? That's how mine work, too. I'v always had gas in the past, which was very consistent.

quote:

Originally posted by Fredward:
Electric heat pump? That's how mine work, too. I'v always had gas in the past, which was very consistent.

Nope. It is gas.

It could be an insulation issue where rooms are balanced in the summer, but not so much in the winter. Can you slightly close some of the vents in the "warm" rooms so a little more heat gets pushed to the cold?

quote:

Originally posted by Perception:
It could be an insulation issue where rooms are balanced in the summer, but not so much in the winter.

Possibly a window issue, too.

Even with good, double-glazed windows with low-E glass, sunlight blasting through large windows and doorwalls can make a big difference.

As luck would have it in our house: The room with the most "window load" in the summertime is also the room with the most in the wintertime because of sun angles.

Have you tried running the blower fan constantly?

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
In the summer I set our AC to 68* on the upstairs and downstairs unit and it just stays there.
Makes no difference where you go in the house it is the same temp.

In the winter I set both units to 68* every freaking room is a different temperature and I am constantly having to jockey the thermostat 2-3* to keep it comfortable!

umm... sounds like the same people put the system in our house. Same problem. Has been better since we had the windows replaced.

I think heat pumps loose efficiency when the temps are lower. We switch from our heat pump to the furnace when the temps get into the 30s.

Some of you seem to be misinterpreting the OP's complaint. It's not that the system isn't getting the job done in cold weather, it's the variation in temperatures from room-to-room.

My money's still on windows.

Oh, and he clearly said, in a follow-up post, it's gas heating, not a heat pump.

Sorry, for not being clear we have a hybrid system. Heat pump with a gas furnace. The gas furnace kicks in when heating up more than 3* temp from the last setting and anytime the temperature drops below 37* if memory serves correct to what the HVAC guy said when he installed it.
Here recently we have been under the 37* so the gas has been rolling.

I had the power company come out last winter and do their energy audit. Where they seal up the house and they do the thermal imaging thing.

Windows checked out good. I do have one door that sucks at the bottom but keep a towel stuffed there in the winter.

Hopefully windows are not the issue as that is not in the budget anytime soon.
Just did 9 windows in my cabin with lower end windows.
I have 28 windows in the house. Yikes! I’d likely have to do 1 floor a year to stay in budget.

How well is your duct work insulated? How far are the runs from the furnace? Are the colder rooms further runs from the furnace?

Sounds just like my current setup. This is the first time I've ever had a "heat pump" as I just moved down here from the Great White North. Never had central AC either. I really miss the wonderful, constant heat of my massive cast iron radiators in my old house. They were the original steam radiators from 1908, converted to hot water at some point. The most comfortable setup for the cold months.

I finally got my humidifier cleaned up after putting it away for the spring and summer. Now that I have bumped the humidity up upstairs it has helped quite a bit upstairs for some reason.

I have a 2-story house with a thermostat upstairs and one downstairs, but with 1 furnace and 1 a/c unit. There are motorized dampers in the ductwork that direct air either upstairs or downstairs, depending on what the thermostats are calling for.

For example, in winter, if it's cold downstairs but hot upstairs, the downstairs thermostat calls for heat, the furnace fires up, and the dampers close to direct all the heated air downstairs.

But, we have a problem - the furnace BTU output is too much (oversized) when one of the dampers is closed. There is too much air being pushed out, so the warm/hot air backs up and trips some safety thing in the furnace. So the furnace short-cycles - runs for a short time, cuts off, then starts again, rinse and repeat.

The no-cost fix was to disable the air dampers - so they are both open all the time. That relieved the high static pressure and so no more short-cycling. But now, when the furnace runs, I get warm air upstairs and downstairs, but usually the upstairs doesn't need it.

So, I just pretend the HVAC system is like the house is 30 years old instead of 5.

The kid’s freaking bathroom window was open like 6 inches!!!!!

Hopefully closing it will help some

Sorry, that made me laugh.

I mean, I'm glad you got it figured out, Black.

Sounds like something I'd do... Assume the worst case at first when something goes wrong with the house, with nightmares of new HVAC systems and multi-thousand dollar window replacements, when it turns out to just be something very simple like an open window.

Yes, having a window open, especially upstairs will suck the heat out of the house.... and depending on where the make up air is coming from cause other problems..

Wondering about your comment about the door... if that is an interior door you know most HVAC systems have a common air return.... you don't just push hot or cold air out but must suck it all back into the system and this is usually done at one big common intake for each system.... If you seal off a space then it is really not sending the treated air into that space at the same rate as other areas that are 'open' to the return.

As a second note... these power companies and their energy assessments tend to lean toward the mistake that a home should be air tight... this is the absolute worse thing you can do to a home. Not only does a living space need outside air... it needs to replace the air constantly or bad things will happen not just to the structure but the living things inside.