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Anyone out there with a Third Floor Walk Up that can comment on the heating and cooling of those rooms? I certainly don't expect it to be as cool as the main floor but do you find you need a separate HVAC to properly cool/ heat a third floor?
Anyone out there with a Third Floor Walk Up that can comment on the heating and cooling of those rooms? I certainly don't expect it to be as cool as the main floor but do you find you need a separate HVAC to properly cool/ heat a third floor?
We don't have the same exact issue....but we have three floors (instead of it being a walk-up, we have a daylight basement)...however, our lower unit (the larger one) heats and cools the two floors while the upper one is only for the top floor.
You may be able to get buy with your existing HVAC depending on its capacity, or you may need to either upgrade the current HVAC which covers your second floor or buy a new HVAC.
If you are able to or choose to use a single HVAC for the second and third floors, I would recommend having separate zones for both floors as the heating and cooling requirements will be different. You can do this with a single system by having dual thermostats and electronic dampners control the airflow to the different parts of your home.
Anyone out there with a Third Floor Walk Up that can comment on the heating and cooling of those rooms? I certainly don't expect it to be as cool as the main floor but do you find you need a separate HVAC to properly cool/ heat a third floor?
I'm no HVAC expect but here's my understanding.
If the third floor walkup is unfinished, then the existing HVAC for the 2nd floor shouldn't be big enough to heat and cool the third floor. I say this because if it was able to - it would be too big for your current configuration (where the 3rd is unfinished). They don't install HVACs that are bigger than required for a space because it's inefficient. Proper HVAC sizing is very important.
So your two options are usually: 1) replace the second floor HVAC with a bigger one that is sized for both the second and third floors or 2) buy a separate HVAC for just the third floor. My impression is that most people do the 2nd option. Again - I'm no expert - just my understanding.
We have a finished third floor and dual zone HVAC. The units work great for first and second floor, but I wouldn't say that the third floor is heated or cooled in the same way. I think, down the road, we are going to get a third unit for the third floor simply to regulate it better. Right now we don't use the third floor very much, so we don't notice it as much.
We would either need a bigger unit for the second/third combo or to get a smaller unit just for the third floor (which is about 500 square feet).
We have a finished third floor and dual zone HVAC. The units work great for first and second floor, but I wouldn't say that the third floor is heated or cooled in the same way. I think, down the road, we are going to get a third unit for the third floor simply to regulate it better. Right now we don't use the third floor very much, so we don't notice it as much.
We would either need a bigger unit for the second/third combo or to get a smaller unit just for the third floor (which is about 500 square feet).
Leigh
We have the same as Leigh and find it gets quite stuffy up there without the third system. We do have ceiling fans and that has helped alot to the point where it is very tolerable.
For 500 square feet it'd seem applicable and less expensive to install some sort of small wall mounted system as opposed to going through the fairly significant expense of a true HVAC system. But please educate me as my new house has a small 1 room + 1 bath setup in the attic waiting to be finished.
In our now finished walk up attic, we have a seperate heating/cooling unit. It is made by Samsung, but Panasonic also has something similar. It allows us to heat and cool the attic space completely independently. There is a wall mounted unit inside with a remote control that is connected to a compressor unit outside on the ground. It ran about $3k installed and is very energy efficient. When finishing off the attic, the HVAC guy said he would not tap into the existing second floor unit because it wasn't made to handle the additional sq ftg. Same response from the builder rep we had out here for different issue.
Thank you for the replies! I was asking the question because some homes I've seen online have the third floor walk ups that are finished. And I wondered what sort of things I should look at for HVAC. You all gave me great info so I can better access the space.
The second floor of my current 1916 Craftsman is very drafty in the winter and stuffy in the summer. I can deal with that here in Oregon. But in NC I don't want a space that is difficult, expensive, or exceedingly hard to cool or heat... esp cool. I can always add layers in the winter.... the reverse just doesn't work for the summer.
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