So we've been noticing my one son's room is dramatically colder than the others. Ran some tests and realized there is significant difference in the amount of air flowing into that room.

Well short of ripping up the floor (duct runs between floor joists then heads down a wall in the center of the house) I picked up one of these.



It's an in-line booster fan. It helps push more air through the duct.
It will be wired to the blower motor circuit so it turns on when the blower turns on (hot or cold).

Luckily they ran flexible ducting from the main supply duct to the elbow that goes into the wall so it won't take much to install it.

Anyone ever use one of these? Did it make a difference?

 

Hmm. That's very interesting. I have a similar problem with my master bedroom. It's roughly 3-4 degrees colder than the rest of the house in the winter.

Though, it doesn't seem to be an air flow issue per say...the force of air from the vents feels similar to the force of air from the vents in my living room, which is a similar distance/run away from the furnace. I think it's simply that the volume of the room is too much for the HVAC supply registers.

If I leave the blower on 24/7, the master bedroom will be within a couple of degrees of the rest of the house...but I don't want to do that.

I'm not sure how that duct "booster" will work, since the flow of air in/out is dependent on the amount of air the blower can move. Where will the booster obtain additional air? I suppose the other ducts in the system would be reduced by a little...but I don't know!

 

I haven't ever used one of these.
Has it always been cold?

Is his room the furthest from the forced air unit? What if you close one of the vents elsewhere, does this improve airflow?

 

Have you tried playing around with the dampers to get more airflow that way? I have no idea if those in-line boosters work, but I'm sure you will give us a full report.

 

Mine is more about air flow. The air coming out is warm there just isn't a lot of it. My hypothesis is it's a very long, possibly curved run vs. the rest of the house and it's just too much distane to travel to get air into the room.

I'm going to hook it up with a spliced extension cord to test it out (have it on all the time). Worst case is it doesn't work and I replace a 4' piece of flexible duct (or just duct tape it back together).

 

You know it. :wink:

 

^ If closing other vents doesn't seem to help...maybe that run has a leak somewhere?

 

I sure hope not. I'm realy not in the mood to sheetrock.

 

send a camera down the vent?

 

Closing vents and not seeing an improvement is not a good sign.

 

agree... you may have a leak somewhere you should find pronto... your heat can be leaking into cold zones which would just be wasting energy and possibly causing mold issues depending on where it may be leaking...

is the ductwork in the basement at all? i would check there first...