What Can You Do to Cool a Single Room that Keeps Getting Hot?

Your air conditioner is designed to keep your home cool. But some of us have homes that – even with a working AC – have one room that just tends to get hotter than the others. It may be because it sits on the sunrise side of your home, or perhaps it has poor insulation and can’t fight off the heat as well as the rest of the house. Raised ceilings may also play a role, as can excessive heat transfer from the attic.

Whatever the reason, when it comes to cooling down a single room as opposed to the entirety of our property, there are quite a few tips and tricks for you try. Some of them may feel like common sense, while others are actually quite innovative and only possible because of modern technology.

How Can I Cool Down a Room That’s Too Hot?

Your air conditioner is meant to do most of the work. So when your air conditioner is not able to cool this one room effectively, you’ll need to look into other ways to keep the room cool through prevention and other strategies. These include:

• Purchase a Ductless Mini Split – Also known as a mini-split system, or just mini-split, a ductless mini-split is a convenient and compact cooling system. Consisting of one outdoor unit and as many indoor units as required, a mini-split system is typically wall-mounted and connected to the outdoor through a small box outside that contains a power cable and refrigerant tubing. Each individual unit has its own thermostat, which allows you to keep the specific room cool that keeps heating up throughout the day. This means you are able to conserve energy by only cooling off the rooms you’re actually using, instead of attempting to keep the entire house cool.
• Let the Night Air In – Before going to bed, make sure to open up all the windows in your house if possible. Getting that evening breeze to pass through your house all night is a great way to ensure you start the next day nice and cool.
• Close your Windows and Blinds – Making sure to keep your windows and blinds closed when the sun is up can help keep the heat out. However cool you were able to make your home overnight and the longer you keep the interior darkened and sheltered from the heat of the day, the closer your house will stay to that evening temperature.
• Revamp Your Ductwork – Sometimes, the issue lies in the ductwork distributing cool air disproportionately, with not enough reaching your room. Certain products, such as duct dampers, and modifications to your ductwork can redirect more cool air to the rooms that need it most.
• Create a Cross Breeze – Should the heat begin to rise inside your next best bet is going to be developing a cross breeze in your home. Open up select windows, those opposite each other, and create a breeze between them. This should help force hot air out of your house and pulled out the interior. You can also use fans to manually create cross breezes. As long as you’re pushing hot air out of your house, the concept applies.
• Use a Portable Air Conditioner – If installing a ductless mini split isn’t an option, a portable air conditioner could be a more feasible solution. These units can be moved around the house as needed and can provide additional cooling power in rooms that need it.
• Fill Bowls of Water – By placing a few bowls of water in and around the room you need to cool off, you’ll be able to humify the space and cause more moisture to evaporate into the air, cooling it considerably. This can be a great way to control the temperature of a single room, rather than trying to cool off the whole house.

Our summers in Sacramento are hot, and continue to get hotter. Your AC is going to be put under tremendous pressure. It’s also possible that your “working” air conditioner is not working as effectively as it can, or is the wrong size for the space. It helps to have an AC technician come to your property for an assessment to see what else can be completed.

If you’d like to learn more about any of our services, or you are in need of a tune-up where you can share your concerns about keeping a single room cool, contact California Energy Consultant Service, today.