Advice re decreasing heating bill

[YankeeMom]

I have a similar issue with my house. The stairs are large and open and the top of the stairs also open up to a foyer up there too. It's hot up there in the summer and freezing up there in the winter.

What I do is close all the doors to the downstairs foyer (there are three doors that lead to the front foyer and the stairs leading up). Maybe you could put a curtain or blanket across the one door that leads to your foyer?

One other thing, I wouldn't suggest closing the floor registers upstairs. Our furnace guy said the furnace still has to work hard to get the air up there and closing the registers just makes it work harder? I don't know, I didn't understand it. But if you keep the downstairs buttoned up (where the thermostat is) and warm, the furnace won't "know" if it's hot or cold upstairs.

[Shoshana]

Thanks, everyone for your advice and input.

I did the incense test last night, and believe it or not, there were no drafts at the windows. When I held the incense stick next to the windows, the smoke stream went straight up without wavering.

I decided that I'm going to call my furnace company and have the furnace serviced for the winter -- and ask them how I can decrease my heat bills -- will it really make the furnace work harder if I try to close off the upstairs.

[Greebo]

Eh? No - if your thermostat is downstairs and you close off the upstairs, then the furnace will run less.

As for working harder... that furnace guy doesn't understand fluid dynamics, apparently. The furnace won't work any "harder" - the fan runs at a certain speed and creates a pressure imbalance which causes air to move. If the upstairs registers are closed, or even if they are OPEN but the doors are all shut tight, then the air can't go upstairs (the house being a closed system) so it has to go downstairs and will do so at a higher velocity. Kind of like in your car, if you turn the A/C on and close 1 vent, the air comes out of the other vents faster.

[Gardengal18]

Is there any way you could hang a heavy curtain at the top of the stairs into the upstairs area? It would prevent some of the heat from flowing up into that area. You could even install a tie back if you needed too. Other ideas would be putting some kind of door at the top of the stairs.

I hang a heavy quited curtain by my stairs to prevent the cold air from rushing up the stairs from the foyer/basement/garage. It definetly helps.

[ladytoysdream]

Hi

If you have a full bathroom on the second floor, don't you need to keep some heat up there to keep pipes from freezing ?

Can you close off the closests and the bedrooms, and let the heat get to
the bathroom up there ?

[Gardengal18]

I think it might be better to hang the curtain at the bottom of the stairs so the air doesn't go up the stairway and create a chimney effect, regardless of the curtain. I would think you'd lose less warm air that way.

You know, you have a point there! Good idea!

[YankeeMom]

That's it, I'm firing my furnace guy