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Two-storey, attic ducts, panels on the roof, and an upstairs that stops keeping up at about four in the afternoon.
The top floor, and why more capacity rarely fixes it
Three calls in four here are about the upstairs. The instinct is that the system is too small, and it usually is not — if the downstairs is comfortable, the machine is making cold air. It is simply not arriving upstairs, or it cannot leave once it does.
The four causes, in order of how often we find them: duct runs to the upper floor that are too small or too long, a return path that cannot get air back down from bedrooms with the doors shut, a damper somebody set years ago, and duct leakage into an attic at 140 degrees.
All four are measurable in under an hour, and all four are cheaper to fix than a second system.
Six things
No cooling, no heat
Checked in order of cost. Capacitors, contactors, float switches, filters, thermostats and breakers before anything expensive is on the table.
The upstairs
Airflow measured at the registers that are wrong, static pressure across the system, and return paths checked. Then, and only then, a recommendation.
Duct testing and sealing
Leakage measured with a number before and after. In an attic this hot it is frequently the single biggest improvement available.
Annual service
Charge verified properly, coil and drain cleaned, combustion tested on gas heat, every figure written down.
Condensate
Primary drain, secondary pan and float switch, tested. With a coil in the attic above a bedroom ceiling this is cheap insurance.
Replacement
Sized from the house, permitted and tested, with the ductwork assessed first — and the panel checked if it is a heat pump.
Worth hearing early
Zoning is not always the answer
It is frequently proposed for a two-storey house and it can work well. But zoning added to ductwork that is already restricted makes the restriction worse, because closing zones raises the pressure the blower works against. Measure first; zone second if the numbers support it.
A second system is a big step
Sometimes correct, and it is a large amount of money, a second outdoor unit and a second thing to maintain. It should follow a measurement that says the existing system genuinely cannot serve the upper floor, not a summer of frustration.
The delta breeze is a real tool
When the evening wind arrives, outside air is often cooler than inside air for several hours. A whole-house fan or simply opening up at the right time does more than most equipment, and it costs nothing to try before spending.
We are not solar people and we will not pretend otherwise
We do not install, service or advise on photovoltaic systems, and we will not tell you whether yours is performing as it should. If the panels are the question, that is a solar contractor and your utility’s data.
What we can do is the half that is ours: measure what your heating and cooling system actually uses, when it uses it, and how much of that is going into an attic instead of into your house. That is frequently where a disappointing solar outcome turns out to live.