how to move cold air to a hot room?

[luv2liv]

here's a basic drawing of my first floor.

the AC unit, with 15000 BTU, in the back of the kitchen is blowing out cold air. it's freezing in there! meanwhile the living room is hot. what is the best way to get the cold air out into the living room? i tried the Vornado 660 Whole Room Air Circulator by placing it in the doorway. strangely, it isnt working so well. a box fan valued at $20 works better than that $100 vornado. and a $30 tower fan from walmart is too weak to do anything.

any other suggestion? should i try the vornado tower fan?

 

[herm0016]

you could put a fan in the window of the hot room to blow the hot air out, decreasing the pressure and pulling the cool air in. also, put your fan back from the door way a little so that you don't end up just circulating the hot air around. I have also found the best fans are the cheap box fans.

 

[TheGardener]

Take down the wall between the rooms, if it is non-load bearing.

 

[Greenman]

Put an air conditioner in the other room as well.

 

[skyking]

place the box fan so it blows the cold air into the hot room at floor level. Natural convection will send the warmer air back into the cool room to replace it.

 

[K7SN]

Put a transom over the door into the living room. You could even add small cheep fan to suck the hot air from near the ceiling in the Living Room back into the kitchen. I know a transom is 150 year old technology but it will work.

 

[luv2liv]

yeah, i would love to knock the wall down but it is load bearing and the house would totally collapse. transom isnt an option too because of that.
installing an AC unit in the living is an option too but it looks really ugly from outside of the house.
i will return the vornado and continue using the box fan at floor level until i can figure some super powerful fan...

 

[cabri]

If you can install a attic gable fan, it will help to pull the hot air out of living room.

Little late now, but what landscaping do you have. Shade trees for living room will be of benefit.

 

[highland145]

fix the hot air infiltration. Cabri +1, more insulation, ....hell, even white blinds vs dark ones affect heat transfer.

 

[3chordcharlie]

You can definitely make some modifications to a load bearing wall. With no structural effect at all you could make a staggered row of 'windows' in the stud spaces.
Depending on kitchen layout, a pass-through of some sort might be more practical, and still increase airflow. This would require some framing work.

 

[Mixolydian]

Vornado fans work really well in my experience. They create that "vortex" effect that seems to do the job.

 

[Spacehead]

Would a ceiling fan in the living room help out at all?

Do you have a forced air furnace? Just turn the fan on to circulate the air. Close off vents to others rooms.

Just trying to push cool air into a room is a bitch. Seems like the air needs to circulate for better results in my experience. I've tried what you're doing.

 

[DrPizza]

you could put a fan in the window of the hot room to blow the hot air out, decreasing the pressure and pulling the cool air in. also, put your fan back from the door way a little so that you don't end up just circulating the hot air around. I have also found the best fans are the cheap box fans.

Best answer in the thread. You can mix the hot and cold air in the house, or you can remove the hot air and replace it with cold air. Important to note that the highest speed isn't necessarily the best speed. It may be at first, but after a while, you may discover that a low speed is much more efficient at keeping it all cool (once it's comfortable, high speed in the window is exhausting comfortable air).

 

[Ken g6]

place the box fan so it blows the cold air into the hot room at floor level. Natural convection will send the warmer air back into the cool room to replace it.

This. If you can place a small fan at a high altitude in the living room and blow hot air back to the kitchen above the box fan, that would accelerate the process.

 

[luv2liv]

ok. thanks for all the suggestion.
im returning the vornado cause its not that great. so i got a portable AC unit to place in the living room. it is loud but gets the job done.
maybe in the future i will get a split ductless unit. still researching on what unit to buy and from where.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Do you have a window in the hot room, far away from the door, that you can crack open? Open the vent on the AC unit *(make sure it's not in the closed position) and that will create a positive draw to the hot room and it should clear out pending there are no other major air leaks.

Think of the whole thing like trying to inflate a balloon. The elastic will keep pushing the air back out. You've got to give the hot air somewhere to go....use physics to your advantage. It's different than if you had central air/heat pushing air in all rooms.