325. Upstairs vs. Downstairs Temperature
28 Jan 2026 · 3 min
Derek Cole explores why upstairs rooms get hotter than downstairs in most homes. The episode covers thermostat placement, zoning systems versus adding a second unit, and how attics and crawlspaces affect temperature distribution across floors.
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I'm Derek Cole, host of the Derek Cole Podcast, and we believe in taking the time to explain how things work for your air at home or your business. And we also believe you deserve clean air in that home. And that is why we founded the Healthy Home Challenge. It's a five day online video series with daily emails, worksheets and even quick action steps you can take to protect you, your family and your co workers. If you haven't joined us yet, you can sign up. It's free to free five day access. You can go to Simmons One Hour Comm. You'll see a link to learn more about indoor air. You've probably known for a while that you need better indoor air at home or at work. After all, we spend 90% of our time indoors these days. Your breakthrough awaits at Simmons One Hour Comm. Now let's get into today's episode. Please listen closely and maybe even take some notes so you can remember these insights of home comfort and energy savings and share this episode with three of your friends. Because we all need to share better ways to be more comfortable at home. Be sure to tag me or DM me on Instagram Derek Mcole so I can say hi. Thanks again for listening. And let's begin.
The problem with one unit covering both is that you have different demands upstairs than you have downstairs. So when you look at a house and think about it, heat rises, obviously, right? So when he arises upstairs typically would be warmer than downstairs, right? So chances are I've seen this before. The thermostat is downstairs. You have a unit that runs the whole house up and down. So to get upstairs comfortable, you didn't have to make downstairs freezing. When I first got married, we lived in an apartment that was two stories but had one unit. So I mean, when you went downstairs at nighttime, it was like, you better put on like a big coat and everything because it can't happen. Because upstairs you have more of a load then you have downstairs. Downstairs heat rises. You also have the attic upstairs. So you have these forces you're going against. You have the attic, you have windows, you have upstairs heat rises. And downstairs, of course, cold air falls. And you don't have an attic downstairs. And the crawl space is not that much of a heat load compared to an attic.
So.
So it's different demand. So how you solve that problem is either two units or what we've done quite a few times, which is zoning. You make downstairs one zone, you make upstairs one zone. It's very simple. If you have a unit that covers up and downstairs. Right now you can very simply make it a two zone system. That way you have a thermostat downstairs, you have a thermostat upstairs. You can keep it that temperature you want, you keep it that temperature you want and it can make it work that way. So the challenge with some houses is that there is not that duck chase in the house for the duck to be run to have one unit for the whole home. But if you already have that, obviously that's available. But you just need to make it a zoning situation. I wouldn't get two units. I would just zone it upstairs downstairs and that will solve the problem. But until you do that, it is what it is. I mean the thermostat downstairs upstairs is warmer in the summertime it's going to be. So you just might have to freeze it out downstairs and get upstairs as comfortable as possible.
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