I recently purchased a town home. 3 levels-1 garage -built in 1991. The basement is cold, but the second floor is cooler than the basement. The third level (where the bedrooms are located) is so hot that I open up a window. We noticed that the vents in the basement and one vent in the master bedroom had tape over them. I'm not sure if previous owners were trying to redistribute heat to the second floor. I checked the vents on the second floor to make sure that they were working and they are. I have vents on the wall and floor. I have one thermostat located on second floor. I change my filters as needed. I also have central air. The central air fan is located outside in the yard. It stopped working last summer. Not sure if this problem is related to my heating issue though. I'm really strapped for money and have no idea about heating and cooling, furnaces, etc. What can you suggest for the heating issue?

The town home you have has had long standing problems with the HVAC system. The duct tape tells the tale. This does happen and there is NO cheap cure because if there was someone would have already fixed it.

My suggestion is you save up some $$$ and call a local HVAC specialist in your area to do a On Site Service since no one here or elsewhere will be able to tell you anything about your system except to say it does not work and will not work until calculations are done and corrections are made. At that time of the visit they need to do a manual D to calculate the duct system that is needed to do the proper job and also to see if they can salvage the duct that is already there.

Do not feel bad since 95% of all homes experience some of the difficulty you are having with duct work. It is caused by cheap builders who want to spend more money on kitchen cabinets that look good then proper heating a cooling that does little to sell the home appearance wise.

In the mean time you can play with adjusting the registers like all the previous owners trying to make it work.