This will be our first winter in our townhouse and we just had a baby so getting the temperature right is a concern. All of the bedrooms are on the top floor and are much colder than the rest of the house. (4 or 5 degrees.) Our furnace has two vent systems leaving it, one for the upper part of the house and one for the lower.

My understanding is that in the summer, we should close the lower vent system so the cool are is pushed up. In the winter we would do the opposite so the warm are is pushed down - and will naturally rise up to heat the upstairs.

My question, since the hot air does not seem to be getting upstairs very well, does it make sense to leave the vents in the "summer" position which should be forcing more of the warm air upstairs?

Thanks for your input!

I lived in a townhouse that had strip heaters around the baseboards. Since I had an open staircase and unable to stop the heat from escaping upstairs I essentially had to heat both levels when I went to bed. Would suggest that you follow the rule of warm air rises and leave both vents open on both levels and see how that goes. Keep a thermometer in the upstairs rooms as well as downstairs rooms. Until you can get an handle on your heating be sure to monitor those temps closely.

You might end up getting a portable heater to warm up the upstairs room(s) in the morning a few degrees. I found that worked for me so I didn't have to keep cranking up the heat downstairs and having it so hot downstairs just to have it "warm" upstairs. I'd close the door and have the space heater warm up the upstairs room.

Hopefully you have good insulation in the ceiling of the 2nd floor as all that heat loss is definitely going to cost you.