Our older furnace/ac (10 years) works fine except that the blower doesn't force enough air upstairs resulting in a big temp difference and resulting thermostat wars. I read somewhere that one can install supplemental blowers in the duct work. True? Issues? The company who does my annual system check says I can't put a more powerful blower in the existing furnace, but of couse he wants to sell me a new furnace.
After three years of surgery, chemo and radiation, we can't afford a new furnace.
So bundle up upstairs, reduce our use of the system and carry a space heater around, or are there solutions? I'm pretty okay with wiring and handling small household problems, but I neeed to know my stuff before I start calling vendors or visiting the home supply store.

Can anyone advise me? Please?

Just Bundle up

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Originally Posted by jkite

Our older furnace/ac (10 years) works fine except that the blower doesn't force enough air upstairs resulting in a big temp difference and resulting thermostat wars. I read somewhere that one can install supplemental blowers in the duct work. True? Issues? The company who does my annual system check says I can't put a more powerful blower in the existing furnace, but of couse he wants to sell me a new furnace.
After three years of surgery, chemo and radiation, we can't afford a new furnace.
So bundle up upstairs, reduce our use of the system and carry a space heater around, or are there solutions? I'm pretty okay with wiring and handling small household problems, but I neeed to know my stuff before I start calling vendors or visiting the home supply store.

Can anyone advise me? Please?

Just Bundle up

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yes there are inline booster fans ( install inside duct)... you may want to check the fan to see if the contractor telling the true; most residential system's fan have multi speed

Several options here. Start by checking any of the duct work you can see. Check for dampers, breaks in the pipe and anything else that could be reducing the flow to the upstairs.

How new is the furnace? Do you have a fan only option or A/C which uses a higher blower speed? Is there a bundle of different colored wires running from a control board to the blower motor? If so, it could just be a matter of moving some jumper wires around on the board. If it is an old, belt driven blower, does it have an adjustable pulley? You might be able to put a bigger pulley on the motor without overloading it. If you have any of these possibilities, but do not want to tackle then yourself, perhaps you need to talk to a different HVAC contractor.