Does the upstairs of your home seem to stay toasty warm all summer, even though your downstairs is a comfortable temperature? You should not have to sweat your cheeks off every night – follow these tips to ensure your upstairs cools more effectively.

Close doors between your floors.

Hot air rises. This is one thing you probably learned in science class that you can actually apply to adult life! If air can travel freely between your upstairs and downstairs, the warm air is always going to accumulate upstairs. Shutting any doors between the upstairs and downstairs will help correct for this. If there are no doors between your floors, try hanging a heavy curtain – or even a big piece of thick fabric – across the opening of your staircase using a tension rod. It may not look the best, but it will help keep your upstairs cooler.

Leave the fan on.

Your thermostat should have a "fan only" setting. On this setting, your HVAC system's blower unit will circulate air through the home without actually heating or cooling it. Essentially, this will keep the air throughout your home circulating and mixing, so warm air does not get the chance to accumulate upstairs.  Try turning this setting on at night. After the AC shuts off, the fan will keep running, helping your upstairs stay cooler.

Add more attic insulation.

The problem may not be with your AC system, but rather with the insulation in your attic. If your attic is poorly insulated, warmth from the outside may be seeping in faster than your AC unit can keep up. Use an online calculator to determine, based on your climate and other home-related factors, how much insulation is ideal for your home. If your current insulation is not up-to-par based on the calculator's results, add some more.

Use window units.

If you have an older home, the problem could be that the ductwork was not set up with the intention of incorporating air conditioning. If you try the other tips in this article to no avail, it may be easiest to just install a window AC unit upstairs and use it for some supplemental cooling. Modifying the ductwork can be very expensive and may not even be possible without extensive renovations, but a window AC unit can be installed with basic tools in a few minutes' time.

For more tips on how to cool your upstairs more effectively, talk to an HVAC business, such as Mountain Air Comfort Systems.