How to Keep Upstairs Bedrooms Cooler in Summer (Even When Central AC Doesn’t Do It)

• Video#1 Watch Time = 2 minutes
• Video#2 Watch Time = 5 minutes

Each year as summer heat comes on, I always get subscriber questions like this one:

“Why are my upstairs rooms so hot in summer? Even with the central A/C running I can’t sleep. I hate paying to have the basement and first floor freezing, while I’m sweating upstairs!”

The real problem isn’t your air conditioner — it’s trapped hot air at the top of your house. Second-level rooms often get overheated in summer because of the design of forced-air heating systems that central air connects to. Forced air furnace systems in heating climates always include louvred floor registers that are located to deliver heated air in winter, not cooled air in summer. Ducts can’t be changed, and while this sounds like bad news, there is another solution that works really well for getting rid of that bubble of upstairs hot air that’s making you miserable. It all comes down to openable skylights of the kind I’ll tell you about below.

Why Upstairs Bedrooms Get Hot in Summer (Even With AC Running)

Many people are astonished at how much better central air conditioning works, thanks to a few openable skylights are installed in second storey ceilings. In fact, openable skylights make any home much, much cooler, even if you don’t have air conditioning turned on at all. By opening the skylights just an inch or so during the day, hot air is allowed to leave your home from the top, making room for cooled air from your central air conditioner to rise up and cool overheated upstairs spaces. I know it sounds strange, but opening skylights actually helps A/C work better.

Click below to see how skylights help cool upstairs rooms better than anything else. This video is part of my online building course Cozy Cabin

Why Solar-Powered Skylights Work Best for Upstairs Cooling

Many skylights can open, but the best are electrically operated models that automatically open and close on a schedule, as well as close quickly on their own when it starts to rain. What’s the point in having cooler upstairs rooms if your floor is wet when you come back from work? The trouble with most electrically operated skylights is that it’s very disruptive to string wires to them in a retrofit situation. That’s one reason I like solar skylights. They don’t require wires to deliver power, but draw power from on-board batteries kept charged by photovoltaic cells built right in. Below you can see a solar skylight at my own house.

I’ve installed solar skylights myself and live with them, and they work perfectly. Just pop them in like standard skylights and enjoy electric operation with automatic rain closure. You can even open solar skylights during power failures, cooling your home when air conditioning can’t operate. VELUX makes the bst solar-powered skylights that I know of, and I’ve never had any trouble with the ones I installed in my own house more than 10 years ago. Their solar power system also includes solar-powered blinds that can operate using a touch remote or on a schedule. Blinds are especially useful for summer cooling action because they block out sun while the skylight is open and ventilating. It’s also pretty nice to wake up to a gently opening blind in the summer, rather than the blare of a clock radio.

How Openable Skylights Make Central Air Work Better Upstairs

This is the kind of good news I usually hear from people who get openable skylights installed, but in my experience the benefits of skylights go beyond just air conditioning that finally works upstairs. Top-of-house ventilation means you won’t need air conditioning nearly as often as before. Open up the skylights remotely from any part of the house and you’ll immediately feel the breeze flowing through all rooms through opened windows. Your house will cool off much faster at night when all the hot air can escape through the roof. Add to this the emotional benefit of much more natural light indoors, and you’ll begin to see why I like skylights so much.

Click the video below to see me installing a modern VELUX solar skylight, and how automatic rain closure works in action