Michael

“If the bedroom on the second floor of my townhouse was comfortable, the kitchen and living area on the first floor was frigid. The third floor was so hot I avoided it. Before Ecovent, I thought this was something I just had to live with.”

Problem and Background

Mike bought a three-story Boston area townhouse in early summer 2004. The first July, as outside temperatures soared, the temperature difference between the first and second floors ranged between 10 – 15 degrees in spite of his central air conditioning. When the ground floor was 70 degrees, the second floor was 85 degrees. In Mike’s words, “if the bedroom on the second floor of my townhouse was comfortable, the kitchen and living area on the first floor was frigid. The third floor was so hot I avoided it. Before Ecovent, I thought this was something I just had to live with.”

Mike got quotes from HVAC professionals, each highly rated on Angie’s list, for installing a multi-zoned heating and cooling system. The quotes ranged from $4,000 to $6,000, not including finding someone else to open the walls and then having them repaired and repainted after the system was installed. That price point was out of the question. In 2013, Mike replaced his thermostat with a Nest thermostat. “In retrospect, I should have known that wouldn’t make a difference.” The thermostat on the ground floor didn’t know the temperatures on the second and third floors. And for Mike’s problem, the thermostat couldn’t do more than turn on and off the air conditioning.

“The thermostat on the ground floor didn’t know the temperatures on the second and third floors.”

So for years, he just lived with the discomfort. Like many homeowners who have the problem of rooms in their home that are too hot or too cold, Mike thought this was simply a normal problem most homeowners faced and that he just had to deal with it.

Solution and Outcome

A few months after he installed his thermostat, Mike learned about Ecovent. He signed up as a beta customer. Replacing his vents, installing the room sensors and initiating the system took less than 2 hours. No construction required. The Ecovent system took data from the room sensors for the temperature and climate throughout the house. Using this information, the system instructed each vent how much to open or close to send the right amount of conditioned air to the right rooms in order to reach the desired temperature in each room.

Within 24 hours the temperatures on all floors were “near-perfect” – within 1 – 2 degrees of one another. “I got the benefits of installing a multi-zone HVAC system for a fraction of the cost and without the hassle of a construction project. I told my friends and neighbors about Ecovent because this is a common problem and most people don’t realize they can fix it so easily.”