I received a phone call from a home owner about a concern they had about their sons bedroom being unusually cold. Although these are quite common after asking the usual questions about the location of the room relative to the furnace, the potential of insulation that could be missing I continually came of with answers that did not support my hypotenuse simply that is room had exterior walls, was located on the opposite side of the house and was on the second floor.  In fact his room was located on the first floor, close to the furnace (so the run was relatively short) and the home was relatively new and insulation was consistent.

After pointing the camera in the room it became obvious what was wrong in a matter of seconds.  The heat/air duct entered Bill’s room from the basement from an interior wall.  (the key here is there is no insulation in the interior wall)  That is neither good or bad but in this situation it was bad…. Apparently the heat duct was partially disconnected and the heat was flowing thru the studs up to the heat vent and then continued up the studs past the ceiling.  Enough air was entering the room to give you the feel that the register was working properly but the volume was a fraction of what it should be.  Upon inspection of the upstairs interior wall it was noticed that the heat continued up the wall past the ceiling of the second floor.  It continued spilling into the attic.  Wasting heat.  After a simple fix Billy’s room is warm and comfortable.

From the picture right, you can see the heat continuing up the inside wall to the ceiling beyond that is the attic where it is being wasted.