Quote Originally Posted by Sawin View Post
my townhome is 3 floors on the southern end of a mult-unit building. I have this same issue in the top 2 bedrooms....

step 1. Turn AC to 70ish (I've never gone lower, because the bottom floor will be too cold).
step 2. Close ALL the vents on the lowest floor.
step 3. Strategically close any other vents along the air-path, that leads to the top floor. (my living room has 3 in the row, I closed 1 of them that was closest to the thermostat).
step 4. Direct the air-flow from the vent in your top floor office, away from the wall/windows with one of these (random link of the product, or make one yourself - http://www.qcidirect.com/air-deflector.html)
step 5. Add a small personal desk fan to your workspace.

For me, the above = mission accomplished.

edit - oh, and obviously get some good blinds for the windows to block out some of the sunlight.
I have to turn my AC to 72 to get the top floor down to 80 which is Ok for me and all the vents on the bottom floor are closed. The problem is that the bottom floor never changes temperature so the thermostat never turns off the system. I'm considering buying some roll insulation like you use in the walls and just staple them in the windows. Maybe put some aluminum foil facing out to help reflect the heat. I can stand in front of the window and cook it gets so hot.