Should I Close The Vents In The Rooms I’m Not Using?
What’s The Right Answer?
When I leave a room I’m always careful to turn off the light. I even, finally, have the kids trained to turn them off as well. It saves money, right? It makes sense, “Not using it, turn it off.”
Should I Close The Vents? Isn’t The Same As Asking, Should I Turn Off a Light Bulb
It seems like closing off the vents in the rooms that your not currently using also makes good sense. However, the reality is a bit more complex than that.
Closing off the vents seems like it should be saving energy. That means saving money. I mean why should I heat or cool rooms that have no one in them when I could close the vents instead?
Closed Vents and Air Pressure 101
Despite the logic, it’s a big misconception that closing the vents in unused rooms will save energy. The reality is it can actually waste more energy than just letting the system operate normally. When you close the vents in unused rooms it does save air, and therefore, energy from entering the room. But it pushes all that excess air to other places in your home.
Mini Split Systems Can Give You Control Over Unused Spaces
No matter how many vents you have open in your home, the heater and air conditioning system will produce the same amount of air. So, with some vents closed the pressure inside of the ducts themselves can increase. This added pressure can easily cause leaks in the ductwork. Leaky ducts cause long term and very unnecessary energy waste.
Air leaks in the ducts actually make your system work harder trying to make your home comfortable. A system working harder than it should uses more energy and will most likely have a shorter life span than it could have.
Balance Is The Key
Your heating and air conditioning system works most efficiently when the air delivery to each room is balanced. If your system was installed correctly in the beginning, then a great effort was put into determining the correct size and placement of those ducts. They were designed to deliver balanced comfort. Closing vents will mess up that balance. The system just can’t work like it was designed to work.
Managing Air Flow Efficiently
If you feel like cutting off heating and cooling to certain parts of your home or business is the best answer, a zoned HVAC system is probably the best way to do that. The simplest types of systems are known as Mini Split Systems. They do a great job allowing you to control the temperature in all the sections of your living spaces.
Call Us For Answers
If you are unhappy with the overall comfort in your home or business, and you want efficient ways to manage it, call Bill Miller and Noble Heating and Air Conditioning of Lawton, OK. Our trained technicians and comfort engineers can recommend effective solutions tailored to your needs.