Closing Off Air Conditioner Vents

In a 2003 study the lawrence berkeley national laboratory discovered that register closing led to increased energy use.

Closing off air conditioner vents.

Why closing air vents doesn t work. This can increase your energy bills and even lead to premature breakdown of your ac if you close too many vents. The belief is that closing a vent will simply push the air onward to other parts of the home improving energy efficiency. Environmental protection agency estimates that most homeowners lose 20 percent.

Your air ducts make it worse. The study also found that whatever benefit was derived from closing air vents was largely offset by increased duct leakage. Closing air vents is a popular strategy for adjusting air flow in the home but it s not necessarily a good one. If it s a typical duct system with 60 higher static pressure than the maximum specified closing even one register could send the system over the edge.

Before closing any vents in your home. Homeowners typically close vents in an attempt to redirect air away from unused spaces. In addition this increased pressure places strain on your air ducts. To close off a room or an entire section of your home to air conditioning and or heating this is the correct way to do it.

Closing vents disrupts this balance and creates pressure in your system which causes your air conditioner to work harder. Low airflow causes the coil to get too cold and sometimes turn into a block of. In fact it could even cause your energy costs to increase. Furnace s heat exchanger the part that heats the air.

Low airflow will cause heat exchanger to. Ask for a recommendation of which vents if any in your home make sense to close without placing stress on. As it turns out closing air vents in a home with a modern central heating and air conditioning system does little to save energy. Yes your system may be fine if you close a register or two in your home but the results will depend on how restrictive and leaky your duct system is.