Closing Return Air Vents In Winter

Others say that they should always be open so the hvac unit doesn t have trouble pulling in air.

Closing return air vents in winter.

If a particular room has a heating vent but no return vent it won t get as much hot air from the furnace because the room is already full of air that isn t going anywhere. That means your home will take longer to cool down or heat up. The popular notion has always been to shut off vents in rooms that you use infrequently. In the winter you want the cold air to be drawn through the return registers leaving the hot air behind.

Look at the nearest air vent in your room. Once winter arrives you want to have the cold air at floor level drawn into the air return system. It most likely has adjustable fins that allow you to direct the flow of air in the room and you can use the adjusting level to shut off a vent almost entirely. Since cold air is heavy it will automatically flow down to the lower register.

The belief is that closing a vent will simply push the air onward to other parts of the home improving energy efficiency. When the vents are closed the air won t be able to come easily through the vent. Allow the cold air to return to the furnace to be heated. Adjust return registers for summer.

The ac draftshield when used as the manufacturer suggests you isolate the entire system by covering all of the ac grills. Note any change in comfort. Blocking a return vent if one of the rooms in your house gets too warm when you turn on the furnace a good way to lower the temperature is to cover the return vent. Closing return air vents in the winter the ac draftshield is designed for dual system homes having a separate system for heat and a separate system for air conditioning.

Some say that the upper returns should be closed when the heat is running to circulate out the cold air and the lower returns should be closed when the a c is running to circulate out the warm air. Other issues with closing vents. Since cold air is so heavy it will automatically flow to the lowest level into cold air return vents. Closing air vents is a popular strategy for adjusting air flow in the home but it s not necessarily a good one.

Whether your vent is open or not the warm air is still going to try to push through to each vent. Open top return grill dampers and close bottom return grill dampers on all sets like this throughout the home. It is time to open these vents if they are closed. By opening the lower registers and closing the top ones you keep hot air in and draw the cold air out.

Comfort issues remember a psc blower delivers less air the more vents you close. So we ve covered the most important problem with closing vents. Winter time open your cold air return vents. But there are a few other important problems closing vents can cause including.

Run it a few days like that and see if you re comfortable. Homeowners typically close vents in an attempt to redirect air away from unused spaces.