Closing Off Air Conditioner Vents

How closing air vents can hurt your hvac system.

Closing off air conditioner vents.

As it turns out closing air vents in a home with a modern central heating and air conditioning system does little to save energy. Ensure that your ducts are properly sealed and connected. Air conditioner s evaporator coil the part that cools the air. Closing air vents is a popular strategy for adjusting air flow in the home but it s not necessarily a good one.

Furnace s heat exchanger the part that heats the air. This can increase your energy bills and even lead to premature breakdown of your ac if you close too many vents. Your air ducts make it worse. Why closing air vents doesn t work.

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. The belief is that closing a vent will simply push the air onward to other parts of the home improving energy efficiency. The study also found that whatever benefit was derived from closing air vents was largely offset by increased duct leakage. Low airflow will cause heat exchanger to.

Environmental protection agency estimates that most homeowners lose 20 percent. Homeowners typically close vents in an attempt to redirect air away from unused spaces. 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. In addition this increased pressure places strain on your air ducts.

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. Closing vents disrupts this balance and creates pressure in your system which causes your air conditioner to work harder. 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.