You may think that closing off a room to save energy is a good idea during the summer or winter months, especially if the room you’re isolating is one you wouldn’t be using anyway. For houses with newer ventilation systems, this could actually be causing your energy prices to rise.
When you close off a room completely from the rest of the house, including shutting the registers and the doors you are, in effect, isolating that room from the output of your HVAC system. Since it doesn’t receive any treated air, the temperature will drop or rise significantly depending on the season.
Most interior walls in a home are not insulated and so if the unused room gets hotter or colder than the rest of the house the temperature still transfers from that room to the rest of the house. Plus closing off the ducts to a room reduces the overall flow to the duct system and can put additional back pressure on your blower making it work harder and consume more energy. At the same time, humidity can build up in closed off rooms and end up needing to be treated, adding additional stress to your system.
If you are not going to be using a room you can leave the supply grille open and simply close the door to that room. This added restriction on the air will in many cases reduce the amount of air that flows into that room and allow it to warm slightly without causing too much of a problem with the balance of your system. Don’t close off too many rooms though because that can cause major problems with the system operation.
Mathews CCAC Inc. can help you with any of your air conditioning, ventilation, or heating needs. Visit our website to get in touch with one of our friendly technicians ready to assist you with any of your home comfort needs. Our team has centuries of combined experience and are ready to put our knowledge to work for you.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Corpus Christi, Texas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about saving energy and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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