Does closing off unused bedrooms and vents really save electricity for AC?
mike...@yahoo.com
(built 2006) and the air vents to save money on AC in the summer. I
thought I heard somewhere that this doesn't really do much, or maybe
that it's even bad to do so? Obviously wouldn't want to muck with any
vent sucking air out of the house, filtering particles along the way.
Spoke with an HVAC person recently and they said they thought closing
doors and the ceiling vents wouldn't do much; that air is still being
sent to the rooms (he called it dead air) even if the ceiling vents
were closed.
He said something that might be worth trying is going into the attic
and finding the air flow shutoff coming right out of the unit to a
particular room. Does this make sense and is it likely to save $$$, or
at least not do any harm?
Zilbandy
>Spoke with an HVAC person recently and they said they thought closing
>doors and the ceiling vents wouldn't do much; that air is still being
>sent to the rooms (he called it dead air) even if the ceiling vents
>were closed.
I'd use another HVAC person if I were you. If you close off a vent,
MOST of the air that would normally go to that room will be blocked.
That will result in higher pressure in the ductwork which means more
air to the other rooms. This should result in the other rooms cooling
quicker and lower the amount of time the compressor has to run.
Result? Lower power bills.
--
Zilbandy
Beeblebrox
most, maybe, but it does sound like the guy had the right idea - if
you're looking for efficiency, shut if off at the source. Do you shut
off the nozzle at the end of the hose, or the faucet at the wall, after
all?
Zilbandy
<beeblebrox...@gmail.com> wrote:
>Do you shut
>off the nozzle at the end of the hose, or the faucet at the wall, after
>all?
And if you never plan on using the hose, why not shut it off where
that hose bib connects to the main water supply? If you decide to use
a shut off room some day, do you want to climb up to the attic or just
open the vent? We don't have an attic, and I'm not ready to tear out
the sheet rock in the ceiling to plug off a duct. The vent will do
nicely... and effectively. If you really want to shut it off, take the
vent off and plug up the vent with a piece of sheet metal.
--
Zilbandy
Beeblebrox
well, as teh OP mentioned his attic, the situation is different. Lack of
an attic changes the equation.
mike...@yahoo.com
> MOST of the air that would normally go to that room will be blocked.
> That will result in higher pressure in the ductwork which means more
> air to the other rooms. This should result in the other rooms cooling
> quicker and lower the amount of time the compressor has to run.
> Result? Lower power bills.
Read somewhere that closing off vents could result in the higher
pressure you mention, but at risk of damaging the ductwork to the
closed off room(s). Don't know if the risk is real and/or how high;
just relating what I'd read.
snotbottom
If you were to close off ALL of the vents, maybe there is a small
chance of damaging something, but it is still a stretch. A home
forced air system (heating or cooling) is very low pressure to begin
with, so closing off one or two rooms isn't going to hurt anything.
Also, in a home unit, we're typically talking about a big squirrel-
cage fan driving the air, so it isn't capable of reaching dangerous
pressures anyway. Commercial units may be a bit different, but it is
still unlikely to damage ductwork by closing a few unused vents.
In shutting down rooms, close the vents rather than merely closing
doors. Closing doors isn't going to stop the airflow, because of the
1-2" gap at the bottom of the doors in your house. Those are there
deliberately to allow the air from the vents to flow into the room and
out under the door through the house back to the intake on the system
By closing a couple of vents, you may notice an increase in the air
volume in the other rooms, but the pressure increase is very small.
As mentioned before, this should only provide quicker cooling to the
space being used.
Don K
news:1184971784....@g4g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
>
> In shutting down rooms, close the vents rather than merely closing
> doors. Closing doors isn't going to stop the airflow, because of the
> 1-2" gap at the bottom of the doors in your house. Those are there
> deliberately to allow the air from the vents to flow into the room and
> out under the door through the house back to the intake on the system
I regularly open and close various vents to balance the temperature
throughout the house, depending on the season. In winter, I keep all
vents open, but in the summer I close some 1st floor vents to
force more cool air to the 2nd floot.
For an unused room, I will both close the vent and keep the door
closed to help insulate the rest of the house from that room.
Don
AllEmailDeletedImmediately
"Zilbandy" <z...@zilbandyREMOVETHIS.com> wrote in message
news:vvq1a31laff6tqsf6...@4ax.com...
i dunno. a/c systems are sized to the ft2 and turns in the runs or
something
like that. you don't want an a/c that's too large or too small for the
job.
so closing too many vents might make it too large for the job. my son
does hvac, but he's out of town so i can't ask him.
Shaun Eli
shut off the A/C vents in the other two rooms, and also flip down the
flaps to cut down air circulation around the baseboard heating
radiators.
In the summer those rooms are noticeably warmer, and in the winter
they're much colder, so clearly I'm not spending as much money cooling/
heating those rooms.
They make vents adjustable and closable for a reason, don't they?
Shaun Eli
www.BrainChampagne.com
Brain Champagne: Clever Comedy for Smart Minds (sm)
Dennis
wrote:
>I regularly open and close various vents to balance the temperature
>throughout the house, depending on the season. In winter, I keep all
>vents open, but in the summer I close some 1st floor vents to
>force more cool air to the 2nd floot.
Careful, if that second floot gets too cool, he'll start thinking he's
Paul Horn or something.
Dennis (evil)
--
"There is a fine line between participation and mockery" - Wally
jo...@phred.org
beeblebrox...@gmail.com says...
> most, maybe, but it does sound like the guy had the right idea - if
> you're looking for efficiency, shut if off at the source. Do you shut
> off the nozzle at the end of the hose, or the faucet at the wall, after
> all?
At the nozzle, of course. Unless I'm going to remove the hose and take
it somewhere else, which doesn't apply to HVAC ducts most of the time.
--
jo...@phred.org is Joshua Putnam
<http://www.phred.org/~josh/>
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