If your energy expenses are rising in tandem with the temperature, you may be tempted to look for cost-cutting options. Close or shutting off vents that control the temperature in different regions of your home is one approach to do so. While not harmful to your home, leaving those vents closed for an extended period of time can do severe damage to your air ducts and HVAC system.
Advantages Of Vent Closure
If you want to save money on your energy bill this summer, shutting off vents could be a simple way to do so.
You may limit the flow of air through your home and avoid temperature-controlling rooms you don’t visit often by closing your vents. You can also clean your dirty ducts with the help of mold air duct cleaning Suwanee.
However, don’t anticipate air that doesn’t make it to your basement to make its way up through the rest of your house. If the vents in a room are closed, forced air homes might allow air to remain in the ducts. As a result, you’ll want to rotate the closed vents on a regular basis to prevent obstructions from building in your ducts.
Negative Consequences Of Shutting Off Vents
Having said that, there are several disadvantages to blocking your vents. These can include the following:
Air Pressure Backs Up
As previously said, with your vents closed, the air in your home will not travel as freely as you’d like. If you want to keep obstructions from accumulating in your ducts, you should vary your closed vents.
Leaks
Your ducts may spring a leak if the pressure from confined air becomes too great. These leaks can be difficult to locate and cause significant disruption to the comfort of a temperature-controlled house.
Higher Electricity Bills
With a leak, your HVAC system will have to work much harder to compensate for the abrupt loss of air pressure in some areas of your home, resulting in higher expenses.
Frozen AC Coils
If your air conditioner is operating for the majority of the day, air from a leak can travel past functioning coils and cause them to freeze, especially if there is a lot of condensation in the air.
How To Solve Air Vent Leaks
As previously stated, air vent leaks are a problem. These leaks raise your utility bills and make controlling the temperature inside your home much more challenging. They can also disperse mold and dust particles throughout your house. In this case, immediately contact air duct repair and replacement Suwanee.
If you realize that controlling the temperature in your home has become more difficult or that the quality of your air has deteriorated. You should inspect your vents to see where the troublesome leak is coming from. Without the benefit of experience, this can be more challenging, but you can take the following measures to at least provide a visiting expert a better sense of where to begin their search:
- From the outside, look for evidence of damage in your vent system.
- Turn on your air conditioner and monitor the air pressure until it drops.
- One can also burn a candle or incense stick and follow the smoke flow back to the weakest portion of your vent.
- It’s difficult to repair a busted vent on your own., However, if you’re searching for a quick remedy, you can use duct tape to conceal a tiny leak before calling an expert in your region.
Also Read: Professional guide to replace rv roof vent
Can You Keep Your Vents Shut During the Summer?
Yes, in the summer, you can securely close your basement air vents. However, rather than closing them for several weeks at a time, you should do so on a regular basis. If you wish to keep your vents closed all of the time, alternate which ones you close every two days.Unless you’ve left a duct shut for longer than that, reopen it to allow fresh air to circulate throughout your home. Don’t wait for your energy bill to skyrocket if you suspect you have an air vent leak. You might get assistance from an expert in your area. Repair professionals can walk through your property, discover a leak, and give you a free estimate for the services you’ll need to fix it.
Is It True That Closing Vents Saves Energy?
Many people tend to close air vents to save energy in a home. Closing vents, on the other hand, can actually increase energy use and expenditures. HVAC systems are built to heat homes according to their size. Therefore, your equipment is unaware that you have closed vents.
Closing air vents causes your heating system to work harder than it should to heat the space it was built for, resulting in higher energy usage.
Does Closing Vents In Unused Rooms Improve Airflow?
To maintain a safe internal temperature, vital furnace components require a minimum return airflow volume. Closing supply air vents in rooms limits return airflow, potentially scorching the heat exchanger — the system’s most expensive component — and leading to cracks. Carbon monoxide penetration from a faulty heat exchanger can potentially be dangerous.
Closed vents in cooling systems generate frozen coils, which damage the system’s compressor. Closing air vents damages system components in both heating and air conditioning equipment. Thus, increasing your costs in the form of system repairs and early replacement.
Is Closing Vents Beneficial In Other Rooms Of The House?
Covering vents in one area of the house does not improve airflow in other rooms. Instead, conditioned air is lost through duct leaks. In this case, additional heating or cooling is not provided to other sections of your home.
In a warm house, cold rooms operate as heat sinks. It’s a fact that heat is naturally attracted out of hot areas and into colder areas. Leaving one or more rooms in an unheated warm house causes heat to be sucked out of the heated sections. It can also direct this heat into the cold rooms through uninsulated inner walls. To compensate for the heat loss, the furnace cycles on and off more frequently. Thus, increasing energy expenditures and reducing indoor comfort. What you believed was going to assist you increase your home’s comfort really works against you.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, we can say that shutting air vents in summers may not be a good option as it will cause you higher bills.
Must Read: Complete guide to use disinfectant fogging solution for air ducts