Close Air Conditioner Vents In Winter

Those systems are designed to move a certain amount of air and blocking lots of vents puts a restrictive pressure on the part of the system trying to move the air.

Close air conditioner vents in winter.

Closing vents can actually damage your heating and ac system. When you shut off the vents you can increase the pressure in your ductwork which can back up into your hvac and cause issues. Adjust return registers for summer. The issues your hvac experiences due to closed vents are like problems caused by dirty air filters including inadequate airflow turning off and on frequently and premature hvac breakdown.

Keeping some of the upstairs vents partially closed less than 50 percent of them will prevent adverse pressure changes in the ductwork and ease stress on your hvac system all while keeping other areas warm and comfortable. Heated air rises and is drawn through unsealed central air conditioning vents into ductwork in the cold attic. Don t shorten the life of your hvac system unnecessarily by closing off your vents. The air is re introduced as icy drafts through lower vents.

Closing vents can actually cause your ac or heat pump to run inefficiently and eventually break. Many arizona homeowners think this but it s 100 wrong. You don t close the ac vents in winter leave them open in summer or winter. Instead of completely closing air vents you can maximize your home comfort and keep your home energy efficient by partially closing those vents.

They need to be open in the summer. In extreme cold the lack of warm air in your duct work may cause freezing to occur. It s even worse than wrong. Since cold air is heavy it will automatically flow down to the lower register.

Your home s hvac works best when the air can flow freely. When you close vents and block air from going to certain rooms you are making your system work harder than it needs to and harder than it was designed to. Although air should circulate year round through the attic your house will probably be more comfortable if you cover the foundation vents in the winter. In the winter you want the cold air to be drawn through the return registers leaving the hot air behind.

The bigger issue that no one here has mentioned is that if you close off more than about 20 of the vents you risk damaging the heater air conditioner. The hot or cool air is coming out from the same air ducts it depends on how high or low temperatures and the hot or cold switch lever that you set the central air condition unit will automatically switch to hot or cold as you have controlled it. By opening the lower registers and closing the top ones you keep hot air in and draw the cold air out.