Should You Close Heating Vents in Empty Rooms?

Homeowners want their monthly heating bills to be as low as possible, and they want to save energy whenever they can. Many homeowners believe the way to do this is to close off heating vents in rooms they aren’t using. But is that really a good idea? The furnace installation and repair specialists at Presidential Heating & Air Conditioning of Gaithersburg explain why you shouldn’t close heating vents in unused rooms.

Furnace Size Matters

It seems like it would be a waste of energy — and money — to heat rooms in your home that you aren’t using, right? After all, the smaller the space you have to heat, the less it should cost. But in homes with furnaces, that equation doesn’t always add up the way homeowners think that it will.

If done correctly, when your HVAC contractor did your furnace installation, they calculated the right size furnace for your home. If you own a three-bedroom colonial and two of the bedrooms are mostly unused, you may think closing the heating vents and the doors to these rooms will save you money. However, what it will actually do is cause your furnace to work overtime in an attempt to blow air into a duct that has been closed off. Over time, this can affect the life span of your furnace.

Leaky Air Ducts

Further, when pressure builds up in the ductwork because the vents are closed, it can cause leaks in the system, usually at the seams. While you can check for leaks in your basement, it’s impossible to check the ductwork in the walls. When a leak gets bad, you may notice the temperature in that area is cooler than in other rooms.

Interrupted Airflow

Additionally, if you close the vents and doors to the rooms with return vents in them, this could affect the flow of your air as well as how warm your other rooms feel. That’s because the return vents help the air circulate in your home more efficiently, and if some of them are blocked or closed, the furnace will have a harder time maintaining the temperature you set your thermostat to.

If you think your ducts may be leaking air, contact Presidential Heating & Air Conditioning today. We can come out to your Gaithersburg-area home and inspect the ductwork to see if it needs repairs. Air ducts last about 10-15 years on average, so if yours are older than that, it might be time to replace them. While that may not sound like good news to you, your HVAC system will run much more efficiently with new air ducts and your energy bills will be lower.