Should I Close off the Vents for Rooms I Don’t Use or Is There a Better Way to Save Energy?

You may be surprised to know it is NOT energy efficient to close air vents in your home.

It seems like every homeowner we speak to is concerned about their home’s energy efficiency. We get a lot of questions about different ways to reduce utility bills. One of the most frequent questions we hear is whether or not it’s okay to close air vents in certain areas of the home. It might seem logical to close off vents in empty bedrooms, closets, and pantries. These are areas of the home we don’t necessarily need to be warm. The popular thought is that closing off those vents forces more warm air into the rooms the family actually uses and doesn’t waste energy heating empty areas. Makes sense, right?

Energy Efficiency Tip: Just Say NO to Closing Air Vents

Closing off certain vents is actually a bad idea. The blower in your HVAC system is the part that pushes warm air throughout your home’s network of air vents and then sucks cold air back into the system. Your blower is programmed to deliver a certain amount of air pressure, which depends on the size of your house and the number of air vents it has to serve. When you close off a handful of air vents the pressure placed on the blower increases. This makes the blower work harder, even though it is delivering warm air to fewer vents.

Because the blower is now working harder, you have increased its electrical draw. And yes, that means that closing seemingly unnecessary air vents is actually costing you more in your utility bills. Even though your spare bedroom is always empty, it costs you more to close that air vent than to keep the vent open. Contact Brummitt Heating & Cooling to learn more about how to increase your home’s energy efficiency and reduce your utility bills.