Closing Return Air Vents

A return air venting system can be installed in one of two ways.

Closing return air vents.

Since cold air is heavy it will automatically flow down to the lower register. It s important not to close more than one or two at a time though or the furnace might not have enough air to circulate. Closing air vents is a popular strategy for adjusting air flow in the home but it s not necessarily a good one. By opening the lower registers and closing the top ones you keep hot air in and draw the cold air out.

If the supply ducts are in the floor then the return air should be located up high. When you shut off the vents you can increase the pressure in your ductwork which can back up into your hvac and cause issues. Try the following since it is still the winter heating season. How closing air vents can hurt your hvac system.

Air conditioner s evaporator coil the part that cools the air. Low airflow causes the coil to get too cold and sometimes turn into a block of. This will direct the hot air from the furnace into the rooms with open return vents warming them more. Low airflow will cause heat exchanger to.

Some say that the upper returns should be closed when the heat is running to circulate out the cold air and the lower returns should be closed when the a c is running to circulate out the warm air. Adjust return registers for summer. Furnace s heat exchanger the part that heats the air. It appears set in first photo has high return grill damper closed with bottom open and the other set the opposite way.

Either every room with a supply register will also have a return air vent or there can be centrally located return vents on each floor of your home. For a few different reasons it s better to have a return air vent in every room than it is to have. The return air vent openings need to be on the opposite side of the room so the conditioned air is pulled across the room. Open top return grill dampers and close bottom return grill dampers on all sets like this throughout the home.

Others say that they should always be open so the hvac unit doesn t have trouble pulling in air. This pulls the air across your body. Homeowners typically close vents in an attempt to redirect air away from unused spaces. Some return vents have adjustable louvers for this purpose.

Though the supply register to a room is closed the return register in that room which cannot be closed continues pulling air back to the furnace or a c. Room air pressure shifts from neutral to. 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. The belief is that closing a vent will simply push the air onward to other parts of the home improving energy efficiency.