Does Closing Vents Save Money
January 1, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
In the olden days most people believed that closing off parts of your home that are not being used, can save energy. This happened generally in the winter months, where people huddled into their living rooms near a fire place and closed off all other rooms that were not in use.
Most people believe that the same concept can be applied to modern homes that use either gas or electric ducked heating and cooling systems. Research done in 2003 by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory stated that although this may have worked for homes using a fireplace, this would not work in today’s homes fitted with modern energy systems.
The research was undertaken on consumers in California who believed that closing their registers was an easy and effective way to save energy. The researchers studied the changes in duct leakage as registers were closed and the changes in energy consumption.
The results of the study confirmed that by closing the registers there was an increase in energy consumption within the research subject’s homes. The reason behind this is that when registers are closed; although there is an energy saving, this saving is offset by the increases in duct system losses. This can be minimized if the registers which are further away from the handler are closed. If you close the vents further away from the handler the system would have to use less pressure to push the heating to those areas of your home.