Should I Keep My AC Vents Open or Closed?

To the uninitiated, closing the vent or register in an unused room might seem like a good way to save money while cooling the rest of your home. “Hey, let’s close the door and save even more!”

Wrong and wrong.

But you already knew or suspected better – why else would you be reading this blog?

Here are some facts to help support the case for keeping all vents and registers open, all the time:

Keep Your Energy Costs Down

When you close AC vents, you increase the pressure inside your home’s ductwork. When that happens, cool air escapes into your attic or somewhere else it isn’t needed.

As if that’s not bad enough, the typical home already loses about 30% of conditioned to leaky air ducts. And that statistic (from EnergyStar) assumes you’re keeping all vents open.

The bottom line? The more vents you close, the more money you’ll spend every month on cooling or heating your home.

Keep Repair Costs to a minimum

Closing AC vents can lead to several, frequent repairs, such as:

• A bad blower motor – Some AC blowers are designed to speed up or slow down according to ductwork pressure and the amount of cool air being called for. This provides added comfort on super-hot days while enabling the blower to slow down when the weather gets a little cooler. That’s where reduced energy bills come from. But when you close your AC vents, you’re forcing the blower motor to speed up for extended periods of time. This results in more frequent repairs and, if left unchecked, premature motor replacement.

• A frozen evaporator coil – Other AC blowers function at one speed only. When the pressure builds from closed vents, they don’t blow enough warm, unconditioned air over your evaporator coil, eventually causing to freeze and possibly crack.

At Correct Temp, we can provide several useful suggestions to help bring down your heating and cooling costs, including annual system preventive maintenance. Has it been a year or longer since your last service tune-up? If so, contact us today to help ensure uninterrupted indoor comfort.