In the winter, it’s important to make sure the heating vents are working as required and are set up for maximum temperature regulation.
If not, this can become the number one reason for the heating in your house to become inefficient or unhelpful.
One option people tend to think about is partially closing heating vents.
Partially closing heating vents in unused rooms is a safe and effective way to save on utility bills. However, it is not recommended to partially close heating vents in main traffic areas as this can drop the temperature significantly.
Pick and choose the heating vents you are partially closing to see the best results.
As long as you do this, the heating vents will work like a charm and your home is going to be set at the right temperature during the coldest days of the winter.
This article will focus more on what to do when it comes to partially closing heating vents and why it can work out in your favor.
Tips On Partially Closing Heating Vents
1. Partially Close Vents In Unused Rooms
When learning how to reduce airflow in a vent, it’s important to understand which rooms should have this type of setup and which rooms shouldn’t.
You don’t want to have partially closed heating vents in rooms that do need as much warm airflow as possible.
This will make the entire setup inefficient and waste a lot of energy.
Your best option is to look to partially close vents in unused or barely used rooms in the house.
Most homes will have rooms that are not used during the day. This can be the basement or a guest room that is only opened when guests are in your house.
These are the best rooms to try this out in.
You will want to partially close the heating vents in those rooms and have the airflow go to other parts of the house.
2. Don’t Alter Vents In High-Traffic Rooms
Partially closing a heat vent doesn’t mean you do it in high-traffic rooms.
This is a mistake that is made by people and that will push you towards wasting more energy than you want to.
The goal is to ensure airflow is going to those high-traffic rooms rather than closing vents in that part of the house.
For example, let’s assume you spend most of your day in the living room. You will not want to close off the heating vent in this room as it will become cold. When it becomes cold, you will ramp up the temperature even more.
This defeats the purpose of closing the heating vent a little bit.
3. Don’t Block Vents When Partially Closed
A mistake some people make is to partially close a heating vent and then block it with furniture and/or other items in the room.
This is not a good idea.
The heating vent is already going to be running at 50-60% due to the amount of warm air that is coming out of it.
If you block it with furniture, this is going to get worse.
It is better to still have the room temperature at a reasonable number and by blocking the heating vent, you are going to make it much harder to stabilize the temperature moving forward.
4. Keep Tabs On The Room Temperature
You will have to keep tabs on the room temperature moving forward.
You don’t want a situation where the room temperature dips too much during the coldest days of the winter. It is much better to make adjustments along the way by taking temperature readings.
The temperature reading will let you know whether or not your change is working.
If it isn’t, you will need to adapt and make adjustments to which heating vents are partially closed and which ones aren’t.
Final Thoughts
These are the main tips on what to do when you are partially closing heating vents at home.
There is nothing wrong with partially closing heating vents. It’s recommended to only partially close heating vents in unused or barely used rooms (i.e. basement, guest rooms). This pushes the warm air to the rooms that need it.
When you leave all of the heating vents open, this can create a situation where rooms that aren’t used will get warmed too.
This is a waste of energy and is going to increase your heating bill. As a result, you have to be careful about how you employ this strategy and how it impacts your temperature readings in the coming days.
If you are not careful, the benefits of partially closed heating vents will go out the window.
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