Perhaps you just received your Jersey Shore electricity bill and (surprise!) it’s much higher than you expected. You’re wondering how do I cut costs? With a quick search online, you find the best advice comes as quick and concise.
Use less energy.
Sure. It sounds easy enough, but where to start? Perhaps you think to set your thermostat to a higher temperature, have your HVAC system maintained, or unplug vampire electronics. Then, you start to think about the guest bedroom in your home that isn’t used unless someone is staying over. Perhaps
closing the vents would be a good idea, rerouting the AC where it needs to go.
HVAC System and Duct Design
It seems like a good idea at first. Why waste cool air on parts of your Jersey Shore home that aren’t being used? However, closing registers to parts of your home can cause other issues like noises and can even put stress on your system.
Depending on your home, the blower within your furnace or air handler is directly tied to the size of your ductwork, and both are determined by the size of your house. By closing vents, you are altering the capacity of your ducts. The unit will continue to provide the proper amount of cooling or heat for the
original amount of square footage, forcing air through the vents that were left open.
Bad Airflow Can Mean…
From Point Pleasant to Manasquan, Freehold to Middletown, the fundamentals of ductwork are the same. Your system pulls air from your home through returns throughout your home, sending it through a furnace to heat or coil to cool, and returns it through the registers in your home. Improper airflow can
come from different issues beyond closed registers, including furniture blocking returns, dirty filters, and even a mis-sized system.
At the end of the day, if your ductwork and system are not working together, they’re working against each other. Some common issues that go hand-in-hand with bad airflow:
– Banging noises within your ductwork
– Frozen coils leading to AC failure in your home
– Increase stress that limits your system’s lifespan
– Higher humidity caused by short cycling
If You’re Not Supposed to Close Them, Why Are They Designed That Way?
If the official HVAC advice is to keep the registers open in your home, then why is it possible to close them in the first place? The placement of your registers likely depends on your home and the ability to run ductwork behind walls and through your attic or basement. The tab used to control the fins within the register are meant to change the direction of the airflow for both comfort and efficiency.
Let’s say you wanted to put a chair directly under a supply duct. You can adjust the airflow and have it dispersed more evenly, avoiding a stream of cold air directly onto the seat. The design of registers also pushes the conditioned air into multiple directions, providing balance throughout the room.
The Correct Way to Control Your HVAC System
Adding manual dampers onto the trunk of your ductwork is the best way to control airflow to specific parts of your home without compromising the integrity of your system. Though it still isn’t perfect, being that your HVAC system will continue to produce for your whole home.
Depending on how your home’s ducts are set up, there is also the option to add zoning and more thermostats to control each area. Combined with a fully modulating HVAC system, you’ll never feel uncomfortable in your Jersey Shore home.
Need a Company That Has Your Back?
Homeownership can be overwhelming from time to time. Having a company that you can turn to when things go wrong is imperative to keeping you and your family on the right track. Rostron Premium Home Services provides heating, cooling, plumbing, and electrical services to Monmouth and Ocean Counties in New Jersey. Give us a call at 732-223-8221 or fill out a form right here on our website. We look forward to hearing from you!
