Save Energy by Closing Cold Air Return Grill
Recently I’ve noticed that more and more people coming on this and on the “Closing Supply Registers" pages! I don’t know why, because most of the visitors of my website are very shy people – most of them don’t ask any questions and trying to escape as soon as possible!
But come-on guys I won’t chase you with a knife and strip you of your money!
Feel free to ask a question!
So, I can only guess that real reason why people started to flock on those pages it’s because they feel very uncomfortable in their dwellings during this hot summer and trying find the way how to survive the next night!
I can’t promise that I able to resolve all related to this problem issues, but we can try look into it together!
Most common problems why it’s too hot upstairs are:
• Unbalanced system
• Aren’t enough heat runs and/or cold airs
• Insufficient insulation system of ductwork
and so on.
If you stop running around of the internet and ask your questions maybe I can help you and don’t forget once you will see that it’s become very possible that I may ask to pay the money you can escape this danger by saying: I’ve got enough information and pull the plug off!
On some forum websites this idea already found its way into discussions, but here is nothing to discuss, because it’s working! So, let’s take a look why it’s working and what you have to do to make it work for you.
Cold air returns
As everybody knows cold air sinks down, but warm air rises up. It means that for example in the summer time we have to bring warm air into the AC to cool it down. And as we pick up warm air from the ceiling it will be replaced by cool air coming from the supply vents. This also help us to save some energy because the AC unit working more efficiently!
In the winter time as you probably also know cold air concentrating near the floor and over the time it fills the house up to the level of thermostat. So if we have low cold air return it will sweep the cold air out and of course the cold air will be replaced by the warm air. But what is most important to understand that it going to add more comfort in your house and also to save some money because it is reducing the furnace (heat pump) work cycle!
P. 1 P. 2 P. 3
On the first picture you can see a double cold air return where one of the stud spaces is covered by magnetic cover. Also on the left hand side is another cold air return which I keep closed at this time. On the second picture you can see low cold air return which is open. I hope you understand that it’s the same cold air return run.
In the summer time I will put magnetic covers on the low cold air return and a couple more on another double cold air return which I have in the middle of the high rise wall.
On the third picture you can see my master bedroom’s wall where I also have high and low cold air returns. This actually not only save me some energy but make this room very comfortable, because once furnace or AC starts working I feel the difference right away!
If you decide to use this energy saving tip in your house you may have difficulties with the cold air grill installation, if it’s happens, just let me know and I will explain what to do. Furthermore for the first one of you I will do it for free because with your help I will make a special page dedicated to this issue!