Closing Supply and Return Registers Search Results Page

Ironically, the Closing Return Grills and Closing Supply Registers pages are ones of the most well visited pages on my website. According to the Google Analytics during 31 days started from 12/15/09 through 01/14/10, the Closing Return Grills page has been visited 280 times and it is holding sixteenth spot out of 241 pages. However, it did not bringing me as much revenue as someone, including me, would be expected. Therefore, I have decided to find out what is going on here. Why people who are desperately looking for ways to save on their gas/electrical bills so reluctant to spend extra $5.00 and save 20% on their utility bills. If for example the average utility bill is runing at $200 that means that only in one year you can save $480.00! Compare it with the $5.00 price for information how to do it and …

So, before I go any further let’s take a look what the others are telling you about this issue on the web:

associatedcontent.com

Save Energy and Money by Closing Unused Rooms
Close Up Unused Rooms – Registers.

All registers in an unused room should be closed and covered to reduce energy costs and reduce waste. Be sure to do the same thing to air vents or registers that both push air into the room and take it out. Baseboard heaters can also be turned off and covered, though this is a bit more difficult.

To safely cover registers and air vents, first be sure to close them completely. There are commercial register covers that can be used. Some are more complex things you screw into the wall, but there are also magnetic sheets that can be attached directly to the metal fixture.

ehow.com

Close all registers and heating ducts in the room. Close both intake and outflow vents. Cover these registers with purchased covers that screw into the wall, magnetic sheets made especially for this purpose, or any non-flammable material that can block any air leakage more effectively.

So, these two websites are recommending you to close vents and save!
However, at the same time the other two are telling you otherwise:

gardenweb.com

Question:
Does it save money on your utility bill, if you close the vents & doors on rooms that you don't use when using central gas heating?

Answer# 1:
I would say no because the furnace is turned off & on by thermostat which also control how long it runs. Which means it runs until satisfied at the location it mount (where hangs).

Answer# 2:
If you close a supply vent, and room has leak windows or air infiltration problem. This could create (not say it will) a negative pressure in room- allowing the return to suck threw cold air threw leak windows, walls , ceilings which if was real bad cold increase heat cost a little.
It is better to have air return and supply open in all rooms not be block by furniture to be balanced in positive and negative air pressure.
In my opinion it bad to block off vents, it will not make the furnace run any less.
Every furnace instruction book will tell you what the temperature rise across the heat exchanger should be.
If you turn off to many heat runs then you could get too much temperature rise and damage your furnace by over heating it.
If your temperature on return is 70 then the hot air coming out should not be more then about 140 degrees on most furnaces.

Feedback:
Thank you so much for answering my question. I have read & heard that in order to lower your electric bill; one should close off unused rooms, as well as close the vents to those rooms. Your answers have helped me to understand why this is not such a good idea.

Well, it is a very common practice: you are thinking that you are getting a good professional advice, but instead it is just a narrow-versioned opinion from the people who never looked into this issue at all.

consumerenergycenter.org

CLOSING OFF VENTS AND ROOMS TO SAVE ENERGY

Years ago, people would save energy use by closing off portions of their homes that were not being used. This occurred usually in the winter when people would huddle around a fireplace or wood stove and close off other non-heated rooms.
Some people still think that by closing off an unused room and its register saves energy. Some people close off all registers except for the one in the living room.
While this may have worked with older, non-insulated homes, it doesn't work with today's energy systems - forced air heating and cooling systems.
According to a 2003 study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory:
"Closing registers in forced-air heating systems and leaving some rooms in a house unconditioned has been suggested as a method of quickly saving energy for California consumers. This study combined laboratory measurements of the changes in duct leakage as registers are closed together with modeling techniques to estimate the changes in energy use attributed to closing registers.
"The results of this study showed that register closing led to increased energy use for a typical California house over a wide combination of climate, duct leakage, and number of closed registers. The reduction in building thermal loads due to conditioning only a part of the house was offset by increased duct system losses, mostly due to increased duct leakage. Therefore, the register closing technique is not recommended as a viable energy saving strategy for California houses with ducts located outside conditioned space.
"The energy penalty associated with the register closing technique was found to be minimized if registers farthest from the air handler are closed first because this tends to only affect the pressures and air leakage for the closed off branch. Closing registers nearer the air handler tends to increase the pressures and air leakage for the whole system.
"Closing too many registers (more than 60%) is not recommended because the added flow resistance severely restricts the air flow though the system leading to safety concerns. For example, furnaces may operate on the high-limit switch and cooling systems may suffer from frozen coils."

www.energy.ca.gov

Final Report for Profitability, Quality and Risk Reduction through Energy Efficiency (pdf file)
Prepared For: California Energy Commission Public Interest Energy Research Program
Prepared By: Building Industry Institute (312 pages doc.)
Conclusion
One of the most common practices in California production home building is to place the supply registers in the ceiling and to locate the return in a hallway ceiling. While cost-effective for the builder, the CFD results show this to be the least energy efficient design, particularly in a cooling dominated climate zone. This practice should be discouraged and one of the alternative methods below should be followed. In deciding supply register placement, heating versus cooling dominance needs to be considered:

• In a cooling dominant case, the in-wall supply registers with the ceiling return provide the best energy performance, whether the return is in the ceiling or the low-wall. If the ceiling return is used, there is a small positive impact when heating is considered. The low-wall return also provides improved energy performance.
• In a heating dominant situation, the ceiling register with low-wall return provided the best energy performance. Depending on the amount of required cooling, this design can have a negative impact on energy use.
• The ceiling register/wall return is a cost-effective compromise in a situation where heating and cooling needs are balanced. 

What you just read are two diametrically different opinions, in one case even supported by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study! Wow!
By the way, how many times did you hear about studies let’s say for coffee. In one study, it is really a live saver in another it lays just next to the illegal drugs and it is poisonos almost like an arsenic!

So, who is right or who is wrong in this debate? Ironically are both! One telling you: close everything you can think of and save! Another: do not touch anything and for God sake stop drinking this f...g coffee!

However, the truth, as usual, lies somewhere in the middle:
Yes, you cannot close all the supply registers you want to and save, without destroying your furnace and/or AC, unless you do it somehow different!
Yes, you cannot close all the return grills you want and save, unless you do it the other way!

When a few years ago I’ve conducted a test in my house, I’ve found that as a result instead of 18 minutes my furnace was working only 15 that gave me a 16.7% saving (the outside temperature at the time was 29*F, Ambient temperature was 68*F). Since then I have improved my system of the air distribution even more and got solid 20% of saving! My furnace and AC are Carrier brand 10 years old, and they are working just like Swiss watches! (Sorry I know it's not patriotic).

If you would like to find out how did I do it you can purchase an instant access to both pages at the discount price of only $4.43.

Okay, all of the sudden here in southeast Michigan the summer in the full swing again and I got a great opportunity one more time to check out how my energy saving system is working!

Theorists on some Forum websites such as, for example, HVAC - Talk.com were getting crazy while discussing these very simple techniques of improving efficiency of your heating system, but all their theoretical knowledge means nothing without practice!
Why it was such a failure, the answer is very simple: they were too lazy to check it out in their homes!
However for years I have this system already installed in my house and I haven't  any problems to check it out one more time again!

During four days in the row, tirelessly, I was checking different layouts and found out that my Summer layout is the best one!

Why did it take that long to prove that actually my layout is working?
Well, when I come back from work every day it was already 4 pm and it took from 23 up to 50 minutes for every cycle to complete. My wife was cooking, and my son was running back and forth opening the doors into garage or to the outside and eventually, I have discovered that my thermostat was not showing right temperatures. So in order to resolve this issue I started to use my professional electronic thermometer. Nevertheless, no matter what I did my layout was better than any other.

In order to prove it I ran AC in the four settings:

Original - This one was implemented when the HVAC system was designed. This layout originally was designed for AC mode and it's required minimal improvements on my part.

Winter - This kind of design is very common in the older houses and working great in the wintertime.
I have also improved it and it gives me that great saving which I just mentioned above.

Everything Open - This one is recommended by the HVAC - Talk gurus and at some point it was showing even worse results than the Winter's one!

Summer - This layout was designed by me to save some electricity and guess what it show me the best results in comparison to the others!

In order to compare all these layouts I have used a stopwatch method. I believe that this method is the most reliable and easily comprehendible!

Of course, the Summer layout has its limitations. You can use it only during daytime hours or in the rooms, which are not currently in use, but no matter what energy saving is energy saving and I would recommend you to ask me first before you buy if my system would be actually working in your house. Please submit your questions on this page.

Also, during this tasting period, I checked out possibilities of improving temperatures differentials between rooms on the first and on the second floors. This one also is require an individual approach and I would recommend you to pay me first ($1.34) on this page if you are willing to discuss it with me.

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