Blocked AC Vents Are Bad For Your Home
Blocked AC vents, can it really help to cool your home? Maybe your house doesn’t seem as cool as it used to be with the air conditioning running. You might reason that you have a room or two in your home your rarely use, so if you close or block the vents somehow this will help cool over rooms. First let’s understand how air conditioning units are designed and why you could be doing more harm than help. If you have any questions you can always give us a call. The professionals at Temperature Patrol have been serving Southwest Florida with decades of experience.
The Balance of AirFlow
The HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) in your home is designed to balance the airflow in each room of your home. When your home system is running in air conditioning mode, the unit pulls warm air from the rooms and replaces it with an equal amount of cooled air from the system. The ac system is carefully designed using different size duct work (the air pipes). This helps to effectively move the right amount of air, to each room with efficiency.
If you close a vent, you are putting stress on your system as it tries to force the air through the closed vent. At the same time, the return air vent is trying to pull air. When no new air is being pumped into the room, the system is pulling against a vacuum. Your AC system was carefully balanced by the engineers of your system. This doesn’t mean closing a vent briefly is going to be a major problem. Rather the problems will start showing up after vents have been blocked for a period of time.
Closing Vents or Blocked AC Vents
What if you have a room in your house that seems warmer than other rooms?, You check and the vent is open. You may want to do a little investigating. It’s possible the duct where the air flows is blocked, or even open. If nothing looks obvious to you, give us a call. Our professionals are trained to find and repair problems. We have found duct work allows cool air leaking from an open seal. This may cause the cool air is going into your attic and not your room. When you put your hand to the vent you may feel cool air. The problem may be that not enough of it is making it to the room.
Blocked AC Vents Can Cause Moisture
Another problem with blocked AC vents is that the reduced flow of cool air could lead to moisture problems. When your AC system pulls warm air from a room, it also removes the excess moisture. This moisture that is collected is then pumped outside your home. If you block or alter the air flowing in any room, you run the risk of mold or mildew. The air may feel warm, or smell stale. Especially here is Florida it is important to get extra moisture outside your home to avoid such problems.
Instead of Saving Money – It May Cost You More
Putting extra stress on your AC system may shorten the life of the motors. If the unit runs longer then it should, you may find the life of your unit reduced. Blocking a vent is similar to the extra load of having dirty filters on your system. We talked about the importance or changing your filters in a previous post. By calling the professionals and Temperature Patrol we can find the problem and fix. In many cases helping you to extend the life of your unit.
More importantly a simply repair may be all it takes to get your home cool, back to the way it was originally designed. The best way to keep your AC running properly and keeping your home cooled is to have it regularly serviced. Our technicians can spot concerns and fix them before they become problems. Our company focus has always been repair first and avoid having to replace a system until its necessary. We clean, inspect and keep your AC system running season after season. Check out our service plans and give us a call to find out why thousands of your neighbors already trust the service of their AC to Temperature Patrol.