That said, closing your vents is best for saving energy but not for redirecting cool air throughout your home. Some homeowners believe that by closing the vents in their basements, cool air will automatically be redirected toward the upper levels of a house. Unfortunately, that's not how your furnace fan works.
You can safely close your basement air vents in the summer, yes. You'll want to do so intermittently, though, instead of leaving them closed for several weeks at a time. If you consistently want to keep your vents closed, be sure to rotate which vents you shut at least every two days.
While the idea may be to close off one area in order to make another area more comfortable, surprisingly, doing this can cause damage to your HVAC system, increase the energy needed to heat your home, and in turn, cost you more money.
It's a common misconception that closing vents in one area of your home redirects airflow to other areas. For example, closing vents in an unused area of the home sends more hot or cold air to areas in use. Closing vents does redirect air — just not to where you want.
If you want to attempt to send extra air upstairs to cool down your space, use the damper on the ductwork if you have one. This will help guide air to the desired locations and is a better way to keep the upstairs at an ideal temperature.
Insulate and ventilate – Insulation plays a crucial role in keeping your home comfortable and energy efficient (it can help lower your energy bills). Try adding extra insulation to your roof or attic. An attic fan can help circulate air and limit the amount of hot air lingering on your second floor.
Closing Your Basement Vents: The Benefits
If you don't frequently use your basement or the rooms in the lower levels of your home, it's the most cost-effective to seal them off during the summer. This way, you reduce the amount of airflow into those rooms and make them easier to temperature control.
Key Points. Does closing vents in unused rooms help? The answer is no: In reality, it may hurt your HVAC system, lead to costly repairs, and cause other problems.
Even if you don't spend a lot of time in the basement, keeping it warm will make a difference in other parts of the house — particularly the rooms right above it. We talked about the same phenomenon when we looked at bonus rooms above garages.
Poor Sealing, Insulation, and Ventilation
In order to cool the upstairs in summer, it's important to know why these hot spots are present. One of the biggest reasons the upstairs gets so hot is that the current sealing, insulation, and ventilation systems are not working correctly.
Backed-up air pressure – Unfortunately, if you leave the vents in your basement closed for too long, you may experience a vent backup. These backups can put significant strain on your vents as well as your HVAC system. Opening the vents evert two days (but not for too long) helps prevent this problem.
When vents are closed, that pressure builds up, potentially causing damage to the HVAC system. Increased air pressure can create cracks and holes in the ductwork. It can also cause your furnace's heat exchanger to crack. Leave all air vents open to prevent extensive damage to your home's heating system this winter.
Shutting the heating vents in your basement or another room you don't use very often is a great way to reduce energy expenses during the summer months. That being said, it isn't something you should do for more than two or three days at a time.
These vents allow outside air to circulate under the floor in summer to prevent the moisture buildup that encourages mildew and rot. In winter, when the air is drier, the vents are closed to reduce the chance that the pipes in the crawl space might freeze.
Those crawl spaces generally have the worst insect and rot damage. If you must close your vents during winter I highly encourage you to do it only when the temperature drops below 32⁰. Otherwise, keep them open when the temperature is consistently above freezing to avoid moisture-related problems.
Open the windows and doors to the room
Opening the windows and room door will help increase airflow. This is because it allows air from other rooms or the outdoors to enter this specific room to increase air flow in the room. Proper air circulation in a room is essential.
When To Close the Vents. If summer is the right time to open your crawl space vents, winter is the perfect time to close them. Colder weather results in drier air. Dry air and freezing temperatures are the biggest risks for crawl spaces due to the likelihood of freezing pipes.
The solutions most commonly recommended for warming up a basement are to insulate the below-grade walls and the floors, and to add heating—either through installing radiant heat floors or making revisions to the main HVAC ductwork system.
Utilize Natural Ventilation
Just open up your windows and doors to let in some fresh air. If you don't have any windows in your basement, consider installing new windows—the more windows you install, the better the airflow. The process may be a bit of an investment, but windows are a necessary ventilation component.
If the room is often unattended, primarily used for storage, or effectively unfinished, then there's a good chance you should ventilate your basement. If you want to improve basement air quality, the most surefire method is investing in the right basement ventilation system.
There could be many reasons, but most homes will have a slight temperature difference simply because heat rises. Air (like any gas) expands as it is heated, causing it to disperse. Because the heated air is less dense than colder air, it buoys the hot air upward, much in the same way wood floats on the denser ocean.
Hot air rises, and heat rises to the upstairs level. But this is attic insulation or attic heat issue. Most of the time, a second story can be built into an attic, or it has a second story surrounded by an attic, which leads to exterior hot walls or walls backing up to a 140-degree attic.