I have a problem with the forced hot air heating system in my home, and I’ve received conflicting information from two different burner technicians.
The problem is that my upstairs is always too hot, and the downstairs is always too cold. One tech said all I need to do is close the upstairs vents so that the hot air will back up and more of it will go out the downstairs vents.
Another tech told me that closing the upstairs vents just wastes hot air as not enough of it would ever come out the downstairs vents. He said it would make the temperature for the two floors more even, but they would both be too cool.
I just closed the upstairs vents to see if it makes a difference. Am I wasting my time?
I suppose it depends on the design of your system. If it is such that the blower utilizes the maximum capacity of all of your vents, then your second technician is partially right.
However, the goal of your environmental controls is to create a comfortable temperature in your house, not necessarily to operate at peak efficiency. Many many many forced air systems have “dampers” which are adjusted on the ducts near the furnace, so you can control the flow rates of air to each zone in the house, so closing the vents would not be unlike doing this, and it would force more air through the vents downstairs, which will naturally rise and help to warm both areas.
The only obstacle here could be a limit switch on your furnace, which might trip earlier if it is unable to move enough air past the heat exchanger due to the new restrictions in your system. If this is the case, try opening only one or two vents upstairs and see if that helps.
Closing upstairs vents in winter is normal and effective. Close them or reduce the flow via dampers first. If no dampers are to be found, use the registers/vents.
In the summer, you can probably close most downstairs dampers and/or registers vents.
It’s the ol’ ‘hot air risies and cold air sinks’ routine. Keep all doors closed when possible to isolate each room.
Oh, forced air heating is lame relative to other methods; and a poorly insulated area could make things even worse, maginifying the effects and shortcomings of forced air systems.
If tweaking the airflow balance isn’t enough to make you more comfortable, you can try running the blower all the time, not just when the heat is on. If there aren’t dampers at the furnace or at the floor vents, you can cover the “too hot” vents. I believe the “wasting heat” argument is mistaken.