Air conditoning - my husband closes the vents in our home and keeps open only the ones in the rooms we use?
Question:he claims that this saves us electricity - I claim that it causes our a/c to work harder and uses more electricity - who's right? Also does is use more electricty to turn on and off the a/c or to keep it on?
Answers:
While some people think thay are saving money by closing off rooms and vents. In reality they arent. The untreated air is drawn from the room under the doors and returned into the treated air. So rather than having treated air that has been de-humidified and cooled now you have untreated air mixing with treated air. It is a wasted effort and a heat gain in your home. In the morning open the rooms and vents, run your a/c as you normally would. Go outside and read your electric meter. The next day, close the rooms off , and read your meter. Then you wil see who is right.
He may be right...because your unit is not having to cool down unused space. It shouldn't have to run as long.
The AC won't use more either way. It puts the same amount of air out, but having the vents closed just means some of the extra cold air will go into the open vents, and some of it will just go to waste. But I don't believe it would work harder. [If the room with the thermostat is hot, then the AC will think the house is hot, so don't close that vent. that's how my house is anyway]
If you have rooms you never enter, you can close the door to them and shut the vent off. That will pressure up the airflow in the rest of the vents a little, but to me that really isn't something that is worth doing. I doubt it is saving you much of anything.
It will put a load on the fan if too many vents are closed but overall, he's on the right track.
Keep the doors closed where the vents are off and don't close more than a few and you'll be OK.
The second part of your question is dependent on how often your outside unit starts up. There is a significant current draw when the motor starter kicks in to start the unit, but it only lasts a second or two depending on the unit.
As long as it's not cycling every few minutes it's not costing you more money.
If you are talking about leaving it on during the day when no one is home, it's cheaper to get a programmable thermostat and have the temp raised when you're gone to about 80- 82 and turn back to normal about an hour before you get home.
P.S.- You want a fair amount of conditioned air circulating around your thermostat for better temperature consistancy.
Did you marry Jimmy Carter? During the Carter Administration the practice was turn up the thermostat, turn down the thermostat. STOP!
Leave that thermostat at a constant (reasonable termperature). Also, the heating/cooling unit for your home was designed based on the square footage of the entire house. Closing off rooms will not make it more efficient or reduce your consumption of electricity.
Seriously, the law of physics says that every element in the room, including the air, must be heated or cooled. If it gets too cool when heat is needed the heater must run twice as hard and twice as long to heat all the elements. The same holds true for cooling.
Tell your husband to shut off the car engine while going down hill to save fuel..just make sure you're not in the car with him.
Listen to texas harley, he knows of which he speaks...you are saving nothing by closing off vents
This is a bad idea, not only are you not saving anything you could actually cause your system problems. If you don't get enough air flow over the evaporator coil it will freeze up which is real bad for the system.
If your house is older and the duct work is not sealed the back pressure will just force the cold air into an unconditioned space like that attic or where ever your duct work is. This cold air can cause condensation which leads to mold.
If you want to save energy turn the system off or set the temperature to 78. Or do what my crazy mother in law does and put styrofoam panels over all your windows and live like a cave man. Her place is very dark but it does help with her cooling costs.
He is correct. Just so he doesn't close the vents to the room where the thermostat is located. He is saving electricity. It costs more to run an air conditioner than to start one up. The unit is working less to cool less space, not harder. Hubby knows best - this time. :)
Closing the vents is not doing you any good. If you want less air you need to shut the dampers near the furnace.
Central A/c runs very efficient at 78 degrees. Turning the temperature down even one degree will ADD 3-6% more to your electric bill.
Turning it off and on uses a lot of electricity as the unit must work harder to obtain the cooler temperatures.
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