Block off vents in tall room?

1229 Views 4 Replies 4 Participants Last post by SirDrums, Dec 18, 2012

SirDrums

Discussion Starter · Dec 17, 2012

Just bought a new home and have a heating issue with the great room/living room. I'll try to explain without boring you to death.

First the room:

Its two stories tall, from floor to celing its probablly close to 25 ft tall if not more.
The room is pretty large 19 ft by 20 ft.
its is completley open, no doors, just entry points into the kitchen and hallway
It has the stairs to the second story in in as well so its also open to the upstairs hallway.
The room contain 3 registers. Two in one wall above the kitchen and one in the wall going up the stairs.
These registers are part of the 1st floor AC unit.

Ok now my problems.

1. When running the first floor heater it can take awhile to heat this room.. no real mistery there. But all the all heat from this room ends upstairs in the hall way and sometimes 4 bedrooms if the doors are open. So by the time this room gets confy (70 degrees) the upstairs can be a balmy 76 or 78 degrees. I set it to 66-67 when we go to bed at night but sometimes wake up sweating when it turns on.

2. If the bedroom doors are shut upstairs, the rooms can get extra cold since the halway (where the thermostat is) stays warm and never turns on to heat the rooms.

Would it be ok to block the vents in the tall room during the winter? I think this would be only needed during the winter aynway since during the summer the air would be staying on the first floor. Would this hurt the system in anyway?

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ben's plumbing

· #2 · Dec 18, 2012 (Edited)

SirDrums said:
Just bought a new home and have a heating issue with the great room/living room. I'll try to explain without boring you to death.

First the room:

Its two stories tall, from floor to celing its probablly close to 25 ft tall if not more.

The room is pretty large 19 ft by 20 ft.

its is completley open, no doors, just entry points into the kitchen and hallway

It has the stairs to the second story in in as well so its also open to the upstairs hallway.

The room contain 3 registers. Two in one wall above the kitchen and one in the wall going up the stairs.

These registers are part of the 1st floor AC unit.

Ok now my problems.

1. When running the first floor heater it can take awhile to heat this room.. no real mistery there. But all the all heat from this room ends upstairs in the hall way and sometimes 4 bedrooms if the doors are open. So by the time this room gets confy (70 degrees) the upstairs can be a balmy 76 or 78 degrees. I set it to 66-67 when we go to bed at night but sometimes wake up sweating when it turns on.

2. If the bedroom doors are shut upstairs, the rooms can get extra cold since the halway (where the thermostat is) stays warm and never turns on to heat the rooms.

Would it be ok to block the vents in the tall room during the winter? I think this would be only needed during the winter aynway since during the summer the air would be staying on the first floor. Would this hurt the system in anyway?

if you restrict air flow to much ..furnace will trip the high limit as it should to protect from over heating...maybe some pictures of what you have may help us help you.....maybe you don't have enough registers warm air or cold air return for the large room..where is t stat located???ben sr

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old_squid

· #3 · Dec 18, 2012

You limited your focus on just one room in your house when the base problem is with the entire house when it comes to how your HVAC systems work together.

Closing off the registers in the large room will causes changes in the first floor system's operation. Not all of them good. Depending on where the thermostat is located for that system you may or may not help the problem at all.

Dual system homes with open common areas that cause chimney effects with the air movements are hard sometimes to resolve. Most of the ability to make things a lot better all depends on the original installation and layout.

The first thing I'd suggest is a test to see if the simplest of things can help. Turn both system fans to "on" instead of "auto" and allow them to run continuously 24/7. This sometimes can minimize the chimney effect that you're experiencing. I stress the sometimes.

The other thing that would help in this instance would be a drawing showing the home, rooms, register locations (both supply and returns) and where the thermostats are located.

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jagans

· #4 · Dec 18, 2012

How about a couple of ceiling fans to blow that heat down? Try the fan on all time option and then install ceiling fans

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SirDrums

Discussion Starter · #5 · Dec 18, 2012

Here are a couple of photos that may help

First image is looking back at the kitchen. The return is in the formal dinning room that is beyond the archway I have labled.

You can also see that upstairs hallway is almost right above the registers.

This next photo shows the third register which is right above the stairs.

I am wondering what running the fans all day will do? Does it wear out the system faster? does it run up my electric bill?

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