Heating and Cooling Myths
Homeowners try many things to save energy and to make their heating and cooling systems work better for them.
You may have tried a few of those things, but unfortunately these tricks and tips will not get you the results you are hoping for. Here are a few myths to avoid as you try to make smarter heating and air conditioning choices.
Faster Heating or Cooling
When people want their homes to change temperature quickly, they often set their thermostat to a much higher or lower temperature than they really want. This will not actually make your house reach a desired temperature any faster.
Heating and cooling systems deliver air at a set rate. Setting the system to a more extreme temperature than you actually want will only make the system work longer and use more energy to reach the temperature on the thermostat.
Fan Cooling
Despite what you may have heard, fans cannot replace an air conditioning system to bring the temperature of a room down. Leaving a fan on in an empty room will only suck up energy without actually accomplishing anything.
Fans move air but do not cool it. When air moves across you skin you feel cooler even though the air temperature has not actually changed. This means that a fan left on in a room without a person is just using up energy to move air around with no one to benefit.
Closing Vents
It is also a common myth that if you are not using a room in your house you can save energy by closing the air vents in that room. The myth says that air from the closed up room will be redirected to other vents and keep the more important rooms in your house warm or cool.
In most cases, this is not true. Modern heating and air conditioning systems balance the air pressure in ducts throughout the house. Closing off a vent can cause pressure to increase in places and throw off
how the entire system functions. Sometimes this causes extra air to be expelled into the attic or basement of your house where it goes to waste.
Also, hot air moves around in an attempt to equalize temperature everywhere. Even when you think you are not heating or cooling a room because you closed its vent, the room is still pulling warm air out of rooms you want to heat or leaking warm air into rooms you are trying to cool.
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