Why Are Some Rooms in My Home Hot or Cold?
Is there a room in your home that just doesn’t ever really seem to get cold in the summer or warm up in the winter? The air in your home isn’t always equally distributed with your duct system. This is often the cause of hot and cold spots in your home. Duct balancing is the process of adjusting all the registers (individual vents) in your home so that there is optimal airflow throughout your house.
Terms to Know:
- Duct System – Think of your duct system as the highway for your airflow in your home. This is the road that your air takes to travel to all the rooms throughout your house.
- HVAC System – A HVAC System is the entire system as a whole; this includes your air ducts, plus all the equipment used to either heat or cool your home like your furnace or air conditioning unit.
- Register / Vent – A Register or Vent refers to the grille with moving parts that can be closed and opened that also directs the airflow into various rooms throughout your home.
Who Can Have Their Duct System Balanced?
First, it should be made clear that duct balancing only works for homes that use a duct system. Most homes in New Mexico use duct systems for their furnace, or if the home has air conditioning. For homes that have swamp coolers, not every system uses ducts to circulate the air around the house. Some swamp coolers may only have a single-entry point into the home. So, for homes that only have the single-entry point, unfortunately, we cannot provide duct balancing for your home, unless it’s the winter when you’re using your furnace.
How Does Duct Balancing Work?
It’s pretty simple! A TLC technician will measure the airflow coming out of each of your home’s registers. Airflow is measured in cubic feet per minute, and airflow ranges from 100ft2/minute to 500 ft2/minute. We will then adjust the registers so that the air coming out of each register in your home is equal. Our technicians will even go into your attic if we can’t balance the vent to ensure each duct is properly sized.
- We’ll go around and measure the airflow in every register in your home
- Our technician will adjust your registers as needed
- We’ll remeasure your registers to confirm even airflow
- Viola! No more hot or cold rooms in your house
Why You Should Balance Your Duct System
Eliminate Hot and Cold Spots in Your Home
Making sure there’s equal airflow in your home helps with a few different things. One of the most obvious reasons, of course, is to eliminate hot and cold spots in your home. Chances are there’s one room in your house that’s always hot or cold depending on the time of year. Not only is this frustrating, but you probably avoid that space in your home.
Save Money on Your Electric Bill
You may also find yourself cranking up your cooler or heater to try and get those cold or hot spots to a more comfortable temperature. In turn, this may cause other parts of your home to be warmer or colder than you prefer and not to mention the additional cost to your utility bills. You may also find yourself spending money on fans, added air conditioning units or space heaters to help that problem room, which can also increase your utility bills. Finally, unequal airflow in your home can cause your system to short cycle or run too much, which can increase your utility bill as well.
Discover if there is a Problem and Prevent Bigger Issues
Sometimes all it takes is a minor adjustment around your home to solve your air flow problems, but it may not always be that simple. In some cases, there can be an issue with how your duct system was designed. It may require a minor fix of making the duct larger, which can cost a couple of hundred dollars to fix. As mentioned before, unequal air distribution can cause your system to short cycle and create unnecessary stress on your heating and cooling units. Added stress on any system can reduce its life span, and you may find yourself replacing your unit before its intended time.
Other Options to Help Hot Spots in Your Home
Houses with attics in the summer months can reach temperatures as high as 150 degrees! To beat the heat, we suggest venting the hot air out of the attic through the use of an attic fan or whole house fan. Both of these options remove the hot air in your home. When you cool down your attic, your air conditioner or swamp cooler doesn’t need to work as hard to cool down your house because the overall temperature of your home decreases. This significantly reduces your energy bills and helps keep your home cool in the summer months.
Get FREE Duct Balancing: TLC is currently offering free duct balancing for the month of August. Call us today to schedule your complimentary duct system evaluation! Schedule your complimentary duct balancing service.
About TLC Plumbing & Utility
TLC Plumbing & Utility is an AC service company in Albuquerque