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Air Flow Tips During the Change of Seasons 

Written by Comfort Solutions HVAC on . Posted in .

Optimizing Airflow for All Seasons

As the seasons change, it may seem natural to simply walk over to your thermostat, set it to heat or cool, and walk away. While this may keep your house at the perfect temperature, it is important to consider that the heating and cooling of your home in this manner can lead to high energy costs and unwanted stress on your HVAC system. By learning and utilizing the known properties of airflow, you can keep your house comfortable in a way that doesn’t overwork your HVAC system or put an extra strain on your wallet. 

Utilizing Return Registers

Return registers have the appearance of your standard AC vent, except they are usually much larger. In modern systems, there should be return registers near the ceiling and the floor in certain rooms of the house. After locating your registers, it’s important to remember the most important rule when it comes to airflow— hot air rises, and cold air falls. Applying this rule will help you make these changes year-round.

  • Registers in Winter: It’s ideal to close the top registers and leave the bottom ones open. Cold air is heavy, so by leaving the bottom registers open, it will escape. The warmer air rises, so it will remain trapped in the house.
  • Registers in Summer: The opposite is required; by opening the top register and closing the bottom one, the hot air will be drawn out by the top register while the cool air near the floor will remain undisturbed.

Ceiling Fans Are Your Friend

Another way to optimize the airflow in your home is by changing the direction that your ceiling fans spin. Many people are unaware that most ceiling fans feature a switch that allows them to easily adjust the direction of their rotation, and that if your ceiling fan isn’t spinning properly, it will have a negative impact on cooling your house.

  • Ceiling Fans in Winter:  Should spin clockwise on a slow setting in order to pull cold air upward toward the center of the room. When this happens, the warmer air that has settled along the ceiling gets displaced by the cold air and is pushed down the walls of the room. The result is that more warm air is in an area easily felt by occupants and no longer hanging out near the ceiling.
  • Ceiling Fans in Summer:  Should be spinning counter clockwise at a fast pace. This rotation pushes cool air down and creates what is perceived as a cool breeze. Although it doesn’t have an effect on room temperature, the result of this breeze can make the room feel cooler as it is constantly refreshing the air that is felt by the occupants of the room.

To learn more about air flow and other ways to make your home energy efficient, reach out to the experienced professionals at Comfort Solutions. Call us at 610-438-9300 or contact us to schedule an appointment.