Here's the situation:We have two heating units in a single level house. One heats the den, kitchen, living room, dining room and two baths. The other unit heats the 4 bedrooms and one master bath. Return #1 is in the den beside the hallway. Return #2 is in the same hallway centered among the doors to the bedrooms. For Unit #2 the vents to the master bedroom and bath are closed. The vents in the other three bedrooms are open. Only one of these bedrooms is being used. It's my mom's who leaves her door closed all the time.My mom says we are wasting money heating the two empty bedrooms. I say we have to leave them open so the unit will get circulated air. If I close off the two empty bedrooms, the only one with an active heat vent has the doors closed which will cause the unit to run unnecessarily costing even more money.I say both units have to be running.So who's right????????
I will completely agree with GG You will have more flow in other vents causing other rooms to heat quicker. The more you can shut down the better. But do not shut down rooms with water in them on very cold days or you could be out a very much larger bill due to freezing.
The exterior walls of your home are insulated to keep out the cold. The interior walls are not. If you allow one segment of your house to become cold it will cause the rest of the house to be colder. Instead, insulate and weatherstrip everywhere. Put up double glazing on the windows and anything else you can do to improve the barrier against air infiltration.
