Close off vents?

[sharond444]

I have a gas furnace and an electric cooling unit (RUUD). Someone recently told me I could close the vent(s) and the door(s) to rooms I am not using in order to help the open vent(s) put out more heat or cooling. I thought closing vent(s) adversely affected the efficiency of the equipment and that it should not be done. What is the scoop? Thanks for any input.

-Sharon

[HayZee518]

at the plenum at the furnace on the duct lines there should be movable dampers inside the trunk lines for each line running to a vent or register. these are movable with a lever and a wing nut locking arrangement. adjust them for where you want more heat or less heat.

[Hube]

The dampering down slightly of one or two runs is usually ok.
Note the word "slightly"
But to damper down runs to several rooms is not good as this could cause several problems to the htg/cooling system.

[jnaas2]

The adjustable dampers on the main trunk line with the locknuts are for balancing the air flow to the different rooms of a house to keep even temperatures in the various rooms. once they are set you can mark where they should be set and then use them if you want to change the air flow to different rooms, but it is easier to use the floor register to change the air flow. You dont want to close off to many because you need to keep the temperature rise below the manafactures spec on the furnance in the heating season and the higher the velocity of airflow in the trunk lines the more noise they make. And if the airflow is to slow across the evaporator in the summer it will make the unit less effecient and noisy and makes the blower motor work harder

[sharond444]

close off vents?

Thanks to everyone who replied to my question. The information is very helpful.