Tips on Balancing Your Home Heating System

Too often I’ve been in the home of a friend or neighbor in the winter, and although they don’t say so, there is often one room in the house that is cold compared to the rest. You can tell because in spite of the furniture or appliances placed there, the door is usually closed to keep the draft from reaching the rest of the house. Often a space heater is displayed prominently in the center of the room, or under a desk, or next to the video game console.

Sometimes the owner complains of “that room” always being cold. More often than not, nothing is said, and the tenants of the home merely shrug their shoulders about the cold room and proclaim, “That’s just the way it is. That room’s always been cold. They didn’t put enough heating vents in there.”

As plausible an explanation as that is, most often, lack of heating vents is not the problem. Balance is. Simply put, I mean that no one has ever bothered to properly adjust the output vents for each room. It’s a simple process, but there are a few things that have to be kept in mind and attended to before hand.

First, make certain that all major air leaks to the outside are taken care of. A faulty door seal can cause a very uncomfortable draft. Windows that fail to close and lock properly will produce similar results. Caulk around exterior window trim to keep the cold from getting into your walls in the first place. Install fresh air combustion vents to your furnace room to minimize drafts through the entire home. (Be certain to follow all legal and safety guidelines when doing this, as improper installation can cause a carbon monoxide threat. Consult a professional.)

After addressing air leakage, the next step is to make certain that all cold air returns are clear of debris, furniture, piles of magazine, and dust bunnies (yes, they can impede air flow). Make sure that there is at least an inch and a half (if not two inches) between any cold air return and a piece of furniture. If you are not that familiar with heating systems, the cold air return intakes do not have flow control levers on them. This step is critical because these return vents are where the furnace draws cold air from the floor into it’s heat exchanger to be re-heated and blown out the heating vents again. It’s called a “closed loop system”. Think of it as a big circle of air going round and round, sucked in one side, warmed, then pushed out the other, filtering through the room, then starting all over again.

Next, open all heat registers fully, repairing or replacing non-functioning levers. Most home improvement stores carry a variety of floor and baseboard registers. Now set your thermostat to your target temperature. If the thermostat is in a sunny room, you may want to do this after the sun has set and your furnace has cycled a few times. Keep bedroom/bath doors open so as not to impede cold air return flow because several rooms often share a common return register.

Now go to the warmest room in the house and begin to close the vent(s) down incrementally. Start by closing them to half output. Allow the furnace to cycle a few times. If the “hot” room is still warmer that the others in the home, shut them down more. If convenient, place an accurate portable thermometer in the room being adjusted to compare it with the thermostat setting. Once you have normalized the “hot” room, find the next warmest one room and do the same. After doing this to two or three rooms, check the “cold” room. Chances are that it is nearing a more comfortable temperature. You will not cause your furnace to be overworked by doing this. Most furnaces are designed for this type of balancing procedure and have plenty of built-in latitude for static pressure adjustments.

By partially blocking air flow in one part of the house, you are forcing the furnace blower to push it into another, thus achieving a better heat balance through the entire living area. There is one exception to this procedure. If you you find that none of the rooms in your home seem to get up to the target temperature unless the thermostat is set several degrees above what you desire, then start by partially closing the heat registers in the room containing the thermostat. If too much heat is being pumped into that room, then it shuts the furnace down before the remainder of the house gets it’s share.

Once you’ve achieved the desired temperature balance throughout your home, mark your register positions (some people tape them in place), make certain that no furniture blocks output, and settle in to enjoy a more comfortable home. Variables that can play with your heating balance scheme are sunny days (warming a room beyond being comfortable or shutting down a thermostat), and extreme cold wind penetrating windows and door seals. In rare cases, you still might have to install a booster fan if the above procedure does not yield the desire results.

Wait!! You say that you have a hot water system, not forced air? No problem! One critical element with baseboard heaters is make sure that the fins on the heating pipes are clean and free of fuzzies and dust bunnies. A small nozzle on a vacuum can achieve this, but a word of warning first! Be careful not to bend any pipe fins. Natural air flow is what makes these systems work. The radiator fins must be clean, but not bent. This same principle applies to electric baseboard heaters. The air must have free flow over the heating fins.

Hot water systems sometimes have several “zones” that are controlled by separate thermostats. Make sure that you are adjusting the heat radiator or vent that corresponds to the correct thermostat. Once your cleaning task is complete, begin shutting down the vent covers in the “hot” room as described before. Again, keep furniture a few inches away from the heat register. They must draw air in from the bottom, and release the warmed air from the top and up the wall to mix into the rest of the room.

Comfort can be yours all winter long. It’s well worth a couple hours of your time at the start of the heating season.