If you place a sheet of newspaper over half of the intake vent, will you save heating costs?

Question

I once saw someone do this in the winter and they explained it saved money on the heating bill. Is this true? If so, how does it work and why?

Answer 1

No it does not save money.
In fact if anything you may increase your heating costs.
Forced hot air heat works like the name implies.
If you restrict the air flow, you'll reduce the amount of hot air circulating through the room.
In turn the hot air will build up too fast in the heat exchanger of your furnace causing the flame to go out prematurely.
The t-stat is still calling, but the furnace is satisfied temporarily. Once the furnace cools back off, it starts all over again. It's called short cycling, & it's not very good for your furnace or its components. The main thing that can happen is the heat exchanger can crack, then it's bye bye furnace.
Keep the heat at a decent setting, & try to improve efficiency other ways.
Hope this info was helpful.

Answer 2

Will do abolutely nothing to efficiency.

On a heat pump, the closing off of the intake will drive up the compression ratio on the outside unit and destroy the compressor in a short time. Warmer air, but less of it will come out of the output vents. Raising this temperature raises the compression ratio of the compressor outside and as ive said, its going to destroy it in short while. Zero efficiency gain here.

On a gas furnace, if you close the intake air for the blower, it will raise the temperature of the furnace beyond its design temperature and reduce, not increase efficiency.

These heating units are designed already for maximum efficeiency and closing off intakes destroys that design efficiency which, of course is already maximized at normal air flows.

No free lunch on saving energy and no majic such as a newspaper over any intake will do it either.

Answer 3

Pretty sure they're wrong. If you're talking about the cold air intake for your furnace, there's usually more than one, and the furnace needs so much air, whether you cover half the opening or leave it open. The air will be the same going into the furnace, it will just have to work harder to get it. Might even cause an increase in heating costs, because the blower has to work harder and will take more electricity to run it. One of the easiest things you can do is to simply change the filter elements every month during the heating season, whether they look dirty or not. That way you're sure you have the least restricted air flow possible.

Answer 4

In theory, if you have an electric heat pump and run your heater continuously during the winter, putting a newspaper over your intake vent will reduce your bill because it will reduce air intake into the system and therefore reduce the amount of air that you heat and the energy expended. If you have gas heat, it doesn't much matter, because you will still be burning the same amount of gas, just expending the heat into less air.

Frankly, you could get exactly the same effect by just running the heater half as much. If you run your heater on a thermostat, it could actually increase your heating bill by reducing the efficiency of your heating system and requiring it to run more. The vent is sized a particular way for a reason, after all.

Bottom line, you are better off just turning the thermostat down by a few degrees to save on heating.

Answer 5

This will change nothing. If it was an effort to balance airflow for more complete coverage or proper circulation, it will improve comfort, but have little to no impact on efficiency.

If this was the only intake, it could likely lower the efficiency and shorten the life span of the heat exchanger. (The heat exchanger would be designed to expect a certain amount of airflow and subsequent temperature drop. This obstruction would act just like a half clogged air filter.)

Answer 6

Your distribution system (supply ducts and return ducts) were designed to flow evenly. If you block half the return off, then your supply will work extra hard to maintain (the motor is still running at full speed). If you're using an oil or gas furnace, the heat exchanger will not be able to dissipate heat fast enough, and you could seriously shorten the lifespan of the furnace. It's just not a safe thing to do.

Answer 7

no you wont save any money and depending on type of unit you have it would cost you more money.....this would not be a good idea if you any type heat....here why...1 electric heat would have to stay on longer to circulate heat because of reduced air flow...eventually would cause heat strip failure....2 if it is a heat pump would cause your compressor to run on high pressure because there would not be air to circulate heat into your home..this would cause early compressor failure...3 if gas or oil....loss of air would require burner to cycle more and because you have less air eventually the heat exchanger would need to be replaced sooner than normal....my advice to you is to never cover up any vents as this would cause more problems and the cost of repairing would be more than what money you wouldn't save...

Answer 8

Wow! i would be getting my dogs quickly and the block off component of the domicile she'll be staying in does have a vent. appropriate now we are dogs proofing the area so i will make confident that blocking off the vents or removing her collar is on the record! thank you plenty. All those little ifs and buts look impossible until they take place!

Answer 9

I don't see how creating an imbalance in the air flow would save money.

Answer 10

Probably NOT the best idea (possibly a fire hazard)..but IF the unit burns wood for example.. it would act a s a damper, reducing air flow, and the fire would slow and burn longer.