Adjusting Vents For Heat Pump

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Adjusting Vents For Heat Pump

Our heat pump blows a lot more air than our old gas furnace.

Overall this is great and we actually find heating is better and cooling is a whole new experience.

That said our basement is a refrigerator, main floor is good, and upper floor while no longer cooking, is still a bit warm.

I know our vents to the upper floor are not great.

It's an old old house and it wasn't designed around modern heating.

That said should I be closing some vents in the house to drive more air to the upstairs or does that actually work against me.

I had one contractor in the house that said given how much air can be pushed, all vents should be open, because the system faces less resistance and will actually blow more air upstairs.

Logic says if you close some outputs, more pressure will flow to the others.

Basically i'm looking for the best way to tune the heating/cooling of the house through the vents.

Question from user smilinfool at heatpumps at reddit.

Answer:

Theres tons of conflicting information on closing vents and overpressure.

Ive heard qualified hvac people say completely contradictory things on the topic.

I think its safe to say that 90% of people with an opinion on the topic are just repeating something they heard somewhere else without knowing the underlying data.

Theres a couple of potential solutions Im aware of:.

Look at setting up zoning.

This could get expensive if your ducts arent set up for it.

Heck, it would probably be expensive even if your ducts are set up for it.

Get some smart vents and related thermostats.

These still get expensive when youre looking at the whole house.

Start with the basement and see if you need more.

Get some vent boosters for your upstairs.

This would probably help narrow the gap of upstairs temperatures, but not eliminate it entirely.

Answer from user BigSkyMountains at heatpumps at reddit.