Do the vents in your home make you uncomfortable?

There is a reason a fan feels so good in the summer but can feel drafty in the winter. 

Moving air increases evaporation, cooling down surfaces more quickly than still air.  It replaces humid air (air full of water vapor that has evaporated from a moist surface) with dry air, which allows the evaporation to continue.  Still air slows evaporation and heat loss because air at a certain temperature will only hold so much moisture.  Water vapor holds heat, so as water evaporates from your skin, it removes heat from your body.

That jet of air (even if it’s not technically cold) can make you feel cold because it’s removing heat from your body!  Good HVAC design will place vents so that they do not blow air directly on people.  If your home does not have good HVAC design, however, you can change the vent registers to deflect the moving air, so it indirectly heats or cools you.  

In our article, we talk about the differences between grilles, registers and diffusers. Registers are the fixtures we’re talking about changing here: they are grilles with adjustable dampers.  The dampers can change airflow direction somewhat, or shut it off completely.  The typical rectangular register with flow damper is very common as a supply vent cover.  It’s never used as a return (intake vent).

Here’s a typical register; you can see the lever that changes the direction of the air, and it’s very simple to change this register out with only 2 screws: 

Source: Home Depot

Sometimes your first reaction may be to shut the vent completely.  Shutting too many vents at one time, however, will cause the airflow to be forced into the remaining open ducts and vents, making the system work harder and possibly causing it to be noisy. 

Here’s another option which you can attach to your vent or grill to direct the airflow off your normal position in the room: a deflector.

Source: Floor Registers-N-Vents

Then, there are diffusers.  When you need to distribute air evenly around a room, diffusers are the right choice, as the louvers and dampers are multi-directional.   Diffusers come in a multitude of shapes and designs to accommodate and hide ventilation outlets.  For example, InViAir has many different styles and sizes to accommodate design taste, lower noise (no one likes to hear the rush of air coming out of registers in a quiet room), and minimize condensation.  Diffusers can also be combined with lights so that they accomplish two functions in one unit, decluttering a space visually.  This manufacturer’s webpage shows many of the different types of diffusers available. 

Source: HVAC Diffuser: Enhancing Airflow and Comfort in Indoor Spaces

If a new register, deflector or diffuser doesn’t solve the problem of drafts or uncomfortable jets of air in your space, it’s time to bring in an HVAC professional, who can evaluate why it feels like you’re living in a barn instead of a home!  They should be able to tell you whether the system is sized correctly, the ducts and vents are placed correctly, and if there are other ways to increase comfort without getting a whole new system (like air sealing, system balancing, thermostat programming). 

Photo by Lukáš Lehotský on Unsplash