Should You Leave Interior Doors Open Or Closed During Heating And Cooling?

During extremely cold or hot seasons, your HVAC system works harder to keep the temperatures in your home comfortable. This results in higher energy bills as your system tries to cool or heat different rooms in your house. In an effort to lower these utility bills, most people apply different techniques in the hopes of reducing the amount of energy their HVAC systems use when air conditioning their homes. One such technique is closing bedroom doors when running HVAC systems.

The idea here is to reduce the amount of air running in and out of these rooms, giving the HVAC unit a break from air conditioning rooms when they are not being used. This is however very far from the truth.

Locking rooms to improve energy efficiency when operating HVAC systems does more damage than it does good. When doors are locked, pressure starts to build inside and then escapes from crevices in the walls and other parts of the room. The pressurized air will then be replaced by air from the outside, forcing your HVAC unit to work twice as hard.

Openings from your windows will also allow in air from the outside. This air is not properly cleaned and can lead to the growth of mold or pose a threat to the health of the occupants.

Leaving these doors open will actually save you money on energy bills even though the opposite seems to make more sense. If you have pets running around that you’d like keep out of certain rooms around the house, then adding gates is recommended as opposed to locking the doors. If privacy is a concern to occupants, who would like to keep the doors closed at some point, then installing transfer grills will be the next best option. Transfer grills allow air circulation without the need to open the door, giving occupants enough privacy to go about their businesses with little distraction. However, installing transfer grills require cutting holes on your walls, and only a professional will be able to do this properly.

If you are looking for more temperature control tips or have any questions, feel free to call us for all your HVAC needs.

Ed Lambert