The architect or designer who created the plans for your home did more than just indicate where the walls, doors, and windows should go. He or she also included blueprints outlining the HVAC requirements to bring your home up to code. The layout of the internal air ducts, the size of the registers to be installed in each room, and any other pertinent information regarding your property’s HVAC air balancing calculations. In that section, each room is assigned a CFM number that corresponds to the balancing requirements of the home.
Today, we are going to go over air balancing in depth; including what the CFM number is, and what it exactly refers to. In addition, we will examine why air ducts are important to maintain for a cozy and comfortable home.
What Is Air Balancing?
As stated above, each room in your house was allocated a CFM number when it was conceptually designed on your blueprints. CFM is an abbreviation for cubic feet per minute, and the CFM number represents the number of cubic feet of air that your HVAC needs to circulate in order to keep a consistent temperature throughout your home.
According to the print, you will not observe any temperature differences in your home when the CFM is met. If the CFM requirements are met, the system will work more efficiently. If your CFM is being met, there will be no “hot” or “cold” patches in your home, just a pleasant, uniform temperature.
If your unit was properly sized to satisfy all CFM per room standards when your home was initially constructed and the new HVAC was installed, you should not have any balancing issues
What Causes Airflow To Be Unbalanced?
If everything is functioning properly, it is a wonderful thing. If your airflow is uneven, you will observe the following symptoms:
- High Energy Bills. If your air ducts are failing to maintain a consistent temperature throughout your home, they may be operating more frequently to compensate. This excessive consumption will result in high monthly energy bills.
- Hot or Cold Areas. An uneven HVAC will have difficulty keeping your home’s temperature stable. During the winter months, certain rooms will be colder than others, and during the summer, some will be hotter.
- Insufficient Air Flow. The registers in the most distant rooms from your air ducts may have little or no airflow. This produces an unstable air situation.
Depending on how your property was constructed, certain rooms may have more than one exterior wall enclosing them. For instance, a corner room with two exterior walls could be located on the second story, above the garage. If this space is not properly insulated to compensate for all exterior walls and the floor, your system will never be able to accurately balance the airflow. This area will also need particular requirements per air ducts to provide adequate airflow at the register. If any or all of these factors are not handled, the air in your home will be imbalanced.
How To Increase Airflow To One Room?
Below are five ways to increase airflow in your home:
- Check the vents and registers.
- Turn on ceiling fans.
- Schedule HVAC maintenance.
- Consider air conditioning duct cleaning.
- Invest in a ventilator.
How To Know If You Have Any Air Issues?
If anything you’ve read thus far in this article sounds like what’s happening with your air ducts, you should have a professional HVAC company do air balance testing in your house.
During this test, the professional will obtain precise airflow measurements at all registers, return vents, and any other detectable locations. Then, based on the results, the expert will describe the steps necessary to get a completely balanced air system in your home. The registers, exhaust fans, grill, and fresh air must all be in harmony for your system to perform at its most efficient level. Even a single ‘out-of-balance’ factor can result in high energy costs and a malfunctioning HVAC system.
Importance Of Air Balancing
You are likely aware that balancing air is an essential component of your house’s HVAC and that a properly balanced home will be more comfortable and less expensive to operate than one with an imbalanced system that runs 50% of the time.
Your HVAC team should be able to implement the suggested solutions for your air ducts, and that is what we will explore next.
Improve Home’s Air Balance Issues With Professional Help
Occasionally, uneven air flow can be fixed by adding more vents to the affected room. This may solve the air balance problem in the room, but it does not address the problem within the system. For instance, if you have air difficulties in one of three rooms and you address them by introducing additional air to the room, the HVAC will have to work overtime to meet the home’s temperature requirements.
There are a number of factors that might affect your airflow, so there are also a number of solutions that must be implemented in unison to obtain an air-balanced home. Things like:
- Address the insulation package for each out-of-balance room and make adjustments as necessary. To achieve the ideal air in rooms with numerous exterior walls and floors, it may be necessary to add substantial insulation.
- Examine the windows in the rooms that lack air. You may need to replace the windows in the rooms with the biggest problems. The original builder of your home should have addressed the insulating quality of your windows, and better windows should have been added where necessary to meet the room’s CFM needs.
- Instead of just installing vents to boost airflow in a room, consider the size of the ducts and the location of the room with respect to the HVAC unit. Occasionally, reducing the size of air ducts is sufficient to boost airflow to the affected room.
Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of air balance and its importance. If you feel your home is having difficulties, please contact the Duct Pros staff immediately. We are experienced with air-balancing solutions required to overcome it. When you are ready for a professional HVAC team, call or visit our website to learn how simple it is to balance the air in your home!
