What Are Room Pressure Imbalances?
Room pressure imbalances can have a tremendous negative impact on your home, make it more dusty, uncomfortable, and also raise your energy bills! The way is works, it quite simple.
Your duct system is a closed loop system. For every one cubic foot of air that is pushed out from every supply, that same exact of air must be returned back in at the return where your air filter is located. Your system knows how much air is needed to be returned back in, so when doors to certain rooms are shut closed, sometimes it causes what we call a “room pressure imbalance”.
A room pressure imbalance is when the passage of air from a certain room is essentially blocked off (by a door) preventing the air to find its way back to the return where the filter is. When this happens, a positive pressure is created in each bedroom, causing the conditioned air that you pay to cool to be pushed out through the cracks and holes in your home located at the windows, outlets, or CAN lights. With this in mind, the main side of the home is put into a negative pressure.
Why is a negative pressure on a home important to me?
If a home is subject to a negative pressure, it will essentially begin to suck air from anywhere it can brining along with it, dust, debris, and any other harmful particles in the attic. It will also start to suck outside air from under the cracks in your door, or windows. This creates a great amount of dust in the home, and also puts a great negative impact on your duct system causing it to work harder than ever before.
How can a room pressure imbalance issue be resolved?
To resolve a room pressure imbalance issue there are three different approaches that can be taken.
- Simply leave your doors OPEN at all times– the cheapest and simplest of the solutions
- Transfer grilles or Tamarack systems– a specially designed grille that is placed above your door frame, or a specially designed insert that is placed at the bottom of your door. Both of these systems will allow the air that is inside the room to flow freely back to the return, even with the door closed
- Jumper ducts– A jumper duct connects a new vent in the room which door is being closed with a new vent in the room with the return grille, allowing air to flow back to the central return grilles freely without being restricted by door closure