There comes a time when we’re faced with various decisions regarding our ventilators. We often feel the need to keep out of sight, either for style, convenience, or other reasons. This need to hide it leads to a series of questions like can I cover my vent with furniture?
Covering your ventilator with your furniture or any other home belonging is not a good idea. The ventilator can dry up the wood or make your furniture lose its quality quickly over time. In addition, blocking your ventilator can affect its functionality, resulting in premature damages or high utility bills.
We often feel our ventilators might be out of style and try to cover it with our furniture. Unfortunately, this could cause damages to either the ventilator or the furniture, resulting in unnecessary expenses. I’ll share with you some reasons why covering your vent is a bad idea.
Covering A Vent
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People usually place their furniture almost anywhere they like without considering other factors. In reality, there are restrictions when decorating or putting your furniture in place. For instance, you can’t place furniture at your doorway or block your window.
It’s not unusual to experience ventilator complications if you have yours covered. Some of these complications may consist of any of the following:
High Utility Bills
If you block your air vents with furniture, this could lead to overheating, affecting its function in the home. Blocked vents imply having fewer open vents to perform the same quality of heating or cooling. This would cause your system to run longer to accomplish its task.
The HVAC (heating, ventilator, and air conditioning) is designed to deliver a specific amount of air based on your home size. In other words, no matter the number of vents you have opened, it still produces the same amount of air. It’s always advised that you leave your vents open because covering it could lead to high utility bills.
Also, covering your vents could affect the HVAC as the air has fewer places to reach. This builds up pressure in the duct and leads to leaks. Leaks, in other words, mean energy waste and higher utility bills.
Damage To Your Furniture
Most of the time, our furniture gets damaged too quickly, because we place them too close to a vent. The vent often produces very dry air, which is bad for your precious furniture. Dry air could shrink or dry out some parts of your furniture, like the woods.
When the wood gets too dry, you find out that it gets weak, and the joint may start to break. In most cases, the wood might start to fail or fall out due to exposure to excess dry air.
Condensation, which could result from your vent, can cause your furniture to lose its quality over time. When furniture is placed over or close to a vent, it could gather some droplets of water. These droplets would bring damage to your tables or chairs and, in turn, make you spend more on repairs.
Some woods can hold water more than others, and once the humidity in your environment changes, it could affect your furniture. Therefore, it would be best if you didn’t place furniture close to your vent to avoid damage and extra cost.
Premature Wear Of Your HVAC System
Restriction of airflow in the vent could make the HVAC work longer and harder in summer or winter. Running your vent in such unfavorable conditions for an extended period can cause additional wear on the HVAC system. This damage could add up over time and reduce your vent’s lifespan.
The heat exchanger in your vent can overheat if the airflow is blocked. Also, if your vent is restricted, it could cause the conditioning condenser to freeze up. This is damage that you don’t want to happen to your vent as it’s costly to repair.
A blocked air vent is bad for both the cooling and heating system of the vent. This could cause the coils in the cooling system to freeze. Due to frozen coils, the compressors and other components could also be affected over time.
Your vents should be opened and be free from all restrictions as possible. Unless you want to spend money on repairs, this could break the bank.
Uneven Cooling And Heating
The ventilators in our home are set up in a way that cools and heats in an even manner. However, you would discover that this isn’t always the case once the vent is covered.
If a room has its vents blocked, it will not cool or heat up as quickly as it should. As a result, the room may stay a few degrees hotter than other rooms, as it takes time for the temperature to even out. This temperature change is pretty common in summer or winter.
These are some of the problems we face when our air vents are blocked. Aside from blocking air vents, it would help if you didn’t block any return vents. They’re either in ceilings or walls, but they are usually found on the floor.
Air return vents are more important to leave unobstructed in the house. Most experts recommend leaving at least 10 inches of space around return vents.
Options For Placing Furniture Near Or Over A Vent
There are some cases where placing your furniture near or across your vent won’t cause any damage to it. Some options are not threatening to your furniture or your ventilator. You first have to ensure anything placed over it should be several inches above the vent.
A diverter can come in handy in helping you to divert the airflow from the bottom of your furniture. This is for when you have furniture placed over your vent.
There are various types of converters, and they are made of plastic. These converters are fixed to the ground with double-sided tape. Some use the aid of a magnet to stay glued to metal vents.
These diverters help direct airflow to a different angle than where it came out. Another option for handling vents is to readjust your furniture setting. This option can be used if you feel the vent diverter is too much work or unnecessary.
If you use a sofa with a skirt, you could change it to one that doesn’t. You can also use a shelf that has legs rather than a bookcase that sits on the vent. This option can still give you enough room in case you want to use a diverter.
Should All Vent In The House Be Opened?
Professionals recommend that all vents in the house be opened to balance the airflow throughout the house. If your vents would be closed, try to give some room for airing, and not more than 75% closed. This would help for a better distribution of air to places that need it.
Conclusion
While it’s not safe to cover your vent with furniture, there are some ways you could still handle it. These ways have been discussed above, either through a diverter or using the right furniture. With a bit of ingenuity, you can have the best furniture layout and avoid damaging your furniture or vent.
