If your home has central air, you’re undoubtedly aware of various vents placed around your home.  However, do you know the different functions of those vents, and how to help ensure your central air is always running at peak efficiency?  This can make a big difference to the climate control in your house, and also to your electric bill!

Here are a few things that any homeowner should know about the air vents in their home.

Supply Vents vs. Return Vents

A bit like the blood vessels in our body, the vents, and ductwork in your home generally only work one-way.  Some vents – the supply vents – are the ones that blow conditioned air into your home.  Others – the return vents – pull in air to recirculate it through your HVAC system.

A well-designed HVAC system will be balanced so that roughly as much airflow goes both ways.  However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll have the same number of supply and return vents.  Return vents are almost always larger than supply vents.  Sometimes there are multiple return vents, but just as often, there’ll be a single very large return vent.

In particular, if you only have one return vent, be careful to never allow it to become obstructed by objects such as furniture!  If it cannot properly draw in air, your central air will struggle to function properly.

Grilles vs. Registers

The other important thing to know about your home’s ductwork and vents is the difference between grilles (or grills) and registers.  

When a vent has a grille, it has a single fixed covering – such as slats – over the vent.  Grilles are generally only there to prevent large objects from slipping into the vent.  Return vents usually, but not always, have grilles on them.

Registers are like grilles, except they can be manually opened and closed with a nearby lever or wheel.  This is more commonly seen on supply vents so that you can adjust the amount or direction of the airflow.  However, you should avoid fully closing these vents too often, or else it could throw the home’s airflow out of balance.

Vent Cleaning Is Important for HVAC Systems in Surrey

The other important thing to know about your vents is that periodic air vent cleaning in Surrey is a must!  Otherwise, they’ll blow dirty air, or become clogged up with debris.  To keep your vents and ducts in Surrey clean, contact MAS Duct Cleaning Services.