Luke and I have been trying to make our house more efficient to both save money and the environment. We don’t have tons of extra money for upgrades right now, so we’ve been doing our best to make do with what we have. Two cheap things we did this last month was clean the floor vents and tape the floor vents. This allows more air conditioned air to make it into the rooms.
First I took off all the vent covers and vacuumed the cover and part of the duct work that I could reach. A lot of vents were partially blocked by dust and animal fur:
A quick vacuum later:
While cleaning these out, I noticed a lot of the duct work wasn’t reaching/connected to the floor, meaning a lot of our expensive cooled air was being shot into the interstitial spaces between the floors, rather than into the room. These are the three in the kitchen, which were the worst offenders:
Luke picked up foil HVAC tape (not regular duct tape.) I think it’s 3M HVAC Tape. I taped the top of the duct to the bottom of the floor tiles. Now all that cool air should shoot straight into the rooms:
The biggest culprit of inefficiency was the duct near the door. At some point it must have come unattached and was not aligned with the vent anymore:
After cleaning, adjusting, and taping:
I did learn the reason this one was crooked is because the vent cover pushes onto the ductwork. The first time I put the vent cover back on, I actually detached the ductwork. So, being extra careful, I readjusted, re-taped, and gently got the cover into place.
This wasn’t the most exciting project, but it has made a noticeable difference in the temperature of the house. Along with a couple other HVAC projects I’ve done this last month, our house no longer feels uncomfortably warm, even when outdoor temperatures are hovering in the nineties. Plus, all in, it cost less than $20.
Team Dream Work 