Vents that don't pull as much heat or air conditioning?

[mommyoffive]

Does anyone have a vent like this that doesn't pull as much heat or ac?  What did you do about it to fix it? 

Do register booster fans work?

Amazon.com: AC Infinity AIRTAP T4, Quiet Register Booster Fan with Thermostat Control. Heating Cooling AC Vent. Fits 4” x 10” Register Holes.: Kitchen & Dining

[Katy]

We have one, I’m sure it’s because of where it’s located (the vent is routed beneath the room through an unheated garage), I haven’t tried to fix it other than making sure it was open. Interested to learn about vent fans too.

In a previous house there was a vent shut off system in the basement.  We wouldn’t have found it except the home inspector pointed it out. It took some experimenting to figure out how to get them all open at once.  No idea why you’d choose an expensive system when you could just put a magnet over the vents in the room you want shut off. 

[Amy in NH]

3 hours ago, Katy said:

In a previous house there was a vent shut off system in the basement.  We wouldn’t have found it except the home inspector pointed it out. It took some experimenting to figure out how to get them all open at once.  No idea why you’d choose an expensive system when you could just put a magnet over the vents in the room you want shut off. 

They are not meant to all be fully open.  They are meant to even out the airflow by being left in various partially opened and closed positions.

Airflow through ducts is subject to some crazy mathematical formulas based on the length of the duct run, the diameter of duct pipes and vent sizes, the number of angle-duct pipes in the run and their angles, where on the run they are off of the main duct, etc.  Air systems also need to have the correct amount of return air in order to operate at full efficiency.  It's a lot of variables, and probably requires a professional to look at it to make recommendations.

[Katy]

57 minutes ago, Amy in NH said:

They are not meant to all be fully open.  They are meant to even out the airflow by being left in various partially opened and closed positions.

Airflow through ducts is subject to some crazy mathematical formulas based on the length of the duct run, the diameter of duct pipes and vent sizes, the number of angle-duct pipes in the run and their angles, where on the run they are off of the main duct, etc.  Air systems also need to have the correct amount of return air in order to operate at full efficiency.  It's a lot of variables, and probably requires a professional to look at it to make recommendations.

Maybe, but the problem in that house was that the main living areas were super open across a couple stories, clear to the basement. So it was easily 15 degrees warmer in the living room than in the basement family room on a hot day, and the bedrooms got no AC at all.  Like in the basement it was 62, and in the nursery it was 92 one day. I didn’t realize my baby monitor had an unsafe temperature warning until that day.  We opened the vents in the basement, replaced bedroom lights with ceiling fans, and propped doors open during the day and that helped a bit. The house was built in the 1950’s and clearly remodeled a few times. I’m guessing the hvac was redone in the 1970’s when one widow lived there, and the plan was opened up in the late 1990’s based on design choices.