Austin Heating And Air

Adjust Your HVAC Dampers to Keep Your Entire Home Comfy All Year

If you’re like most homeowners, you’ve cussed at your HVAC system a time or two because it just seems so inconsistent. Maybe your living room feels perfectly cozy in the winter—but your nose is numb when you wake up in the morning. Or your kids complain about their room being sooooo hoooooot in July—but you’re walking around the rest of the house in a hoodie. Super frustrating, right? Fortunately, there’s a relatively quick solution: Simply adjust your HVAC dampers.

What Is An HVAC Damper?

As you’re likely aware, each room of your home has at least one HVAC vent in the floor or ceiling. They’re usually covered by registers that have louvres you can adjust to control air flow. Many homeowners try to deal with their too-hot-too-cold situation by closing some registers. That’s an OK approach, but it’s not the most efficient way to balance airflow overall. Dampers are.

HVAC dampers, like this one, have an external lever that controls a metal plate inside the duct. By turning the lever, you rotate the plate, which allows more or less air to flow through that specific duct. Because dampers are located near your HVAC unit itself, rather than at the end of runs like registers are, they provide a more efficient way to redirect heated or cooled air to exactly where you want it.

Finding Your HVAC Dampers

Not all homes have dampers. If you have a premium HVAC system with “zoned heating and cooling,” your dampers are automatically controlled by your unit. (Score!) If you don’t have a premium system, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have them, though. Unfortunately, many new home builders opt out of installing dampers to save costs. (Boooooo!)

There’s no way to know without looking, so head to your furnace and first locate the main ducts leaving the unit. If you have dampers, you’ll find them on those runs, within a few feet of the unit itself. If you don’t have them, as Austin HVAC experts, we’d be happy to talk about how to reconfigure your system to add them.

Adjusting Your HVAC Dampers

To properly adjust your HVAC dampers, follow these steps:

  1. Turn your fan to the ON position: If you don’t have a fan setting, adjust your thermostat so the system runs constantly as you follow these steps.
  2. Open every damper all the way: Usually, that means turning the lever so it’s pointed in the same direction as the duct.
  3. Open every register in every room of your house: Now the air is moving completely uninhibited through the entire system.
  4. Determine which duct serves which rooms: From your main unit, follow each duct as far as you can before it disappears. This will give you a general idea of which rooms it serves. Then, close the damper on each duct—one at a time—and verify which rooms are affected. (You’ll be able to tell because even with the registers wide open, there will be little to no airflow.) When you’re certain where each duct leads, label it.
  5. Make initial adjustments: Now that you know which duct serves which rooms, it’s time to start adjusting your dampers. Remember, when the damper lever is pointing in the same direction as the duct, it’s completely open. The closer the lever is to be perpendicular to the duct, the less air flows through. Since we’re heading into the cold-weather season, let’s adjust your dampers to maximize your heat. As you may recall from second-grade science lessons, hot air rises. So, you’ll want to adjust your dampers to provide less airflow upstairs and more airflow downstairs—because the warm air will naturally rise. In the summer, you’ll want to do the opposite. (If you have a one-story home, simply adjust the dampers to provide more warm/cool air to the rooms you use most often.) Once you have your initial adjustments made, turn your system back to auto, and let it do its thing.
  6. Monitor and adjust again: Allow your system to work for a couple of days, and then check the comfort level of each room. Adjust the dampers again if necessary, wait for a couple of days, and assess your progress. Rinse and repeat until every room feels comfy. We should mention this: Make small adjustments. You know how when some people come home to a coolish house in the winter, they crank their thermostat to 87 degrees, thinking somehow it’ll warm up faster? (It won’t.) Don’t be that guy. And don’t completely close any of your dampers or you’ll be disappointed with the results. Make more, small adjustments and you’ll save yourself some frustration in the long run.
  7. Label the damper position: When you have your system balanced to your maximum comfort level, mark the position of the damper right on the duct. That way, you won’t have to go through this whole experiment again next year.
  8. When you switch from heat to air conditioning, adjust your dampers again: Don’t give in to the temptation to just set your dampers opposite from where they are in cold weather and call it good. You might find you prefer a particular duct mostly closed in both the summer and winter. So, go through your initial adjustments, monitor, and adjust again—as many times as it takes to make you happy. Then, mark your summer damper position right on the duct.

It takes a bit of patience and time to adjust your dampers, but it’s worth it, in the long run, to maximize your unit’s efficiency and feel comfortable in your home year-round. And if adjusting your dampers doesn’t solve your heating and cooling inconsistencies, schedule a service call. You deserve a comfy home. We can help!

Eddie
2023-10-04
From the get go, Kassidy was excellent in scheduling options and even managed to snag me an earlier time slot than previous discussed. She took the time to reach out and confirm. A major shout out to Jamie and Carlo—talk about pros. They were excellent on providing education and explaining the why behind my duct issues. This was the initial inspection and I’ll make sure to leave details once the work is completed.
Jose Carlos Rodriguez
2023-09-25
Awesome
Eric Corum
2023-09-25
Very professional, great communicators, and very thorough.
Agustin Hernandez
2023-09-21
Todo muy profesional desde que hablé para pedir información la Srita que me atendió muy amable y el técnico que vino a mi casa también muy amable y profesional resolvió todas mis dudas 100% recomendable
Cindi Taylor
2023-09-14
What an amazing team of people! I came home from vacation and my house was hot. It was hot outside- Austin in the summer hot. I spoke with Petra and she was able to get a technician out within a couple of hours. That in itself is quite a feat given it was after 1:30pm. Jaime Ortega was dispatched and came to check the system. This guy has great customer service skills! He is a is very respectful, polite, communicate well, explains what is going on and is very thorough. He was joined by Carlos, who is also very polite, considerate and knowledgeable. These guys make a really great team. I was told there were several problems and I explained I had been trying to deal with one side of my house not working properly and the other side never getting cool in the summer and warm in the winter. My electric bills over the last 2 months were unsustainable. They went into the attic and traced down all the ductwork, discovered some of it had been installed incorrectly and they formulated a solution. It was also decided by me to replace the entire AC system. By the time this was decided, it was well after 6:30pm. I asked when we would be able to get this to happen and they said - tomorrow! They showed up on time and regretably I did not get the 3rd team member's name- and he deserves a shout out too. They worked for more than 8 hours in that horrible heat- got the system installed and everything cleaned up, packed up, and left the space better than they found it. I really appreciate skilled professionals that respect someone's home and who take the time to talk with me and let me know what is going on, what they are finding and how to take care of my investment. I have chosen for several years to be part of their maintenance membership plan and I have never been disappointed- even when I have an unexpected event - like a system failure while on vacation. I have had the privilege of meeting one of the owners, talking with the administrative staff, and 3 technicians that are really awesome people. These guys care about the quality of work they perform and they work to keep their customers happy. No wonder they have such great reviews! I am very happy with the service I received, the way I was treated and the value they bring to their industry. Keep up the good work! I will certainly tell everyone I know to call you when they need help. Perfect name too- GRANDE AIR SOLUTIONS!!!
Lourdes Alonso
2023-09-09
A/C stopped working on a Friday night and Isael came out within the hour and got it working. He was really knowledgeable and showed us other areas to keep an eye on. He stayed long enough to make sure the system was lowering the temperature in the house.
Sascha Rips
2023-09-09
Our A/C went out late in the day on a Friday. Grande Air was able to get us in Friday evening and got our A/C up and running in just a short time. Prices were also very reasonable even though it was a weekend evening. We will definitely use them again for future A/C needs.
Kiersten Legge
2023-09-07
Jaime was AWESOME!!! Professional and let us know each step he was taking in diagnosis and repair. Love Grande!!!!!

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