When researching heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC) services, you may come across air balancing. It’s a common service for both residential and commercial HVAC systems. Whether you have a standard HVAC system consisting of an air conditioner and a furnace, or if you have a heat pump, you might want to consider an air balancing service.
What is Air Balancing?
Air balancing is a comprehensive, multi-step service that lives up to its namesake by balancing the flow of conditioned air throughout a home or building. Conditioned air, of course, comes from a single source: the HVAC system. During the summer, your home’s HVAC system will create cool air at the condenser unit. The cool and newly conditioned air will then enter your home’s ductwork before being distributed throughout your home’s living spaces.
Some of the conditioned air produced by your home’s HVAC system, however, may not reach all of your home’s living spaces. Certain rooms may feel cool during the summer, whereas other rooms may feel warm or less cool. Problems involving the unequal distribution of conditioned air can often be fixed with air balancing. Air balancing is designed to optimize an HVAC system so that all living spaces receive an equal amount of conditioned air.
How Air Balancing Works
Air balancing typically begins with a thorough inspection of your home’s HVAC system. An HVAC technician will inspect all of the HVAC system’s components. From there, he or she may recommend solutions to ensure the equal distribution of conditioned air.
Insulating ducts, for instance, can help with air balancing. When poorly insulated, air ducts will leak thermal energy. If there’s an area of your home’s ductwork with little or no insulation, it may cause balancing issues with the living spaces to which that area is connected. Adding more insulation to the ductwork will fix this problem while providing a more equal distribution of conditioned air.
Installing new vents can also help with air balancing. If a particular room in your home is getting less conditioned air than the other rooms, the HVAC technician may install one or more new supply vents in that room.
With that said, installing new vents isn’t always needed. In some cases, adjusting the existing vents in your home can fix air balancing problems. If the supply vents in a room are closed, the room will receive less conditioned air than rooms with open supply vents.
