Unused Rooms: Keep Doors Open or Closed?

Find out whether you should keep doors in your house open or closed when they are not in use. Learn whether or not this will impact the efficiency of your heating and cooling systems.

LESLIE: Rick in Texas has a cooling question. What can we do for you today?

RICK: Hello. Yes, me and my wife have a three-bedroom home; it’s 2,100 square feet.

TOM: OK.

RICK: And it’s just me and her and the extra two bedrooms we don’t use. And I was wondering, on the registers, if I should keep those open or closed. We keep the extra bedroom doors closed also and I don’t want to waste energy by heating or cooling the rooms that we’re not in.

TOM: (overlapping voices) Right. Sure. Right. As long as they don’t get too damp, especially in the summertime. We don’t want mold to grow in there. But you can turn the registers off and, actually, more efficient than that is to find the damper. In the duct system, usually there’s a damper somewhere in line and you’ll have a handle that is on the side of the duct and if the handle is parallel with the duct it’s open; if it’s perpendicular, it’s closed. You may be able to control the flow more efficiently that way.

RICK: Alright, well thank you very much. That should do it.

TOM: You’re very welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.