A home's central heating system consists of a furnace or heat pump that has a series of ducts extending into each room of the home. These ducts terminate in registers that diffuse warm air into the interior living area. Heating registers have a variety of installation locations, but often are placed in ceilings, especially in basement rooms. Blocking the heat registers in unused rooms of the home can reduce the overall home heating cost.
Instructions
1. Walk into the room where you want to close off the registers and place a step stool or a chair under a ceiling register. Climb up onto the chair and locate the metal arm that regulates the internal metal damper. The arm is either at the side or in the center, depending on the register style. Move the arm until you see the inner metal damper lay flat over the grill and you can no longer see inside the duct.
2. Measure the width and the length of the ceiling register using a tape measure.
3. Climb down and open a package of magnetic vent covers. Remove one cover and place it onto a table with the white side facing up. Draw an outline of the register on top of the cover using the tape measure and a pencil.
4. Cut along the pencil line using standard household scissors to trim the cover to the proper size. If the cover is already the proper size, skip this step.
5. Step back up on the chair or step stool and hold the cover so the white side faces down toward the floor. Center the cover over the ceiling register and raise it upward until it snaps into place over the register.
6. Look carefully at the register to ensure that there are no cracks or gaps along the sides and reposition it if needed.
Tags: , metal damper, proper size, step stool, tape measure, using tape, using tape measure