Hi,

I am a new home owner trying to find ways to reduce my heat bills. I have a forced air heating system.
My home is open house model with two three stories and two heat zones.
The first floor has the kitchen and living room(thermostat)
The second floor has two bed rooms(The thermostat is in the master bedroom)
There is a loft (this seems to have a vent - where heated air comes out)

Now my question is we have one used bedroom. DO you think it would save heating bills if we close the room and close the furnace register(My understanding of a furnace register is it is a grille which blows out hot air).

I appreciate your responses.

OK closing the register will slow down the supply but you'll need to see if there is a return register in the room. Returns aren't closeable so you'll need to cover it with a plastic cleaners bag or something. You did not mention the types of stats you use but I get some programmable stats and have them set lower during sleep hours and also at times in the day when everyone may be at school or work. I would also set the fan on all stats to FAN ON rather than FAN AUTO and have your occupied temp 1 or 2 degrees lower than normal. The air will now always be moving in your home and not get layered when warm rises and cool falls. Increased electric cost of running the fan 24/7 is negligible.

I`m not sold on closing off heat to unused bedrooms,is it furnished?don`t know where you live but,closed off vents can cause furnaces to not work correctly sometimes. Now the attic,, that's different,, wondering why it would have a heat vent going into it,, you could close it off with no probs.the programmed stats will save you $ if used correctly,especially in heat mode,in a/c season,is a different storygo through and tripple inspect for drafts,from the outside, they are big prbs.

I believe the poster was desvricbing a loft area like a cathedral ceiling not an attic. Lofts need heat registers and more importantly a return vent. Actually closing off one room in a house has no negative effect on the furnace. The same volume of air will still circulate within the house but at a slightly increased velocity.

It will not save you money by shuting off the vents in the extra bedroom That zone should have been sized to carry the load of the system. When you start shutting down registers in one zone the system can not move the air it needs to, in result tripping limits and strain on the system.