Learn from the pros. Read and watch home improvement articles and videos.

Featured Article

Getting the Most from Your Vent Covers provided by ServiceMagic.com.

Despite the increasing alternatives, forced air heating and cooling systems are still the most popular way to heat and cool homes today. Of course, the only way to get the heated or chilled air from the ventilation ducts into the living areas of your home is through air vents. These vents are necessary to allow your heating and cooling system to work, but that doesn't mean homeowners love to look at them. First, they're often a pretty bad eye sore. Secondly, even adjustable vents aren't always particularly effective at redirecting air to the rooms where you really want to raise or lower the temperature. New vent covers are the cheapest and easiest way to create an airtight seal on vents or to spruce up the look of the unattractive metal grates.

Basic Vent Covers
For safety and appearances, vents need to have some sort of cover over them. Even basic vent covers tend to have slats that help move the air out and away from the vent to fill your home. They can be painted to match your walls, floors, and ceilings, but since basic vent covers are designed to be permanently held in place they can't wallpapered or carpeted. It's usually impractical to have both floor and ceiling vents, making one season of heating or cooling less efficient than another. Most people know that warm air rises and cold air sinks. This makes it difficult for floor vents to uniformly cool your house in the summer and for ceiling vents to uniformly warm your house in the winter. Movable air deflectors can help redirect your air as it exits your vents and are cheap vent accessories.

Share
Advertisement

Article Library

Ventilating Your Home

Keeping your home well ventilated cuts your air conditioning bill considerably. Story >

Insulating Your Home

It seems like no one gave much thought to insulating their home before the Story >

Air Conditioner Check-Up

Any time is better than never, but spring is the ideal time to budget Story >

Ventilation is Key to Roof Lifespan

More than ever, homeowners are frustrated by poor-performing roofing products, especially when a new Story >

Whole House Fans

You know you want to make your air conditioning system more energy-efficient, but the Story >

Forced Air Heating Systems

One of the most common central heating systems, forced-air heating systems are present in Story >

Attic Fans Cool Entire Home

During the hot summer months, attic temperatures can reach up to 160 degrees, and Story >

Warm up with a Garage Heater

Garage heaters are an excellent product for combating cold garages and workshops during the Story >

Proper Attic Insulation: An Issue of Heating/Cooling Costs and Air Quality

Insulating systems are designed to control moisture, reduce the movement of heat, and assure Story >

Increase Attic Ventilation with Soffit Vents

Attic ventilation is important to your home for a number of reasons. For Story >

Vent Your Attic with a Solar Attic Fan

Having a properly vented attic keeps your home cooler, your utility bills lower (since Story >

Protecting Your Home with Roof Vents

The relationship between the roof and attic is one that many homeowners don't understand. Story >

Getting the Most from Your Vent Covers

Despite the increasing alternatives, forced air heating and cooling systems are still the most Story >

Hot Water and Steam Radiators: The Heat is On

Hot water and steam radiator systems have been used in many colder climates Story >

Think Green when it Comes to Residential Heating

There's a revolution happening in home heating systems that is directly tied to the Story >


Tip Of the Week

To keep a water pipe from freezing, let the faucet drip water slightly to maintain water flow.

Sign up for FREE Tip of the Week e-mails!

Sign Up!

Advertisement

Home Service Providers

Find local home services providers and contractors to help you with your home improvement needs and projects.

Please select a location:

- OR -

Advertisement