Who is right?

It really depends on how many zones you can control.
Typically blocking off area’s will reduce the need for heating these areas.
How many Zones do you have which is typically related to how many thermostats you have?

Hey, Dutch. Are you doing okay?

Not living by his old rules doesn’t make him less here with you. Change the thermostat. And chuckle about it with him tonight when you’re dreaming.

[hugs]

In your case, I think you demonstrated with evidence that you were right.

As @Forever_Free wrote, it depends on the specifics. But you’re right that if you can focus heat where you are using it, you’ll use less energy.

Rick would be right if you were talking about blocking off rooms using doors where you weren’t able to also block the heat vents. If you do THAT, then you tend to get very hot unused rooms (which of course is a waste) AND you block the circulation of heated air through the house (which is where Rick’s HVAC training/doctrine comes in). The hope of HVAC design is that by circulating heated air through the house, you can spread the heat from overheated rooms (usually the higher spaces) throughout the house.

So it depends on what actually happens.

It’s somewhat complicated. Yes blocking off areas will save on your utility bills. You’re correct there. Rick was absolutely correct when he said that it needed to be open for the unit to run efficiently. Closing it off at the vents and rooms effectively makes your unit oversized and that will cause it to cycle on and off more. That causes premature wear. This is a “you’re both right” (or wrong) but for different reasons scenario.

I have one thermostat in the living rom @foreverfree and all.

Thanks @raum. But that discussion would just lead to an argument!
Hell he got pissy when I turned the thermostat down at night when everyone had blankets and WE had a heated waterbed! He didn’t want to be chilly for those few seconds it took to go the the BR and pee!

Thanks. I just wondered if it actually hurt something.

Turning it down at night is often a wash too. It takes more run time to bring the whole house up to temp in the morning than if you just maintained it by running it all night. Any energy savings there highly depends on the construction of your house. That can go either way

It has worked in every house Ive lived in. Some well insulated, some barely insulated,
Sure it takes longer to warm the house up in the morning, but it’s not a wash.

In that case, here’s my fodder for this discussion.

It depends on what you mean by efficient. If you mean which will heat the necessary areas for the least amount of money, you’re right. If you mean which will create the ideal environment for the heater to do the job it’s designed to do, then Rick was most likely right—but depends on the flow of your house. :)

@Dutchess_III Not always the case. It has just worked for you each time. My previous house it did not and it was better to keep it running (small house on a slab), it does with our current house (split foyer) so we program it to be lower at night when we are asleep under the covers.

As a side note, I just paid a little over $10K I did not have to get a new system when ours finally gave up the ghost this year (bad compressor and cracked heat exchanger). Cycling it less often would have likely extended its life several years. Long-term money savings are more than just your monthly heating bill when it’s all said and done.

@raum…. But “comfort” is a luxury when you’re poor, when you have other options like layering your clothes. Drinking hot water (coffee is nasty.)
I’m anxious to see our gas bill!
I had started transferring the bills to Rick. In the process of transferring them back.

Update. At present I bascically live in a recliner in my bed room, with a 52” flat screen and a bed, which is littered with animals.
It opens into my living room, where the thermostat is.
I close my bedroom door. My room stays much warmer than the rest of the house.

Now that I think about it, I also keep the bathroom door and the utility door closed. Ergo I’m only heating the living room, kitchen, and dining room.
Those three rooms are cooler than my bedroom, but the bathroom and utility rooms are REALLY cold.
Why are they not staying warm, like my bedroom?

So you have one thermostat that controls that space. I should have also asked, What kind of heat (forced air, baseboard forced Hot Water, or electric baseboard). I left off steam radiator :)

I don’t understand what “baseboard forced Hot Water“or what “electric baseboards” could be so I go with door #3 and say forced air. The duct works are overhead.
Yes, 1 thermostat that controls the entire house.
Why would my bedroom stay the warmest with the doors closed, but the other two I have blocked off get freezing cold?

@Dutchess_III Where your vents are, your insulation in those rooms and what Rick said about keeping them open.

My old house the pipes to my bathroom would freeze if we left the door closed in winter and it got down into the teens for more than a day. That did not happen if we left it open. I found missing insulation when I opened the wall up to repair it when it finally ruptured (copper).

My current house my office gets uncomfortably hot if I leave the door shut. It sits over the hot water heater and furnace in the garage below with no insulation between the two floors. The garage itself is insulated and stays as warm as the rest of the house.

House on slab. Built 1950.

My room has 0 insulation at the moment . 2 exterior walls. I’d say it’s 12×10. 2 vents. Door closed. Warmest room in the house.

Bathroom is 9×8. Rick got it insulated. 2 exterior walls. 1 vent. Door closed. Stays freezing. Vent not blocked because there is no register cover right now. Stays freezing.

Utility room is 15×17. 1 exterior wall, 0 insulation. 1 vent.

I just noticed that the register in the utility room is right by the uninsulated exterior wall.

I mean, there are a lot of factors. Is there abasement? where do the rooms sit in relation to the attic? Are you sure there is no insulation in certain rooms? How close is the room in proximity to the furnace and/or water heater. How does the sun affect the climate in your house etc.. When you close off rooms, it creates a bit of a microclimate in them. Differences are to be expected. Sometimes it will defy logic

It’s a slab.

Attic covers whole house, all rooms.

Yes I am SURE there is no insulation in the rooms mentioned.

Furnace is in the closet in my room.

The insulated dining room faces south. South wall has new double French doors. They are a blast furnace in the summer! I throw a sheet up for now. But we’re in wintertime and no blast furnace and no sheet.

Kitchen 1 exterior wall, no insulation.

Also, just evicted racoons from attic. Racoons not insulated.

Yeah, some of it it kinda defies logic so that’swhy I brung it to you guys.
But it keeps the costs down the way I do it.

“Furnace is in the closet in my room.”

I believe this is your answer. Two vents and a short run. Most of the warm air is going to disproportionally end up in your room.

Ah! That makes sense! I wondered about the furnace but couldn’t puzzle it out till you said “vent run.”
So it’s warmest when it hits my vents, but has cooled down some when it gets to the rest of the rooms.

Happy now.

But…but…RACOONS! Freaking party animals.

Yes, that and there is more resistance to airflow in the further runs. You’re getting the hottest air at a greater flow rate. You can try shutting off one or even both vents if you want it to heat more evenly.

It’s perfect as it is.