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Heating & Air Conditioning

Can I add a vent from furnace room to bedroom?

13 years ago

My lower level has a bedroom with windows that faces North. It can be quite cold. Right behind this bedroom is my workshop/furnace room. It's VERY warm, so much so I often open the door to let heat out to the rest of the basement. Could I cut a vent at the top of the wall between the bedroom and the furnace room? I could easily but a grate over it. Is this ok. It seems like a waste to have all that heat in a room that's not really used and have the bedroom be so cold. There is some heat but not enough coming through the forced air register into the bedroom.

Thanks.

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Comments (3)

david_cary
13 years ago
Obviously you could cut a vent in the top of the wall.

Here are some of the issues. The furnace is presumably combusting a fuel - the result of this is carbon dioxide and some amount of carbon monoxide. Now most of this is carried away by a chimney of some fashion. But some of it may not be.

I would suspect that in most jurisdictions, this would be a code violation.

Now the flip side of all this is that the same thing is done all the time to provide air for combustion in the furnace. I'm not sure that it is ever done in a bedroom however.

My immediate thought is that this is not an ideal situation with a problem room so close to the furnace. So I doubt the furnace is ideal - so I'd be concerned about the products of combustion. The right answer of course is to get more forced air into the room.

And another thing... A furnace room shouldn't be particularly hot. It is another red flag that there is a problem that shouldn't be ignored.

I live in a new house and my furnace room in a basement is really not warm. It is a 90% eff NG furnace. One would think that it would be warm but it really isn't.

I suspect you have duct issues creating a large leak. That makes your room cold and the furnace room hot.
dancingqueengw
Original Author
13 years ago
Thank you David. I suspect you are correct. I've had multiple heating people in here because one half of my house is cold and the other too warm. I live in Minnesota so it's an issue. I was told to just run my fan constantly. I have a vent that cannot be closed where the furnace ductwork goes out from the furnace to the rest of the house. This is in the furnace room and is why it's so darn warm in there. Can I close that off? I think that would let more heat go out to the rest of the vents.

I really appreciate your feedback and warnings.
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david_cary
13 years ago
There opinion was really to just run the fan all the time? While that often helps, it seems like the better option would be to fix the problem. But fixing it might be quite difficult.

Closing vents always has the potential to cause problems. If there is not enough heat flow away from the furnace from closed vents, then there could be overheating. I would think that if closing a vent was a reasonable option, then someone would have suggested that.

I live in the South where the systems are sized to a/c so furnaces usually have more than adequate vents. But I like to sleep in the cold (so I closed the bedroom vents) and had some overheating from closed vents. It wasn't a safety issue but it wasn't good for the equipment.

That being said, if there is adequate ducting so that you can block a vent, it might help. But all things point to inadequate ductwork so closing might be an issue.

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