Should You Leave Your Doors Open In The Winter To Stay Warmer? Here's The Truth

During frigid winter months, you might be wondering how to keep your home warmer without driving up your utility bill. Oftentimes, people believe that shutting doors to unused rooms will keep the heat where they want it and will be an eco-friendly heating tip to save money during the winter, but this isn't typically the case. While shutting doors to certain rooms may temporarily keep some areas warmer or colder, depending on your heating system, this simple practice could end up straining your HVAC system and costing you more for heat.

Homes that have central return vents are designed for the air and heat to circulate throughout the entire house. When an interior door is shut, the air gets stuck in the room, causing pressure to build up. This, in turn, puts unnecessary stress on your heating system, possibly making it run longer and heat less effectively. To ensure your home stays warmer in the winter without potentially harming your HVAC system, it's best to keep interior doors open so that the warm air can move easily through your house. Allowing the air to circulate through different rooms should help balance upstairs and downstairs temperatures to always stay comfy.

It's also important to keep your bedroom and bathroom doors open, or at least not tightly closed, to allow air to reach the return vent and circulate throughout your home. Keeping certain doors closed will cause those rooms to become colder if there's no vent. By keeping the door shut, you're likely throwing off the balance of the temperature in your home, leading to certain areas becoming too cold; however, this isn't the case with every heating system.

If your home has return vents in various rooms rather than one or two central return vents, keeping the doors shut shouldn't have much of an impact on your heating. Since the warm air is still able to circulate between rooms because they each have their own return vents, shutting doors won't stress your HVAC system, and temperatures should remain consistent. With zoned heating systems, you can control and vary the temperature in different rooms without causing any extra stress. For those with central return vents, though, keeping doors open is the best way to ensure your HVAC system is running properly and the warm air is moving throughout your home. By leaving your doors open, you can say goodbye to winter chills with this home hack.