When planning your home, you want maximum freedom to place your furniture anywhere you deem fit. You would like the option to create whatever facade best fits your fancy but find you are limited by certain obstructive though necessary factors.
Vents are one such concern and it is tempting to place furniture over vents if for no other reason, to hide them since they add no aesthetic value to your space. This would be very unwise and the recommendation is to never place furniture over or in front of vents.
If vents and air conditioning, in general, were not absolutely necessary for your home, the system would not have been installed and those aesthetically boring vents would not have been affixed into your home. If it was safe to cover them, they would never be installed in the first place.
Can you put furniture over a vent? Reasons You Shouldn’t
You will run into a number of problems if you choose to cover your vents with furniture.
Damage to your Furniture
Depending on what kind of vent you want to cover, the air that should be going into it or coming out of it will have an impact on the furniture you place over it.
If cold dry air should be coming out of the vent to cool your room, then prolonged exposure to that dry cold draft will dry the wood causing it to weaken and crack.
Over time, your couch, for example, will deteriorate in strength and stability forcing you to replace it. In the hotter months, moisture and therefore heat is drawn out of the room into the vents and when this air encounters a block, the moisture is likely to coalesce at the place where the furniture blocks the vent.
The obstructed air also leaves microscopic dirt and dust on your furniture almost as though the furniture acts as a sieve. Mold and mildew will definitely form on your furniture and in the vent. You will sustain damage to both your furniture and your vents.
Placing furniture on vents is simply not worth it.
Damage to your HVAC Unit
Your air conditioning unit functions on a system of balance and placing furniture over vents undoubtedly distorts this balance in the movement of air in and out of your HVAC system.
Air conditioning does not just heat and cool air but also balances out the air pressure in the room.
By detecting the wrong temperatures and air pressure, your HVAC system overworks in an attempt to deliver optimal air conditions. The components get over-taxed trying to cool or heat air causing damage.
If even one of the components, particularly the compressor stops functioning correctly, you will be saddled with expensive and unnecessary repairs or replacements.
Improper Heating and Cooling
The reason for having HVAC systems is to regulate the temperature and pressure of the air in our homes since our bodies can only do so much for us. Vent placement is particularly crucial to get as much balance of temperature and pressure in every room in the house.
By obstructing them with the furniture you effectively prevent the house from reaching optimal living conditions so that in the colder months your house simply cannot provide you with the warmth you badly require and this results in health problems.
In the hotter months, your home will feel like a furnace, becoming uncomfortably hot since the refreshingly cool air cannot efficiently flow all over your house.
Heatwaves are uniquely dangerous as temperatures rise dangerously high very fast and in certain unfortunate instances, damaged HVAC units have been the sole reason fatalities have occurred.
Children especially babies, the elderly, and the unwell can be totally unaware that their bodies are getting hot and often pass out due to the heat making it impossible for them to remove themselves or react to the heat in any way that conveys that they need help.
Blocking vents only creates more vulnerability and danger by distorting the rather reliable air conditioning technology.
The point of finding comfort from the elements within the confines of your home becomes moot. In simple terms, your home will become uninhabitable if the air conditioning malfunctions which is what will happen if you put furniture over your vents.
High Power Bills
As with all electronic devices wear and tear, wrong use, and damage of any kind distorts the functioning of the system causing the parts to run longer and harder than they should. This forces them to consume more energy to achieve the desired results.
Obstructed vents will immediately create an imbalance in the movement of air which will be detected by the air conditioning unit. In an effort to cool or heat the room accordingly, the unit will consume more power and still fail to heat or cool the room.
When the air conditioning unit finally starts to wear and break down, your power bills will go up. There is no upside to placing furniture over or in front of vents.
Finally…
You have the option of simply getting accustomed to seeing those vents and over time it is not likely to matter that they are there. Most people do not notice vents and they are usually neutral in color for this reason.
If you cannot stand their appearance, or if space concerns do not allow you to let the vents occupy such a large area of the room, all is not lost.
There are, some creative ways to camouflage them so that the aesthetic of your home is enhanced and with some creativity and innovation, these DIY projects could be the answer you are looking for.
By changing the front grills of your vents for better-looking covers, you have the option to create a more attractive face for your vent.
In this case, you are free to create or choose whatever design suits your decor whether ornate patterns or simple geometrical shapes, the limit is your imagination.
As long as the new covering still allows the same amount of air to move freely and with the same pressure as the initial covering, you should be fine.
