The Daring Dufas wrote:
willshak wrote:
on 12/11/2009 6:28 PM (ET) The Daring Dufas wrote the following:
willshak wrote:
Just a hint.
In the winter, my air conditioning ducts, with the AC handler in the
uninsulated attic, let in a lot of cold air. Although there are
movable vanes inside the vents that can be shut, usually with a
screwdriver, they are not airtight. So how do I stop the air
infiltration? They sell magnetic covers for the metal vents, but
what about plastic vent plates which I have? I used to cover my
plastic vent plates with pieces of plastic wrap that I taped on. It
was time consuming trying to hold the thin floppy plastic film and
tape it on at the same time. In the last couple of years though, I
use the Contact Paper type of self sticking plastic shelf covering.
Just cut it to size, peel the paper off to reveal the adhesive, and
stick the plastic to the vent plate. I use the white kind so it
hides the vent vanes, leaving the whole plate white, but that's only
a matter of aesthetics, the clear kind, or any of the various colors
and patterned types, work as well.
Don't forget the AC return vents too.



You could always use that flexible ferrite magnetic strip
material cut to length to hold your covers on.

TDD

You missed the part where I said "Plastic" vent plates.


Uh, duh, put strips of the magnetic material on the other side
of the vents. The magical magnetic rays will go right through
plastic.

TDD
When radiant floor or ceiling heat was briefly popular, and even today
for people with old-style radiators, they used the little hi-pressure AC
duct systems. Those outlets usually came with little O-ringed plastic
plugs you could pop in the round holes to shut them off.

In OP's case, I'd either change the vent covers to metal so a magnetic
cover would work, or find some clear or color-matched velcro dots, and
fabricate gasketed covers that would stick to the velcro in cold
weather. One dot at each corner should be plenty- the covers can be very
thin, and the thin foam self-stick stuff applied to the back of the
covers would make an adequate air seal. Basically like how they used to
attach the the front grilles to stereo speakers, back when stereos had
speakers in wood boxes. Most sewing/craft/hobby stores have velcro, in a
wide variety of colors. Overpriced, but you won't need much.

--
aem sends...