Hi,
I have 1 year old ranch style house with a crawl space instead of a
basement. The only thing down there is the furnace.

There are ventilation vents for this crawl space, and I wonder if these
should be left open or closed. Should they be open part of the year, closed
other times?

Thanks

I have thermostatically controlled vents on my house for the crawlspace.

I did have one left open for combustion air for my furnace, but went with
sealed combustion. Now they're all controlled.

"Chopper" wrote in message
link.net...
Hi,
I have 1 year old ranch style house with a crawl space instead of a
basement. The only thing down there is the furnace.

There are ventilation vents for this crawl space, and I wonder if these
should be left open or closed. Should they be open part of the year,
closed
other times?

Thanks

They are their to reduce moisture. Moisture does not go away in the
winter. They should be open all year to prevent moisture build up and help
prevent mold and rot.

--
Joseph E. Meehan

26 + 6 = 1 It's Irish Math


"Chopper" wrote in message
link.net...
Hi,
I have 1 year old ranch style house with a crawl space instead of a
basement. The only thing down there is the furnace.

There are ventilation vents for this crawl space, and I wonder if these
should be left open or closed. Should they be open part of the year,
closed
other times?

Thanks

This may surprise some: open in winter, closed in summer. Rationale: in
winter, warm air and it's humidity will move from the crawl space out. In
summer, closed vents will prevent warm air and it's humidity from moving into
the cooler space.

Ed

In article , "Joseph Meehan"
wrote:
They are their to reduce moisture. Moisture does not go away in the
winter. They should be open all year to prevent moisture build up and help
prevent mold and rot.


Thanks,

Ed

================================================
Ed Siff Computing Consultant
Library Systems CB# 3946
Academic Affairs Libraries UNC-Chapel Hill
919.962.1288
================================================

"Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin' ship" -Dylan

"Chopper" wrote in message hlink.net...
Hi,
I have 1 year old ranch style house with a crawl space instead of a
basement. The only thing down there is the furnace.

There are ventilation vents for this crawl space, and I wonder if these
should be left open or closed. Should they be open part of the year, closed
other times?

Thanks

Vents in crawl spaces are supposed to allow air movement to remove the
moisture that comes from the ground. Add the need for cumbustion air
and the vents should stay at least partly open.
You may have a particularly good vapor barrier in place. You may have
particularly dry soil conditions. You may have particularly good
insulation at floor level. You may have a very mild winter. I would
suggest using the Building Science Corporation web site to look at
your particular conditions. I'm not affiliated and think it sometimes
overstates its opinon, but it is one place you can find researched
information based on climate.

TB