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Heating & Air Conditioning

Location of return air register

15 years ago

I am replacing a 5 ton HP in a two story house with the second story covering half of the first floor and having a 15' X 7' opening onto a front two story entry hall. Currently there are two 20 X 25 returns - one in the ceiling of the entry hall and one in a first floor dining room. Two contractors have suggested adding another return. One suggested adding it to the 2nd story ( which will involve a difficult installation) and the other to a 1st floor office which will be an easy installation. My question: is it the amount of return air or is the location of the registers that is the paramount consideration?

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Comments (2)

paulbm
15 years ago
to properly move the air in and out of a room you need return air in all bed rooms, office, living rm. All rooms except bath, utility, If you have both heat and air, you should have a high return and low return in each room. 80% high 20%
low. Never take more return out of a room then you are putting in that room.
As far as return up stairs, you should be taking as much return as you put up there . Same as before 80% high, 20% low. later paulbm
ryanhughes
15 years ago
Valid advice above, but having returns in all rooms just isn't the case in many homes due to original installation. In my house I only have central returns, which work fine if placed right and you have a decent path for the air to take out of each room where no return is (mostly with door undercuts).

TXMat, I'd definitely want an air return upstairs if you have supply registers up there. And with a 5 ton system, you need a lot of return air, so it sounds like a good idea.
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msm859.......the upstairs is approx 1900 sq ft.....it has 4 bedrooms...2 sunrooms....2 full baths.....all of the rooms are seperate from each other and all have 12' ceilings....it is an old house built in 1894......i asked the contractor about adding more returns and he told me i did not need them, but if i wanted more the cost would go up quite a bit...he said it was very expensive to install additional returns......so far he has installed one register in the ceiling of each room....the bedrooms are all 15' x 16'....the bath rooms are 6' x 16'......the sunrooms 12' x 15'.......i hope one register is enough....we questioned him and he assured us that is all we need.....at this point, i am not feeling very good about the contractor....after one month the job still isnt finished...
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A 16X16 filter (I assume it is one inch thick) is too small for that furnace. You should have at least a 16X20 or larger. Don't use a Filtrete filer or something that is higher than MERV 8. A small restrictive filter is going to further reduce the air flow. The flexible duct likely has leaks you have founds and is probably terribly kinked. It may need to be reworked. Ideally the main duct should be metal and larger and the flexible ducts should come be attached and as straight as possible. Someone needs to outlaw installing a furnace in an attic for a first floor zone. The amount of losses from the cold air in the attic, flexible ducts, and the long run to the first floor kill the efficiency.
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