hello8, Sounds like you have a very similar upstairs/downstairs condition - I have about 1550 sq ft upstairs and 1000 sq ft downstairs, and I presume your main living areas are upstairs like mine also. Glad to know yours was solved, so perhaps hope is not all lost for me. Interesting that they actually took out the lower return; same as my contractor's logic that the stairwell itself is a path back to the upstairs return. However, my contractor said the upstairs return was large enough. May I ask what you actually enlarged on the return? My return is a 12x22 shaft that cannot be widened, and by the furnace further shrinks to a 16" round (=200 sq in); however, the return grille could easily be increased from 12x24 to 14x24 or more. May I ask more about your downstairs room conditions compared to mine? My overall downstairs is not bad, it's mainly the farthest room, which has many worst-case conditions: shaded north and east facing, large window glazing areas equal nearly half the floor area, three feet lower than other rooms, farthest duct run at 50 ft. Actually I didn't care about the $600 variable speed upgrade so much for comfort benefits, but really primarily as mike_home suggested, to efficiently run the fan at low speed for longer periods to even out the downstairs temperatures. When I add the $300 supply duct fix (same as you, dedicating an 8" run to the farthest part of the downstairs), plus the $250 Infinity control to increase low-speed durations, I guess that's $1150 in upgrades that haven't quite worked for this problem yet. I've been trying the continuous low speed since last night; the 70 deg air from upstairs is existing the downstairs ceiling register at 68 deg, but the soft flow dissipates to 66 deg a foot away, the walls are more like 64 degs, the floor at 58-60 deg. The air and heat just doesn't seem to mix vertically too much. There are two Infinity control settings that can boost the low fan speed (low heat rise and comfort/efficiency), but not sure whether boosting speed will promote mixing or just cause the heat to flow out the ceiling faster. Looks like your contractor went the opposite way, run single-stage at higher speed, which I could try configuring the Infinity control to operate more in high-stage only.

We believe that our bodies/our health are our #1 asset and that our financial situation is in the next high tier. So, in general, we believe that if we eat food loaded with antibiotics (mass produced meats/dairy) and chemicals (foods have somewhere near 15000 man made chemicals in them), then we invite health problems that could otherwise be avoided and we incur extra medical costs. So, we grow what we can and food shop to focus on healthy foods. We seriously walk at least 5 evenings/wk - year round. Knock on wood and thank god, we don't get sick very often, but I do have some medical issues that require regular oversight and which I can't eliminate. We also believe that if we buy quality, we won't be rebuying the items again and again. So, we save up for larger purchases and only get a "new" one when the old one is shot. We often look for used, refurbished items as our "new" when we need to replace. I'm using the coffee pot that my mom &dad were given when they got married in 1954 (and no it doesn't make cappucino/lattes!!), we use a drill that I purchased in 1980 which is all metal. We use a 1950something toaster which we purchased used. We buy garden and other tools at garage sales and we try to avoid buying items with plastic parts. We use cotton and wool blankets, we don't redecorate every 6 months. Because we eat fairly healthy and we exercise, we don't change clothes size - yes, we can go up and down, but we get back to the base size before a size change is in order. Staying the same size is a blessing and a curse. We try and make sure that most of our clothes are all cotton/wool/silk because we have found that synthetic materials wear out and get ratty looking alot faster. We don't buy "trendy" styles and we always look reasonably timeless. We wait for clothes to wear out but because we do, we don't always wear the absolutely most current color or style. And that is ok. My husband grew up in a military family and money was tight. I grew up in a middle class family, but my parents had lived through the great depression - I always heard about how much things cost. Sure, sometimes we don't have a choice but to buy cheaply made items, but we do what we can to avoid it and we shop with local firms. We find that it's pretty easy to avoid Walmart and live within a budget at the same time.

I didnt come back earlier to clarify my comments and respond, bcs I wasnÂt making myself that clear, I didn't think I could do it well enough to get you to understand me, and I honestly thought it was best just to let it die. But since this has been revived, IÂll try. IÂve come off looking like a completely different kind of snob than I am. HereÂs one thing in my own life that makes me think "who you know" influences you in ways one doesnÂt think about. I didnÂt join a sorority in collegeÂit never OCCURRED to me. Why not? Bcs I didnÂt know anyone whoÂd ever been part of one. However, kids I went to school with, didÂand in fact, assumed everyone would. Bcs in their circle, it was something the grownups around them had done. So in that way, I learned that the attitudes, jobs, leisure activites, interests, hobbies, etc., are influenced by who youÂre around as a kid. I think lots of people experience something like this, and that influences why they pick a certain neighborhoodÂthey want to influence what sort of circle their kids are surrounded by. My first point is that the people mentioned who pick their neighborhood according to the income level and perceived "type of people" who live there, are approaching neighborhoods as an* aggregate.* That fact that inside a crummy neighborhood there are great people is beside the point. They're picking a neighborhood, not individuals. When I was a kid, I lived in a town w/ 3 levels of housing: crummy, medium, and rich. It was a small townÂ1,500 peopleÂso I knew the people who lived in each type of housingÂI went to school w/ their kids, delivered their paper, heard about their activities outside their homes (clubs, work, arrests, manners or lack of, spending patterns, etc.) I was a kid, so I didnÂt know ALL the details, but I knew the broad strokes of many peoples lives. The actual people that I knew who lived in the crummy housing were often (not always, but often): - badly organized (as evidenced by their front lawns, side lawns, and garages, as well as by their work history, which I knew), - not particularly visionary in terms of where they wanted to go w/ (as evidenced by their choice of profession, attention to educationÂhigh school, training, or even collegeÂwhich was known to me, bcs the people were known to me) - not particularly reliable (as evidenced by their work history and spending patterns) - more likely to have unstable personal relationships or tempers (in fact, though I mentioned stealing, I probably shouldnÂt have--the biggest reason I wouldnÂt hire someone from the crummy housing in my hometown is that most of the ones I knew anything about were unreliable, sloppy, and inconsiderateÂtheyÂd leave the paint can on the lawn, or be more likely to spill it all over the grass, or something, bcs they donÂt think itÂs a problem. And yes, the workers from the crummy housing in my home town were the ones most likely to get arrested for pilfering or stealing or fighting or driving drunkÂwe read the arrest records and conviction records in the newspaper. The ones from the non-crummy housing didnÂt have these problems.) These things existed in the medium and rich housing as well, but not as often, and not as severe. Or not as publicly, so I didnÂt notice it. I had some really good friends in the crummy housing (who were also someof the things above, but my friends nonetheless), but there were plenty of kids from the crummy housing that I avoided. (and I avoided the rich kids, too, bcs they were mean) So while on an individual basis, I was happy to be friends w/ specific kids who lived in crummy housing, I wouldnÂt have chosen to surround myself with all the families in that income level. Which is what you do when you live in a neighborhood. So I felt early on thatÂespecially at the extreme lower endÂwhere you live can often be a reflection of what you are like. The housing is not what makes someone badly organized or not visionary about their own life; but it can be the RESULT of being badly organized, not reliable, or whatever. (not must, *can*--and if you're from a crummy neighborhood and having vision about your life, you're part of proving my point--are you going to STAY in that neighborhood?) When a person picks a neighborhood, they have to take it (at first) as a whole. ThatÂs how neighborhoods are experienced. And many of us could agree that it doesnÂt take that many unpleasant people to make a neighborhood tough to live in. In the very low end of housing, the chances of getting such people increases. It was only in the crummy housing of my hometown and my college town that I EVER heard anyone yell swear wordsÂat their own 4-year-old!!!--across the lawn (I sometimes swear in certain circles, but only once have I ever sworn in public, and IÂm still mortified by itÂscreaming the F word in front of little kids and tons of adults on a subway platform is not something I admire, and I donÂt need to apologize for it; and I donÂt want my kids to spent time in the home of an adult who would do that, I donÂt care how nice their kids are, and IÂd worry about how their kids would act, esp. since those particular kids, weÂd just met). If I know about a contractor who lives in crummy housing, and I know he does great work, IÂll hire him no matter where he livesÂthatÂs treating an individual like the specific individual. But if I DONÂT know anything about him, and he lives in crummy housing, IÂm gonna be real cautious. Because IÂll be afraid that the things that put him in crummy housing, could also make him a crummy contractor. ThatÂs treating an individual like a member of a group, trueÂbut itÂs only because I donÂt know anything about him. But if someone is buying a house and picks a neighborhood because they think a certain type of people is likely to live there, thatÂs treating a group like a group. They donÂt have time to consider all the individuals as individuals. And, theyÂre NOT EVALUATING individuals; theyÂre evaluating an aggregate experience. What happens for folks Carina talked about, who want to move into ever-richer neighborhoods, is that they take this idea and apply it at all levels. Unfort., I donÂt think it works in the middle. Once you get beyond the lower levels, it stops applying. In fact, the place IÂm REALLY a snob is at the top: you might get me to live in a poorer neighborhood than IÂd like (and IÂd be extra alert to which neighbors in that neighborhood I wanted to spend any time with). But you could NOT get me to live in Chappaqua, NY, or any other highly affluent neighborhood. I hear things that happen there that are worse than any "swearing on the lawn" or "ridiculing college graduates" or even "getting arrested for stealing your arch-enemy's battery to get even." Plus, my early prejudice is that while poor kids might be less visionary and harder to live around, rich kids are MEAN. Oh, IÂve liked *some* rich kids from my home town, now that theyÂre grown up (and IÂm grown up). As for the idea that where you live might send a message to your boss, I know this to be true at the higher levels. I have an uncle who got a job as a CFO of a national company here in NYC; when he moved here to take that job, he looked very carefully at which neighborhood he picked, because he knew his business peers would too. In the middle levels of housing, and of socio-economic standing, I donÂt think these things apply. (and so I shouldn't have expressed worry about a GC who lived in a lower-middle-class neighborhood; it's the lowest-income neighborhood that would worry me) But I can understand the logic of people who think they do. I don't agree w/ them, but I understand how they get there. THAT was what I was trying to say. That my experiences at the extreme edges leads me to understand what logic they're applying to the situation. Also, not wanting to live in a certain income level doesnÂt mean you have CONTEMPT for the folks in that neighborhoodÂit just means you want to live somewhere else. IÂve probably just dug myself in deeper and made you all think IÂm much more of a snob than I am. But I tried.

Unless it's extremely old (they've made these things for a while), the fan in heat mode will be energized through a timer on the control board. What happens if you put the fan in "on" mode? Does it continue to fire and run? If so, you may have a bad fan output on the board. Also, the "heat" fan speed is different than the fan speed you get from putting the fan in "on" mode. It's remotely possible that you could have a bad motor speed. If you would like to check it yourself, cycle the heat and keep your multimeter on VAC while you start it. The fan will not attempt to cycle on for several seconds while it heats up the heat exchanger. You should measure line voltage between the fan tap labeled "heat" and common. If not, you may have a defective board. Some of this depends on the age of the system and what type of controls were installed. If you would like to find the age of your system, I have a blog post that will help. Here's the link at How to determine the age or your York heating and AC unit . Also, if you would like to double check your connections from your thermostat you just replaced, see How to replace your Own Thermostat. It's Easy! Hope this helps!