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extremely cold kitchen

16 years ago

I posted this on the heating/air conditioning site also, but thought anyone with a house over 100 years old may have experience to help me.

I have a question regarding adding a cold air return to my kitchen. The kitchen in my old house is uninsulated and exposed on three sides to the cold weather. This keeps the room 10 degrees colder than the rest of the house. Due to lack of funds for adding insulation at this time, would putting in a cold air return help with the flow of hot air into the room, there is a heat duct already in the kitchen which blows in lots of hot air.

Walking into the kitchen is like entering another world. Already put in a duct booster fan to increase volume of heat into the kitchen. Wondering if the cold air return will help.

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Comments (2)

jamesbodell
16 years ago
I doubt it will help enough to warrant the time and expense. In any event, it sounds like a bandaid. Save your time and money for insulation. It will pay you back in heating bill savings.
paul4x4
16 years ago
I have been doing battle with a similar kitchen. House was built in 1832, I have blown in insulation in the walls, insulated the floor from the basement and it still hasnt helped. Do you by any chance have a fireplace in your kitchen? I do and it includes a dutch oven with it's own flue connection, a warming bench with a clean-out style door under it, so my next plan of attach may be a top sealing damper to prevent cold air from coming down the chimney and either chilling the brick-mass or finding it's way in through other unclosed flues. My kitchen has one radiator which seems to throw enough heat for the room. I would have to agree with wianno about the result of adding a cold air return. Good luck

Paul
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