Cold Air return in great room

2 years ago

We have an open floor plan and the hvac guys put the cold air return in the middle of our great room that has a vaulted ceiling with a beam. Does anyone have any ideas of where else we can put this? Vault is 12’ at peak.

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Comments (10)

PRO
PPF.
2 years ago
Talk to your builder and HVAC person.
PRO
Mark Bischak, Architect
2 years ago
Is this the subject of this discussion?

Where is the house located?
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Only one cold air return connected to furnace through duct
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I have an old (1916) 2 story house with gas furnace located in a basement utility room. I have no cold air returns on the second floor. I have 3 cold air returns in the main floor (living room, entrance hall and dining room). Only the return in the living room is connected to the furnace air intake through ductwork. The return in the dining room is sealed and the return in the entrance hall is open to the space between the floor joists and the sheet rock ceiling in the basement. The return duct from the living room connects to the furnace air intake and the furnace air intake is also connected to a grill in the utility room wall and pulls cold air from the basement. The basement is finished but it has a hole in the wall sheetrock (exterior wall) to provide access to a sewer cleanout. As a result, the furnace draws primarily cold air from the basement and wall cavity and only a portion of conditioned living space air. This reduces the efficency of my furnace. I am in process of sealing my basement and using it as an entertainment room. Do I need to redo the ductwork to connect up the 2 air returns?. This may be difficult due to the direction of the floor joists and low ceilings. One possibility I am thinking about is to seal the basement space and connect the 2 returns to the basement by installing flexible ducts from the floor returns to grills in the basement ceiling so that the basement serves as part of the conditioned space thus eliminating the need for return air ducts in the basement. Does anyone have any thoughts on this approach? Will it result is noise or some other performance problem.
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Cold Air Return Vent & Size of Room
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The builder doesn't create the ideal situation for everything when the leave an unfinished basement 'roughed-in'. We have an architech friend who knows the yahoo that designs the homes we're buying. While they are reputable, they do have a lot of design flaws - and these are greatly exaggerated when trying to finish an unfinished basement that is roughed-in/half done. There is a possiblity of moving the duct into the main basement, but it would mean creating ductwork that goes perpendicular to the joists, thus lowering the ceiling in that area. It may not be a big deal, but it's something I was hoping to avoid to save money (wasn't planning on hiring an HVAC guy when the basement gets done). The bedroom has one suppy vent - and the basement area has one also. My contractor has already told me I'll probably need to put in electric baseboard heaters, as that's not enough to heat a below-grade basement. And the basement finishing bill keeps getting higher!!!
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Cold air returns and supply lines - both high in room
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Comments (2)
Where are your returns on the first floor? If the conditioned cold air is coming out ceiling diffusers it will fall through the room (cold air is heavier than warm air). As it falls through the room it should push the warmer and lighter air towards the ceiling to be picked up by the returns that are high on the wall. On the first floor your returns are probably in the floor also and that will cause the cold air to come out of the vents and go low across the floor and back into the return grilles. In many installations if you have high returns in the wall, you also have low returns in the same wall cavity. They are designed to have the high ones open and the low ones closed for air conditioning, and then you open the low returns and close the high returns for heating. Do you have two vents in you wall, one low and one high, that are in the same stud space? If so that is how they are to be used.
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Cold Air return vent letting cold air into the room
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Yes this house is pretty strange. Its an old farmhouse and when they put in the oil furnace (which we don't use) they just sort of slapped the registers here and there. We basically just stopped the cold air with batting and sealed it up with duck tape (neon pink). its already made quite a difference.
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worthy
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
In our jurisdiction, the HVAC plan must be drawn up by an engineer. My thoughts are immaterial to placement.
Michele Wells
Original Author
2 years ago
SW Ohio. House is on a basement..and yes that is what I am talking about. Here is plans
Michele Wells
Original Author
2 years ago
Floorplans
David Cary
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
The plans are pretty hard to read. My first thought is why the heck would you have duct work up high in a basement house that is mostly a ranch? But I can't really tell what I am seeing...

Either way, you can't just move these things around very easily. While you probably should have your ductwork between the first floor and basement, that isn't going to change now.

The return looks fairly small also but maybe this is just for a/c?

Most returns in this situation are horizontal because there isn't a vertical plane for ducts over head. Neither is great but you need to walk around and see if there is a ceiling area where you wouldn't mind the return that is in the open area. Since much of your area is vaulted, there probably isn't a better choice. Avoid being near cooking also. I doubt in Ohio an engineer is needed to place the return (and probably not even to size it).
HU-867564120
2 years ago
You could turn the return 90 degrees and have it pull air from the flat ceiling below its current location.
Michele Wells
Original Author
2 years ago
That’s what I was thinking…the kitchen and other areas r 9’ ft ceilings…
We have a bonus room above the laundry room…that is where the return is T’d from probably…they had the return against my pantry wall but a fridge is going right next to it…(they didn’t bother to read the plans). This may be the best place…we r just hoping there is another option and one not so noticeable. The ceiling drops to 9 by the front door all down that line so Idk why it couldn’t go there
3onthetree
2 years ago
You have plenty of room inside the scissor trusses to split the returns and have them in the ceiling of the vault. They have to stay away from the kitchen and should be opposite the supply registers. Consult with the HVAC installer on the sizes and how much CFM of the combined open rooms this one return is taking, and expect to pay an additional cost.
PRO
Mark Bischak, Architect
2 years ago
Talk to the HVAC person that designed the system. In my understanding of HVAC systems, it is a poor location for a cold air return or a hot air supply since cold air settles to the floor and heat rises.

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Cold Air return in great room

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PPF.

Mark Bischak, Architect

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Michele Wells
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Cold Air return in great room

Comments (10)

PPF.

Mark Bischak, Architect

Related Discussions

worthy

Michele WellsOriginal Author

Michele WellsOriginal Author

David Cary

HU-867564120

Michele WellsOriginal Author

3onthetree

Mark Bischak, Architect

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BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Michele Wells
Original Author

Michele Wells
Original Author

Michele Wells
Original Author