Hello,

Is it OK to have a cold air return at the upper wall location vs. near the floor?

I just had an old furnace taken out of the main floor and I had one installed in the basement. The installers put the cold air return up on the main floor in a duct located up high piping directly into the furnace.

Someone came over and told me the cold air returns should always be at the floor level for heating purposes.

Do I have a problem with my cold air return being up high?

Thank you in advance for any insight or help.

Sue

No problem with your system. He set the system up to scrub the heat from the high area in the home and this will help with stratification. This will be very beneficial if you have or will add A/C.

A high return is better for air conditioning and a low return is better for heating because the low return takes the colder air from the floor and helps to provide a more even room temperature, Best regards, Mike

Thank you for your help.

Does it make sense to leave the one I have up high for summertime and then add have the furnace installer put a cold air return vent down close to the floor in the same location that I can use in the wintertime and have him install a damper where I can switch back and forth from summer to winter?

Sue

This was done many years ago when costs were not an issue if you wanted a deluxe system. The same can be said of the old Coleman supply in the return air pipe combo system that had the supply line installed in the return air pipe so that some heat transference would take place in the pipe and not in the air in the house. The Coleman system was one of the best and smoothest HVAC air systems around. It was a pain to install and very expensive. There is one home in my area that still uses the Coleman system and when you walk in the door on a cold winter day you are surrounded by warmth with absolutely no draft.
This and many other systems are NLA because of cost and the loss of real professional tinners who used to be able to make duct on the site instead of in the shop by a CAD machine. Put in the other return and damper system. Your setup will be better just remember to change over the damper to match the season.

Thank you very much! I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge. I don't know that much about furnaces and ducting so I am trying to get the best bang for my buck on my brand new system.

All your insight is very much appreciated, have a great week.

Sue

Yes, it is the most efficient way to heat and cool your house.

I am currently installing two identical upper and lower return grills with filter accommodation built into them. During the summer, I will have a piece of R-max (foil covered foam board) cut to fit where the filter would normally go into the grill.

I will then move this board back and forth from the top to the bottom grill depending on the season.

During the winter, I will put the board in the upper grill to block the hot air from being recycled from the floor registers.

During the summer, I will transfer my "blocking board" from the top grill to the bottom grill to block the low lying cold air from being recycled.

Why the HVAC manufacturers have not introduced a product like this that would be a one piece solution with a blocking louver that could be slid back and forth within the grill does baffle me because it would be a popular product for for replacement or new home applications, rather than having to "build" the same thing by a "do it yourselfer" like myself who apparently displays more brain power than some of the engineers who design these air return grill products.

This of course only applies to a vertically wall mounted, wall space return type installation.

By having an upper and lower return to rotate during the seasons, your temperature and striations can be kept even, and you will not just be re-heating, or re-cooling the same air that just came out of your floor registers, which is the least efficient.

Hot air rises, and cool air sinks, so you want to take in the coolest air at the floor during the winter to heat it, and take in the warmest air near the ceiling during the summer to cool it.

I think this more in-depth response should clear up any confusion.

Regards

Sorry for my spelling errors! "Cieling" = Ceiling, and "accomadations" = accommodations!

Duh on me!

Why the HVAC manufacturers have not introduced a product like this that would be a one piece solution with a blocking louver that could be slid back and forth within the grill does baffle me because it would be a popular product for for replacement or new home applications, rather than having to "build" the same thing by a "do it yourselfer" like myself who apparently displays more brain power than some of the engineers who design these air return grill products.


Most home owners are ignorant in the realm of HVAC. The returns will never have a slide or blocking assembly from the factory because it can and will damage equipment when it is shut off as most systems only have one large return. This is a death blow to most A/C compressors and heat exchangers.

Then you can say well how come the discharge air registers are allowed to have louvered dampers and the answer is simple. No body is going to close all of them off at one time because it is not logical. Usually only one or two is
Turned off in some kind of money/energy savings snafu.

This is the answer you learn in HVAC school 101. Never give a customer a choice of any item if it can cause damage to the system or a hazard to there life. I teach aggrades at NKU since I am a old fart and got tired of dealing with 37 employees who were always asking some of the same questions. LOL.

I have a lower louvered vent that in the winter I open the lower and that closes the vent above the lower vent also closing the upper vent. Install one of these and problem is solved.

In my old house, I had a louvered vent that was a wide panel that flapped up or down for open or closed and that worked very well as bdg recommended. I now live in a house that needs that solution and I can't find that type of flapped louver cold air return. Are they not made anymore? All I can find are sliding louvers that would require that they be installed on both top and bottom.