I have a few questions regarding my cold house. I have 2 very large what I was told are returns in the floor in different rooms. One is connected by duct work to the furnace. The other is just open and I can see right into the basement through the grate. Do I need to leave the "open" one uncovered? I don't want mice or snakes to have such easy access to my living area! Can I put filters across them, as my house gets terribly dusty? In the winter, my basement feels warmer than the main floor. Does the register vent on the furnace need to be opened or closed? I keep it closed, but am wondering if it's not taxing my furnace which is just 2 years old. Nice toasty heat doesn't come from the registers upstairs. Please give me some ideas. Thanks.

The return that you can see down through needs to be connected to the return side of the ductwork. The furnace blower pushes warm air to the registers usually along the outside walls. The air flows across the room and into the return connected to the intake of the blower. You may not be getting the air flow to the house you need if air can't get from the return to the furnace. Connecting the return should leave the upstairs warmer, and the basement cooler. Leave the register in the basement closed unless the basement is too cold.

After 2 years, it is a little too late to make the original installer come back and straighten up the lousy workmanship. If you have to pay somebody, I would go elsewhere.

Bitty, HVAC systems are closed system... that is, in theory - if you push air (heat or cold) into a house, you must remove the equal amounts of air back to the system to "recycle". Since very few rooms have an individual return line, make sure your vent is NOT a return and, if applicable, connnect it to the correct line (feed or return). Also it could be this line was never connected - period. Assuming there is non "hanging" plenum, your duct work is likely in the floor/ceiling.

In short, if there is hot air blowin out of the vent, it is a feed line. If no air is blowing at all it may be a poorly designed passive vent. If the basemant is not finished consider blocking the vent (semi-) permenently.

P2E

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Originally Posted by bitty

I have a few questions regarding my cold house. I have 2 very large what I was told are returns in the floor in different rooms. One is connected by duct work to the furnace. The other is just open and I can see right into the basement thru the grate. Do I need to leave the "open" one uncovered? I don't want mice or snakes to have such easy access to my living area! Can I put filters across them, as my house gets terribly dusty? In the winter, my basement feels warmer than the main floor. Does the register vent on the furnace need to be opened or closed? I keep it closed, but am wondering if it's not taxing my furnace which is just 2 years old. Nice toasty heat doesn't come from the registers upstairs. Please give me some ideas. Thanks.

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My answer assumed yours is a conventional basement installation where you have a duct running under the ceiling from the furnace and ducts to each room branching off it. Then there is a second duct collecting the returns and returning the air to the furnace. Regardless of where the ducts are, the one that is not connected needs to be connected allowing air to return the furnace.

Many furnaces are set up to adjust the speed of the fan to give the correct delta temperature depending on the air flow. Yours should be checked and adjusted if needed after fixing the duct.

Thank you both very much for your help.