move return air to floor?

[nealtw]

Dosn't cost much and easy to close up if you don't like the effect.

 

[68bucks]

I think most of the supply lines have dampers so I believe I can do some balancing. I thought the same thing about making the return in the duct at the furnace, easy to do doesn't really harm anything if I don't like it. Probably the biggest thing is if enough air can get into the furnace room to matter. No vent in the door right now and I really don't want one due to the sound factor. I'll have to check the gap under the door. Here's the sketch I forgot last time.

 

[nealtw]

You would be able to judge the effect with the door to the kitchen open and closed.

 

[slownsteady]

Just caught up on this thread last night, and my first thought was put the return in the loft. Would that have been possible?

 

[nealtw]

Just caught up on this thread last night, and my first thought was put the return in the loft. Would that have been possible?

That would be great for AC but not so good for heat.

 

[bud16415]

I thought it would be a good time to bring this tread up again and post what I did and the results, for what its worth. I added an updated sketch. What I ended up doing was installing two return points in the new hallway, near the floor. So now I essentially have all my air returning to an area in a about 10' diameter. There is a return upstairs too. The furnace seems to be operating just fine, no odd cycling or shutting off on limits. I had it gone through by a local HVAC company and everything checked out (except the igniter). Yesterday I installed a new Ecobee thermostat in the hallway not far from the new returns.

That said, I have another question. Because of the unusual construction of the house the area of the hallway is considerably warmer than the main portion of the room. The 1/2 bath gets really warm and the furnace room does too. The upstairs bedroom is a loft type arrangement so there are no walls so warmer air tends to move up there. That is directly above the new hallway. When the blower kicks on the warmer air is pushed down from the loft and effects the thermostat, it rises really quickly so the furnace wanted to cycle off quickly. Once off the temp would drop back to the main room temp and restart. I ran the blower, no burner, and I can get 1.5° rise just from the airflow. I will be installing a ceiling fan soon to push the warm air down the stairwell from the loft area. So the Ecobee comes in. I run only from the remote sensor placed in the main living area of the room and so far the cycles seem more normal. Now the question. Would it be a good or bad idea to cut a return air opening into the return air duct in the furnace room to move the extra warm air around a bit? Its a down flow furnace so the duct is right there. I could install an adjustable louver to control it a little. It just seems like I'm wasting heat in that little utility room that would be better served in the living end of the house.

I have a similar situation and the dampers will work in zoning the heat but you will be messing with them from time to time. When it is very cold my bedrooms upstairs are extra warm. When I wake up in the morning I know exactly how cold it is out by how warm the bedroom is. When it gets mild outside say 40 the bedrooms are cold. So I end up opening the dampers back up. What it is a totally unrelated zone dependent on whats going on in the other zone. I finally found a happy medium and leave them there.

 

[68bucks]

There is one return in the floor of the bedroom loft area. The steps going up there make a 90 on the way up and the well they form is right where all the returns are downstairs. So the air sort of naturally flows down there too. Once I get the ceiling fan up there I can push some of that warmer air back down I think. I'll have to reevaluate this when that happens. Probably not for another week or so. So far it seems like the Ecobee is doing a good job. It keeps the living area the right temp and the short cycling is gone. I get longer run times now and longer off period by using the remote sensor for control. And its nice I can track it too now. Its quite a bit warmer yesterday and today so time will tell. Its supposed to get a lot colder next week. Thanks for all the input.