If the supply ducts are in the floor, then the return air should be located up high. It’s important to remember that hot air rises and cold air falls. Your cooling system does not acquire its air from outside, but rather circulates the air already inside your home. Call another company. Subscribe to the FREE Ask the Builder newsletter to receive professional advice for your home. If there is a cold air return on the floor, the warm air that would normally tend to collect near the ceiling will be sucked down into the furnace.. To make this work the heat vents need to be on the opposite side of the room. It’s easy to think of the ductwork in your home as simply a network of ducts that meander around the home, but there’s some rhyme and reason to the placement and purpose of your ducts. (Even with a bigger gap, though, you don't want to vent your bath fans into the attic because you need to get the moisture out of the house completely.) Author: Blake ShurtzMuch like the recommendation to install dampers, I almost always emphasize adding a second return when replacing ductwork. DEAR TIM: We just had central air conditioning installed in our two story house. These can be located in the floor on outside walls beneath or very close to windows. My heating contractor always accomplished this task by installing a return air ducting system which funneled the hot air from the rooms back to the furnace/air conditioner air handler. Many air vent covers have slats on the front, and have a squared-off or rectangular portion of metal attached to the base. It opens an air pathway from the room, allowing more air to reach the central return. It often floats along in a layer near the floor. Heating and Cooling Air Returns These move conditioned air from your system, throughout the home to control temperatures in the desired way. The AC in my house doesn't seem to be working properly. : So, it happens all the time ... Maybe on his jobs it does, but not on mine. They’re sometimes located in the ceiling but, typically, are near the floor. Clean them regularly. Because hot air rises, it needs to be "vacuumed" off the ceilings in the second floor of your house. The white vent just covers a hole in the wall which is lined with studs, but does not connect to the return system like the rest do...hence, no air movement unlike the others in my return vents in my home. Multiple Vents Keep the Balance. ... 2 of the returns blows cold air out of the return vents but not out of the supply registers. Return Air Problems | The red arrow points to a large wall-mounted HVAC return-air vent. It's about 11 years old. Unlike supply vents, return vents do not need to be cased in metal. We have 4 zones but normally leave one zone off. On 2020-08-31 by Randy Salisbury The lint and dust were jammed into the allotted space and came rolling out in packed balls when the filter was removed. Install a jumper duct. The house is not cooling down. But air is coming out of the inside vents just not sucking from the filter vent. The grate collects dust like a fleece jacket in a sawmill, so stay on top of it! We are going to discuss what a fresh air intake is and how a properly installed fresh air intake can increase your unit’s efficiency, performance, and prolong the life of your furnace. Except you can't pick your house up, turn it upside down, and shake out the yuck. Winter Time – Open Your Cold Air Return Vents. Check your filter at least once a month and change it when it’s visibly dirty. Once this hot air has a pathway into the central hallway, an experienced heating and air conditioning contractor can convert one or two stud wall cavities into the initial return air duct. It's not a code or regulation but you should follow the manufacturer's recommendations. What is an AC return air vent? The contractor says this happens all the time. The problem with bedrooms occurs in houses where the HVAC design did not include return vents in each bedroom. It gets very hot upstairs in the late afternoon. Lay your air vent on a flat surface in a well-ventilated area. You simply have to: 1. Do you need air conditioning or furnace maintenance in the St. Charles area? In some instances, the ducts may be located in the ceiling. This vent has a lot of suction. The air has to be pulled up through in order to exchange it. As conditioned air is pushed in, the air already in the home needs a place to escape. Not sure if you’re looking at a return or supply vent? A typical bath fan is rated to move 50 cubic feet per minute of air when it's operating, but most actually move about half of their rated air flow. Don’t let them get caked with dust. Without this second floor return air system, the heavy cool air being discharged from the supply ducts in each room can't do its job. Well, which duct aspect we’re talking about has an important influence on potential problems and solutions! When specifically talking about your return ducts, you can run across a few frustrating but common issues, including: Blocked air duct. The heavier cold air which is flowing from the supply duct is pulled across the room and up towards the return duct. Begin at the vents that cover the opening to the air duct. Here are 5 reasons why this happens. The return vents are there to ensure that the system conditions air from inside the house -- not outside -- and to ensure indoor air pressure remains equalized. Do not allow furniture to cover or block these air outlets. When the air turns on the fan sucks air into the return air vent, thus pulling the warm air from the ceiling and cooling it down, which keeps the house cool. The lever you see on the side of the round metal duct is a damper control. Pick a spot outside, or an open room with circulating air or opened windows. When a furnace comes on, heated air is pushed through supply ducts to registers in each heated room in a … Some mobile homes have a duct under neath the homerunning to the return air but they usuall have a grille mounted in the floor not a closet. This pulls the air across your body. Unlike supply vents, return vents do not need to be cased in metal. When the downdraft vent fan isn’t pulling much air, clogged grease filters, air duct problems, a fan motor failure or a broken blower wheel could be causing poor air suction. No, The return air vent is a very important component to your heat pump system and cannot be obstructed. There are 2 cold air return vents upstairs and 1 in the basement. In heating mode, because cooler air tends to be closer to the floor, you are increasing operating time and cost by pulling return air from higher in the room. It does not seem to be pulling any air at the return vent. I've spent a lot of time in attics looking at problems with insulation, air sealing, HVAC systems, and ductwork. Return vents are generally larger than supply vents. Your central air conditioner may have been installed by a contractor who doesn't realize that hot air rises and cool air falls.Successfully installed central air conditioning can easily cool two story houses. Don’t block the return air vents. The return vent pulls cold air from the bottom of the room and returns it to the furnace to be reheated and returned as warm air. Not sure if that is the one that sucks the air or if its just there to cool the central heating and air unit. The standard central system in Okla is strictly a closed loop. This return air opening pulls hot air from the top of the room. F. R. DEAR F.R. If you do not have a hot air return vent at the ceiling level, then do not cover your cold air return vent. My wife hear a loud pop yesterday but wasn't sure what it was. This is a wall cutout, usually above a bedroom door, with a grille on each side. Next, place it up against return vent and see if the air suction holds it in place. The return air duct in our house has a thin pad of insulation spot-glued to the inside walls. Return air vents serve this purpose by helping to pull in the air … The consequences of closed doors Tighten all the vent screws with a Phillips-head screwdriver. Having one central air return dirties up your house in much the same way. The distance from the upstairs "intake" vent to the HVAC unit is 18 feet. A simple test for air movement at the return air inlet is illustrated in our sketch. These can be found in every room in your home, or in a few key centrally located areas. Understanding and Replacing Air Vents “Vent” is a generic term used to cover all supply and return air sources connected to a central air-conditioning system. Building cavity space alone should not be used as a supply- or return-air pathway. They enable the contractor to balance or adjust the amount of air going to each room. You don’t want to block off or close them because they’re pulling in air, and they can’t do that if they’re blocked. For the cavity to serve as a supply- or return-air pathway, it must contain a sealed, insulated duct made of approved duct materials. ft. house. The thermostat is reading the ambient temperature of the space. In my home the air filters are located just inside of the two large return air registers. You don’t even have to spend time spraying and wiping them. Now in the winter time this system is not very efficient. The challenge is to install adequately sized ductwork from the second floor hallway to the basement or furnace room. When you change the filter, take your vacuum hose and suck up any debris that may have fallen off the filter. The furnace or air handler (AHU in the drawing below) pulls air through the return ducts, conditions that air, and then sends it through the supply ducts back into the house. Low returns do "pull" warm air down to the floor and high returns do not "pull" cool air … The return air vent is located near the thermostat so that the air drawing into the heat pump system closely matches the temperature displayed on the thermostat. If air is moving into the grille the tissue will be pulled against the opening. :mrgreen: We don’t use outside air in the return the A/C units are not sized for the extra temp load introduced into the system as non-conditioned air. You can also expand your door undercut by adding a transfer grille to the bottom of the door. Filter ( you DID change the filter, right? about has an important influence return vent not pulling air potential problems solutions! Important to remember that hot air is now blowing out of the inside walls of buildings at vents... 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