I need help with heat problem in my house

[88vert]

Lets start out by saying my upstairs is 12 degrees cooler than the downstairs and after looking around last weekend I cannot find a cold air return.when we moved in there was one duct going upstairs and it went to the master bedroom.I have since added another to the upstairs bedroom.Would a cold air return help me?Thanks for any help

 

[Robb]

Need a little help here. What is a cold air return?

 

[Redrig]

Basically a cold air return is a vent placed lower than the hot air vent. It pulls cold air out of the room back to the furnace.

 

[SVO]

Where's "hvac man" when you need him?

 

[Redrig]

Do you have cold air returns downstairs?

 

[Robb]

Just a quick reply (it is late), but if it is that much cooler upstairs than downstairs, I would, more likely, place the blame on not enough supply air upstairs. In most 2-story homes, you can, ALMOST, get away with only heating the downstairs, and then that heat radiating to the upstairs.

With that much temp diff, I wouldn't instantly look to a return problem.

 

[Redrig]

Robb is correct, you need more supplies.

 

[88vert]

I have two cold air returns downstairs.I was thinking about buying a booster blower for the two upstairs supply's

 

[88vert]

Thanks for the replys and keep them coming

the windows in the house are not even a year old and I just got done putting new doors on both sides of the house

 

[DirtyDog]

Return air from upstairs is a good idea too. We reno'd our house this year and we put a return air in basically every room except the kitchen and bathrooms.

Depending on the size of your upstairs (or the room in question), more supplies may be necessary. The reason most heat registers are below windows (on outside walls) is because that is where the most heat loss is. Now the return air's are on the inside walls is to draw the heat through the rest of the room to heat the room, instead of all the heat just going towards the outside wall.

I work for a plumbing and heating company so my job is to install heating systems, and this is what I was told. Now I'm not a journeyman Sheetmetal Mechanic or HVAC Technician so don't take this as being the bible, but I'm VERY happy with my new heating system I designed and installed so I must have done somethin right.

Hope this helps.

 

[sncwfo99]

With a two story house you already have a giant return in the form of a stairwell. It sounds like you don't have enough velocity (improper duct size), your main line off the plenum, or too long of a heat run and the air is cooling down too much before getting upstairs. You may want to look at using insulated duct if that is the case. Hope this helps ya out.

 

[Brock94]

I have a forced hot air system in my house with separate upstairs and downstairs "zones". At night, we can turn down the downstairs heat and leave the upstairs heat at a comfortable level. If it's too cold up stairs, we can crank it up. Maybe you should think about adding that kind of set-up.

 

[MyExpWork]

Not an expert here but just my experience.

We have a 2-story house. Our air return is at the top of our stairs.

It is always, always warmer upstairs then down. Whether we have the heater on or the a/c on.

We even have 4 of the 6 vents closed up stairs and all of them open downstairs (4). Still warmer upstairs when heater is on.

 

[SteveVB]

You may want to check the dampers on the main supplies(main plenums Ive also heard them called) The dampers can increase or decrease flow to various parts of the house. Look for a lever on the side of the duct- they do a better job of controlling flow rather than shutting the vents in various rooms.Reducing the flow in the lower levels and increasing it upstairs may help.
In my two or three story houses I mark the ducts with summer and winter settings after I try different combos. It makes it easy for anyone(tenants)to duplicate the settings each change of heat/cooling season.

 

[88vert]

Thanks a alot for all the info.I will keep you posted on my results