HVAC Return Air Ducting Ask the Builder. Ask the Builder. HVAC Return Air Ducting TIPSSame Size. The air ducts in your house should be designed exactly like the blood vessels in your body. Think about it. The veins and arteries supplying blood to the different parts of your body, even out to your fingers and toes, are the same size as the veins and arteries returning that blood back to your heart. Mother Nature designed your body this way for a reason. Your HVAC person needs to do the same thing with the supply and return ducts in your home If a HVAC installer laughs at this concept, show him to your door. Hes not a professional and he doesnt know the most basic things about fluid, yes air is a fluid, dynamicsExisting Hot Houses. If you live in a home that has rooms that are either too hot in hot weather or are cold in cold weather you could have a return air duct issue. Portals/0/guide1/P.%20219a.jpg' alt='How To Install Metal Heat Ducting' title='How To Install Metal Heat Ducting' />I am living in Bay Area. Usually it is getting hot in Summer for 1 month. So I decided to install a split AC in my home. Since I just replaced. How to Make a Metal Forge. Blacksmiths have heated metal to hammer into shapes for centuries, using fuels like wood, charcoal, or bituminous coal to heat their metal. Demilec Inc. provides a wide range of spray foam insulation products and services throughout the U. S. and Canada. You can trust our experience. Call today The ComPak is an efficient and affordable way to add warmth without installing ductwork. With multiple installation options and proven safety features, the ComPak. Portals/0/guide1/P.%20190a.jpg' alt='How To Install Metal Heat Ducting' title='How To Install Metal Heat Ducting' />Return air ducts are necessary in just about every room. However, there are two rooms that I never place return air ducts kitchens and baths. Lets try to keep the garlic odors and hair spray in these rooms if you dont mindIn the majority of the United State of America and Canada, residential geothermal heat pump earth loops must be protected from freezing. Different antifreezes have. Thanks for your explaination on radiant barriers. Since you have identified that when things are sandwiched together they produce conductive heat, will a Thermal. The reason for return air is simple. Your furnace is simply a recirculating pump. Instead of pumping water, it is pumping air. Look to Ace Hardware for advice and stepbystep howtos for all your home maintenance projects. How To Install Edelbrock Carburetor On 302 Ford. Not only does Ace Hardware offer the right tools to get the job done. We need to get the air back to the pump. Furthermore, without a return air duct in each major room, the supply duct air has to push all of the air in the room out of the way as it makes its way towards you. The return air ducts help pull the air as it is being pushed. Free Fast Bids. CLICK HERE to get FREE and FAST BIDS from local HVAC contractors who can fix your return air ducts. Where Can You Put Them If you have an existing ranch style home, installing return air ducts in each room can be done fairly easily. You do what we do in new homes. You use the wall cavities as the duct. Think of it. Drywall that is nailed to 2x. All you have to do is cut out the floor immediately below the wall cavity as well as the bottom wall plate. Once you have created the opening, sheet metal will allow you to connect this to your existing return air system. Two story houses can be more of a challenge. You have to figure out a way to get return air from the ceilings of the second floor to the basement or furnace room. Do you have a laundry chute that you dont use that often Can it be sacrificed for the cooling causeWe have used these with tremendous success. Sometimes, you can use a kitchen pantry closet or a hall closet. We have often been able to put a duct in one corner of the pantry or closet. This duct extends up to the second floor where it often lines up with an interior hallway wall. Often you can collect the ceiling air through a network of flexible pipes in an attic. These pipes join together in one central location that permits you to run a duct down to the basement or a second floor closet. As a last resort, you may have to put a duct in the corner of a rooms. These can be drywalled easily. To effectively disguise it, you may build another one several feet down the wall. Shelves can be put between these two stacks. If they are in a childs room, they can often be painted in a decorative manner as if it was intended for them to be there. It was common in many older homes to have projections in rooms such as this. These bump outs often were fireplace chimneys as they rose through to the roof. Balancing Return Air Flow. If you want to really have a way to get the most bang for your return air buck, think of installing grill covers on the wall that have operating louvers. This will allow you to choke down rooms possibly on the first floor that are drawing too much air. This in turn creates a greater suction in the rooms that really need the cool air. This principle is no different than dampers which are used on supply lines to regulate air flow. The grills with louvers are inexpensive and effective. On an older existing home that is being retrofitted for central air conditioning, they are a must. CLICK HERE to get FREE and FAST BIDS from HVAC contractors who can fix your return air ducts. Best Location. Supply air from furnaces and air conditioners should be on outside walls. The return air vent openings need to be on the opposite side of the room so the conditioned air is pulled across the room. If the supply ducts are in the floor, then the return air should be located up high. This pulls the air across your body. If the supply ducts are high or in the ceiling, then the return air ducts or grills should be low on a wall. Reversed Air Flow On Old Homes. Do you have a house that is approximately 8. If so, your supply ducts may be on inside walls. You may have a single giant return air grill in the floor or at the bottom of a staircase. This is all wrong. Supply ducts should be located on outside walls, preferably under windows and near doors. The intent is to wash the exterior walls with heated or cooled air. You are trying to combat the heat or cold at its source. The single giant return air grill in the floor balances the load at the furnace motor, but does nothing to promote cross ventilation in each room. What, you dont think you can match the hardwood flooring Rubbish Go to a first floor closet and get the flooring from there. A good hardwood installer can make the repair and no one will be the wiser. Who cares if the flooring inside the closet doesnt match. I wish you luck in your effort to stay cool. Dont hesitate to contact me if I can help. CLICK the Ask Tim navigation button at the top of this page. Air Conditioning Sizing Considerations. Residential air conditioners, both central and window units, are like shoes. They come in various, different sizes. Buy the wrong shoe and you will be uncomfortable. It is no different with air conditioning. Bigger Is NOT Better. So you really want your house cold. What are you going to do Buy a monster 5 ton central unit That could be a mistake. If you put in a unit that is too powerful produces too much cooling, it will short cycle. It will turn on, blast out vast quantities of cool air, and then shut off. The result will be improper dehumidification. You will be cool and clammy. The air conditioner needs to run for a sufficient time to squeeze out the humidity that has seeped into your house. You achieve the highest comfort when the air conditioner removes as much humidity as possible from your interior air. How Are They Sized To properly size an air conditioner, one has to perform a heat gain calculation. In other words, you must determine how fast heat is getting into your house and what things inside the house are contributing to heat gain. To perform the calculation, you need to know how much insulation is in your exterior walls, how much is in your attic, the size and type of glazing for each window, the type of construction of each window, extra special lights or cooking appliances that generate heat, compass direction that each wall of your house faces, etc. In other words, you have to do some work to get the equipment sized right. Tables and charts have been around for years that convert these measurements into BTUS. Once you know how many BTUs your house is gaining, you can purchase the correct sized air conditioner. When purchasing a unit, ask for these calculations Dont just buy the same size unit you now have. Maybe it was not sized right. Maybe you have upgraded your windows or insulation. Maybe you added a small or mid sized room addition or remodeled an attic space.