I have a single floor house plan. It was built around 1998. I have the same ac/furnace that was installed when we built the house. The unit is under t he house in a crawl space. The unit is on one end of the house with a 16 in ch main line that travels down the center from the unit to the opposite end of the house. 6 inch flexible duct branches from this trunk line to the va rious rooms. I believe my unit is either 3 or 3.5 tons. The return is a 16 inch flexible duct that goes from the unit to a 20x25 filter grill at the e nd of a hallway. (In the attachment, it shows the unit in a closet at the e nd of the hall. Like I said, my unit is under the house but this return gri ll is exactly where this closet is located on the blueprints).
I have torn ducts under my house due to cats that have gotten under there. I am in the process of replacing the 6 inch flex with 6 inch metal and insu lating the metal. I am also going to replace the 16 inch flex return with m etal.
The system seems to work ok when cooling in summer, however in the winter, the living room, which is at the opposite end of the house that my furnace is at, is always colder than the other end of the house. While I am doing a ll this work replacing ducts, I wondered if installing a second small retur n in my living room would help. The idea would be to pull the hot air risin g toward the celling to the floor. In my living room, there is a set of sta irs that goes to the bonus room. Sometimes, If I bring a kerosene heater to the living room in winter, I can tell the heat is going to the top of thes e stairs as it is much, much warner in that area.
Just wondered what your thoughts are on a second return and if this would h elp my problem.
Thanks,