Only CA return is at the base of the air handler, and it's in the kitchen area.
The house is on a slab, no lower level access.
Would it work to add a few passive CA vents in the bedrooms, about 30 feet away, and route it through the attic, or just cut some vents, back to back in the wall partitions, to aid the circulation?
At my home in Florida, we had back to back passive vents above the doorways, but that didn't seem to work well.
Is ther an external forced air system that might help? Like a powered vent in a wall?
Internal passive vents have no significant pressure differential to cause any movement and don't help recirculation much at all unless there are areas that are essentially blocked (like bedrooms w/ doors closed, etc.).
Exhausting cooled air to the attic may aid circulation but it will be an energy-costing hog to simply dump cool air outside--might as well open the windows and run the A/C at the same time.
The powered vent is even more of the same.
Only real solution likely would be to run a return plenum in the attic for the missing returns.
About 5 years ago, I had a new central air system installed in a ranch-syle home which had supply vents in the attic, and all they did was have one main return air intake in the centrally-located living room and that intake went directly back into the HVAC unit. I was expecting return ducts for each bedroom, etc., especially since the home has a 4-foot high crawl space that could have been used for return ducts. When I asked a number of other contractors and did other research, I found that many installations are done that way these days.
Since your return intake is at the unit itself, and the unit is in a kitchen area, I guess when you are cooking in the summer the hot kitchen air goes directly into the intake. I don't know if that matters.
Is the kitchen area in a somewhat centrally located part of the house? If so, maybe that's why they didn't create intakes elsewhere.
For an CAC system, the return is just as important as the supply vents. Remember an A/C works by removing heat and humidity, not merely just dumping cold air in a room. So ideally the return should be centrally located, but also be as high as possible so it can suck in all the hot air as it rises. If the return is too low, not only it won't get all the hot air, but it will also suck in all the cold A/C air since cold air sinks. I would try to run a return line in the attic and put a grill in the ceiling. I have a split level home where I have a combo furnace/CAC system that uses the same ductwork for both and I have a return grill on the wall on every floor. In the summer I only keep the upper return open and close the lower ones and it makes a difference. I also close all the supply registers downstairs and keep the upper ones open. In the winter its the opposite, I close the upper supply and return vents and open the lower ones.
Actually, one thing that might help comfort would be a few ceiling fans strategically placed to at least do somewhat better at circulating the air -- it won't really help the return problem, but might improve comfort level by simply having some air moving.
Been doing the ceiling fan thing, and while it helps the room, I know the coil is getting the airflow it should.
Got a hot water heater and 2 walls blocking the access to the CA in the base, but I think I will try and run a plenum into the attic and to at least a couple of bedrooms. The living room is very near the AC and we seldom cook in the kitchen, but you can feel the lack of circulation and even a slight odor due to it.
I'm only saying "no" completely to the venting cooled air to the outside
-- the passive vents could help some depending on the arrangement of the house and if there are the ceiling fans to help w/ some circulation. I still doubt they would be unlikely to be a major panacea except in very unusual arrangements. It wouldn't take a lot of expense to find out if wanted to experiment, however.
Is there a "not" missing there?
So you cook where? (Sorry, couldn't resist... :) )
It would be the sure answer to getting some return, certainly. It is, of course, a more significant project and does have some potential drawbacks as well.
A couple of things to consider are whether one or two returns only will then disrupt distribution excessively from the other areas of the house w/o specific returns and, of course, the return duct in an attic space will want to be well insulated and tight.
Unfortunately, it's impossible to give a definitive solution w/o actually having layout, etc. A competent HVAC guy might be useful before jumping in too extensively.
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