Replacing old oil burner furnace with natural gas. Have problem heating one end of the house. One of the items to correct this is to add an additional air return closer to the cold end of the house. Current air return is in hall at other end of house, about 30' away. Ductwork starts out at 16" which is size or air return duct.
Question: Is it a problem to locate the systems air return in a laundry room even though it is more centrally located and open to the rest of the house?
Thanks Mike B
Replacing old oil burner furnace with natural gas. Have problem heating one end of the house. One of the items to correct this is to add an additional air return closer to the cold end of the house. Current air return is in hall at other end of house, about 30' away. Ductwork starts out at 16" which is size or air return duct.
Question: Is it a problem to locate the systems air return in a laundry room even though it is more centrally located and open to the rest of the house?
Thanks Mike B
Don't see any reason just because the area is the laundry area per se, altho it's a little unusual to have a laundry area totally open if it is in a central location.
Seems like a place to converse w/ the heating contractor to evaluate the situation. Possibly moving the trunk return is best solution (as in effective and relatively easy), perhaps a better one would be to add a secondary return. Need far more info than possible over usenet to judge and make any rational call on sizing, etc.
Have been taking proposals from heating contractors. Common suggestion has been to increase size of ductwork to one end of house as well as adding a second air return near the cold area of the house. Just so happens that in this older, twice built, home the laundry room is central between the warm
2/3 rds and the cooler 1/3rd and would draw most of the return air from the cooler end. Only 1 of 4 contractors was concerned about putting an air return in the laundry room. He was concerned with "dust", probably lint from the dryer, but dryer is vented to the outside.Thanks for the thought.
Mike B
Have been taking proposals from heating contractors. Common suggestion has been to increase size of ductwork to one end of house as well as adding a second air return near the cold area of the house. Just so happens that in this older, twice built, home the laundry room is central between the warm
2/3 rds and the cooler 1/3rd and would draw most of the return air from the cooler end. Only 1 of 4 contractors was concerned about putting an air return in the laundry room. He was concerned with "dust", probably lint from the dryer, but dryer is vented to the outside.Thanks for the thought.
Mike B
Unless the implementation of the second return and the larger main (ideally w/ adjustable balancing damper) is exorbitantly expensive (for some definition of "exorbitant"), would seem far better solution in general than hoping for the best if move the existing return. That, to me, seems like a "cut-corners" solution fraught w/ a higher risk of not being satisfactory. My inclination would be, why go cheap on what is probably a relatively minor additional cost?
BTW, your posings seem to be being duplicated each time -- might try to check into that.
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