HVAC air intake near gas heater

[edavid3001]

I have a home with a basement. We had it built in 1999. The HVAC (gas) sits right next to the gas water heater. This utility room is around 20' x 8' with a tight door, located in the basement. There are two cold air returns on the 1st floor.

The HVAC metal ducting that goes into the attic for the cold air returns has two large holes in it with vents, right beside the gas water heater. If I remove the grills and cover up these so they can't get air, the duct work at that location gets sucked in slightly due to the negative air pressure (I think I'm saying this right.)

I read in a Popular Mechanics that you don't want cold air returns near the furnace. I know nothing about this stuff. Are these vents cold air returns? Is this an issue? Should I have these vents closed off and another cold air return piped to the hallway?

Thank you;

Edwin

[<kjpro]

YES

Return air is prohibited to be pulled from an equipment room by IMC. Seal them off and add a new return to the hallway.

You need to make sure you still have adequate airflow after your changes.

[GeorgeSpamungus]

Gorsh!

[trader4]

Don&#39;t understand why the system would have any return vents in what sounds like an unfinished basement utility room, let alone next to the gas water heater. All your doing is sucking air out of the basement, which has to come from somewhere, either outside or conditioned air from upstairs, etc, which wastes energy. Having it near the water heater of course is much worse, as it can interfere with the correct combustion flow of the heater, easily suck up any CO from a malfunctioing heater, etc.

[Moe Jones]

Could the ducts be for combustion air?

[Uncle Monster]

Are you sure the duct is not make-up air for the furnace and water heater? Check out this website for an easy to understand explanation about the subject.

If you don&#39;t know, call someone, a knowledgeable friend or service company. You could wind up with a carbon monoxide problem if you tamper with the vent.

[8~{} Uncle Monster

[<kjpro]

Not when it effects the return air ducting.

Quote: If I remove the grills and cover up these so they can&#39;t get air, the duct work at that location gets sucked in slightly due to the negative air pressure (I think I&#39;m saying this right.)

[<kjpro]

Re-read...

Quote: If I remove the grills and cover up these so they can&#39;t get air, the duct work at that location gets sucked in slightly due to the negative air pressure (I think I&#39;m saying this right.)

[Clark]

wrote in news:bc2b7$46cc3989$9440c41e$13704 @STARBAND.NET:

The correct phrasing would be: Not when it affects the return air ducting.

Of course now you&#39;ll claim that you knew that. Sure, we believe you, uh- hunh...

[Uncle Monster]

That seems quite odd. If the room is airtight, you should still have it checked out by someone with knowledge of proper ventilation. The problem you may have is explained on the website. It might be solved by simply cutting a small supply register into the duct coming off the air handler. If I understood your original post, the furnace is next to the water heater. It&#39;s puzzling why a duct would be run to the attic for any other reason than make-up air. If the duct is open to the attic, a powered attic vent could cause the negative pressure. It&#39;s hard to figure out what&#39;s going on with limited information. For your own safety, get it checked out.

[8~{} Uncle Monster

[<kjpro]

Oh my, the idiot police have arrived... an e for an a...

However, my statement *is* true, unlike a lot of your shit.

[<kjpro]

It&#39;s really not that hard to figure out...

The return ducting is run to the attic space, where it probably splits off to many different locations.

[Uncle Monster]

That&#39;s not what it sounds like to me. I wish Edwin would post some pictures to an image sharing site. Pictures of the air handler/furnace setup would be great. It could also be a problem of terminology. There are a number of sites that show illustrations of HVAC components and their proper names.

[8~{} Uncle Monster

[Clark]

wrote in news:125e3$46ccf073$9440c41e$9970 @STARBAND.NET:

No your statement as written isn&#39;t true. Admit your error and move on. Or try to lie your way out of it like always.

Looks like you can&#39;t even handle the English language much less a technical subject. Sorry &#39;bout that. Maybe you should just focus trying to display some competence? Of course that is probably beyond your capabilities...

[edavid3001]

The HVAC is in the corner. At the bottom is an air filter which then has duct work that runs towards the water heater. Then there is a decent sized duct that runs up, through the first floor, and into the attic. In the attic there are two round flexible tubes connected to this. One runs to a air intake vent in the master bedroom and another to the hallway on the other side of the house.

The openings in the duct work are in this structure. The water heater sits right next to it.

A picture is here linked below. Bare in mind that this is over a year old. The basement is finished now. You can sort of see one of the openings in the duct work at the top -- it&#39;s a white grill. The other is a few feet below that, more slim but longer.

[trader4]

Very clear that this is in fact vents in the main return duct at the furnace. Were these there before the basement was finished? If so, it&#39;s totally bizarre. You would be sucking huge amounts of basement air, which you don&#39;t want to conditon, into the system. And with no air vents into the basement on the supply side, it&#39;s a prescription for all sort of problems. Drawing outside air into the basement, drawing conditioned air from the house into the basement, creating negative pressure affecting combustion, etc.

If it was done as part of finishing the basement, it would make a little more sense, but still be wrong. I&#39;m thinking they might have added them as returns for the basement. But they then should be in the finished space and never that close to the water heater/furnace.

My guess is this was some homeowner added crap, based on some very incorrect ideas.

[<kjpro]

Then, by all means, prove that it&#39;s wrong. BTW, my posts are always based on facts. Unlike yours, which contain lie after lie.

No problems here, sorry you can&#39;t handle the heat and have to make up shit.

[DerbyDad03]

Hide quoted text -

Hey ladies, could you please take your bickering over to alt.cat.fight and let the rest of us try to solve the OP problems? Thanks!

[edavid3001]

The basement was initially unfinished. There have always been supply vents in the basement ceiling, however. There are/were 7 or 8 of them down there. The venting was there from day 1. Nothing was changed in the venting/duct work as a part of finishing the basement.

I&#39;m getting the number of someone who does duct work and I&#39;ll have them close those up and run a new air intake out in the hall way.

I would have never though that to be a problem until I read the Popular Mechanics article stating this is a problem. I just wonder how many other homes have this setup. This builder has many homes in the county. I know where one is, I might have to stop by and ask to check it out..

[Uncle Monster]

A picture says a thousand words. Your picture helps clarify the situation. My concern about make-up air can be answered if what looks like a six inch round pipe between the return air duct and the (furnace/air handler/evaporator coil) is open at the bottom where it is behind the "L" shaped portion of the return air duct. If the pipe is open and goes through the roof and has a rain cap, you&#39;re in good shape as far as preventing combustion byproducts being drawn into the house. In your next post you mention that the basement is now finished with this equipment now closed in. Your hiring of a duct man to seal off the return air vent and run a new return into the finished area is the proper course of action and you should have no problems.

[8~{} Uncle Monster