Forced Cold Air From Basement


  #1  
Old 06-04-18, 08:08 AM
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Forced Cold Air From Basement

Hi everyone ..

i used to have a one stage Heil furnace for 15 years and during the summer days , I would run only the Fan on my thermostat to draw the cold air from the basement to other parts of the house via cold air return .

That furnace broke down and I replaced it with a two stage Lennox furnace. As it being the summer season now, I turned on the Fan but the power of the blower is so low that unless I have the AC (or Heat) switched on the thermostat is when the full power of the blower comes into play.

I talked to the HVAC technician and Lennox themselves. And both of them confirmed that their two stage furnaces full not run the blower at full capacity unless the thermostat’s “Cold/Heat” switch is also enabled ... Fan-only will run at the minimum level of forced air.

any gadgets or tricks that would allow me to push the cold air from the cold air returns in my basement so that it runs through the duct work into the other parts of my Holme’s register vents without having to play around with the mechanics of the furnace itself ?

thx
tom
 
  #2  
Old 06-04-18, 08:47 AM
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I don't know what options you have on your Lennox furnace. On my York high efficiency furnace, I have a jumper that allows me to set the Fan ON speed (4 choices as I recall). You might check your installation manual and see if you have something similar.
 
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Old 06-04-18, 10:31 AM
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Originally Posted by Tdelios
the power of the blower is so low that unless I have the AC (or Heat) switched on the thermostat is when the full power of the blower comes into play.
Agreed with above idea, check if your thermostat or fan/furnace controller has a jumper for A/C high/low fan speed.

I found the simpler thing was to pull the furnace's fan access door, and place an air filter over it.
See, I've got a simialr setup, - basement furnace but no central A/C, except I've got an unfinisehd basement without air returns, so there's no other way to utilize the cool basement air.
While the "fan circulate" setting is very helpful during the summer to even out temperatures in spring and fall, during summer, I had no way to get cool air out of the basement.

What I' found was that removing the furnace's ~30"x24" fan access panel, then duct taping a 30"x24" filter cover over the opening, let the fan pull in cool basement air without the resistance of the return ducts, (which are in warmer upstairs rooms anyway) which pushed much more air. That let me just run the system in A/C mode, when it gets hot, the fan blows cool basement air throughout the house for a while until it's cool and the fan shuts off. I like that better than the always-on-fan settings.
 
 

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