Cold air return only in basement Help!


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Old 10-31-08, 12:47 PM
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Cold air return only in basement Help!

My wife and I recently purchased a 1937 Tudor. The Forced air furnace is brand new. I noticed the other day that the cold air return is just a piece of duct work pulling from about a foot and a half below the floor above. It looks like at one time that ductwork connected into a a run that went to the east and west outside walls of the house. There is not any tin around it, it's just a wooden frame now. It appears that it pulled air in from the outside wall joists(no returns anywhere in the house)? I would like to correct this. It doesn't seem practical to pull the air from there and heat very cold air. I can feel cold air coming in from all around the outside perimeter of the basement. I would like to put insulation in those areas to block the cold air coming into the basement.

Is the best solution to create return ducts on the first and second floors and insulate the perimeter of the basement?

Thanks for any help you can give!

David
 
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Old 10-31-08, 01:14 PM
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Returns should be run in the interior spaces of a dwell whereas supply runs should be run on the perimeter. While it does increase air flow friction, it is acceptable to pan floor joints or use interior wall cavities to run returns. You can't really have too much return, just too little.
 
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Old 10-31-08, 06:03 PM
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the new furnace should be pulling only room return air and from no place else.the filter area on the furnace itself can reach out to a wall in the furnace room and pull there.the second floor will use the stairs as the return if it is a shot to that return on the unit and its location.under no circumstances should you be pulling crawlspace temps into a furnace.if you want you can have a return dropped down from the 2nd floor and the 1st floors then to the unit return filter area,that is a true return but is expensive to install as an after thought
 
 

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