COLD AIR RETURN DUCTS

QUESTION: I am inquiring about the number of cold-air return ducts required to make a hot-air system work properly. On my first floor, there is only one cold-air return, and it is in the ceiling. The heat is very uneven. I get hot spots at the floor level. Would it help to put a second cold-air return in the floor?

ANSWER: I think it will work. Cold-air returns usually make up 30 percent of the warm-air vents. They are designed to prevent warm-air ducts from entering a dead-end room where less warm air will penetrate. Adding a return on the first floor will pay dividends. Cold-air returns do not have to be ducts, by the way. My warm air system had four cold-air returns on the first floor and none on the second, but the warm-air flow is more than adequate even on the second floor because the stairwell acts as a super return. If that were in adequate, I could cut a few openings in the floor.

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