Do We Need A Cold Air Return In A Small Bedroom?
Sunday, January 17th, 2010 at
10:05 pm
We are remodeling our kitchen which involves tearing down the wall between the kitchen and family room. Unfortunately, the cold air return from our daughter’s room upstairs goes down through that wall. Due to the design of the house, we can’t see where else to put a cold air return in that room. The room is probably 10′ x 10′. We don’t know what to do! Any help out there! Thanks!
No related posts.
Could you locate a new cold air return NEAR the old small room? As long as return air is being picked up near the room, ventilation should be OK.
And concerning “healthy and hygenic”, I have never seen a system that makes air healthier and more hygenic by picking up dust throughout a house and blowing it all around, unless there’s HEPA filters, ionizers, chemical/ultraviolet treatments, etc.
When I had my air conditioner in my house replaced a couple of years ago, the company who did it removed all of the air intakes from the system except for the air intake right under the AC.
One reason for this is that air intakes are usually not as well sealed as the output ducts (mine certainly weren’t – think inch and a half gaps). Any intake going through the attice that isn’t well sealed is going to be pulling in hot attic air (and attic dust) along with the cold air from the house.
I know that conventional wisdom is that you need air intakes all over the place to keep the AC from having to work harder. However, it seems to me that most houses are not built solidly enough (and that air is very efficient at flowing from higher pressure to lower pressure) that your standard AC output will generate enough air pressure to make the AC have to work harder. If that is the case, numerous intakes could possibly even make the AC work harder as it both has to push air out, and pull air from long air ducts; whereas with the one air intake just underneath the AC, normal air equalization keeps the air intake at a constant pressure and the AC isn’t having to pull the air from a long way away.
Much of this came from the company who sold my AC to me. I will admit that I am not an HVAC person and that they could have told me pretty much anything; however, I was very impressed by their professionalism, their thoroughness and their skill. They didn’t just drop an AC unit in my house, they did everything they could to make the AC unit run more efficiently.
For the room itself, no you don’t. But consider the amount of air returning to your furnace throughout the house already. Do you have sufficient cold air returns throughout your home? If you don’t have enough air being pulled into the furnace, this could create a problem.
If you can get it in there, I would. Little girls have a tendency to keep there door closed. As they get older, the chances that the door will be closed is increased. Pumping air into a room w/o a way to pull it back out is never a good thing.
If your daughter’s room has only one outside wall, it shouldn’t be a problem. The more outside walls a room has, the more loss/gain it will experience and the more it would benefit from a cold air return.
yes….a smaller room is stuffier than a larger one and especially if u have remodelled…u need a cold air return….it’ll be healthy and hygienic…