Guess the interior decorator went a little too fast. Found this on my thermal camera behind the wallpaper while running the HVAC units. doh!
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Interesting and the ceiling is an odd place for a supply register, too. Did you investigate it further?
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Not in the south or in basements.
Photo is pretty funny…duh…“This room got colder after we papered.”
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Yeah, I don’t have much experience in the south where their big concern is cooling, not heat so much.
But in basements, we would run the ductwork down the walls between the studs and bring the heat low into the room. Many don’t do it that way but it works really well from my experience.
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This is in Southern California, 99% of our registers are on our ceiling. We have a lot of concrete slab construction where I am. This was the only room without a register on the ceiling, but we found out why 
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See it here quite frequently on newer construction here… But not so much with wall papering the ceiling 
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Maybe the room was too hot for the occupants so it was by design.
On another note, who puts wallpaper on ceilings? 
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This was an over-the-top remodel from a 1940s house in Pasadena CA. It was done by some interior designer from TV apparently. Went all out, as you can see
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Who still buys wallpaper?
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Nowadays, it’s known as “Designer Wallcovering”… and it’s very popular… and expensive!!
They watched too many episodes of Home Inspector Joe!
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Supply registers are not located at the room entry door (in the south). The air will be sucked right back out of the room, never conditioning it.
The thermal pattern is not consistent with a supply duct either.
I would go with “Investigate further” as well…
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Was this a bathroom or bedroom? Bathroom I can see it make sense, bedroom wouldn’t make sense like David said
It was in the guest bathroom
It could be that they covered over it with drywall. The register base never got secured, and is blowing into the attic. I have found that a few times with my thermal.
But, could also be missing insulation…
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See them a lot here as well. I’ve seen one basement in the time I’ve been doing this that had ducts run down the walls in a basement. Great idea I think but it doesn’t happen here often.
On a related note: years ago we built a restaurant with load bearing brick. Similar to 4” high block but a fired clay product. Even the booth walls were the same materials. Customers complained about being cold so they wallpapered the walls a the complaints stopped.
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I am quite certain it was a covered register. When I ran AC it was reading cold, same as the other registers. When I ran heat, I was getting the same reading from other registers. Not to mention, other bathrooms had register in this exact location.
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Just for info., this scan does not indicate SA blowing into the attic or floor above.
It does look like they blocked or insulated the opening (but not all that good). This appears to be a very small leak in the lower right corner. Heat pattern is more conductive than convective.
Yes, you will see leaks at the duct terminations all the time. Code has improved this issue a lot however.