Originally Posted By: jonofrey This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Did an inspection today on a new spec house. 3700 Sf, two story. 3 ton York for upstairs, 4 ton York for downstairs. Both air returns were upstairs near the top of the stairs and about six feet from one another.
There's a long hallway downstairs with a couple of bedrooms and a full bath off it. I'm concerned about both air returns being upstairs. Should I be?
Originally Posted By: away This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
John,
I would say yes.
The house next door has a similar setup. 3 ton for downstairs and I think 2.5 ton for upstairs. Dining room, office, kitchen, family room, master suite, utility room, and powder room all downstairs. Only one 12x12 return vent in master suite. Since the family room is open to the upstairs and the other rooms are open to the family room I guess they thought it would provide enough flow to reach the return upstairs.
Prior owners were forever having problems, getting the downstairs comfortable in the winter made the upstairs too hot, getting the upstairs comfortable in the summer ran their cooling bills through the roof.
HVAC company installed another return vent upstairs (for the downstairs unit) but that didn't really help. Further recommendations were to run a return down to the lower floor via an existing column. They moved (relocation) before anything was done so I don't know if that would have helped or not. New owners do not work from home (as the prior owners did) so they may not notice it as much.