Cold air returns & thermostat placement?

[teenie]

Hi everyone,

Well we have finally made the first step to redoing our kitchen(again) This time we are phycially changing the layout... within the same space. But we are opneing up the wall between the dining room and kitchen and replacing a window with sliding doors.

We have 3 cold air returns on the main floor of a bungalow(built in '62). The basic shape of the house is like an L meaning across the width of the property and bedrooms down one side from the front.
The back of the house has a southern exposure.

First question.... The thermostat currently is on the wall dividing the Living room and dining room. But it is place on/in the dining room. Which is at the back of width(l shape) of the house facing south.

It is already a fair distance from the bedrooms and causes an uneven temperature variance between the bedrooms and dining room and living room area.

I am thinking once we take out the wall between the kitchen and dining room and the kitchen window is replace with a sliding door we made get more sunlight which will affect the thermostat. The window being replaced is on the back of the L part facing south

Now If I move the thermostat do the other side of the wall it is almost above a cold air return in the living room. No more than 3 feet from the side of it. The grill is wall mounted near the floor. From what I have read... it is not good to have the thermostat near the cold air returns.

I thought of moving it further away in to the hallway leading to the bedrooms
but I have another cold air return mounted on the wall near beginning of the bedroom hallway and the door way to the kitchen and another one down the hall about 12 feet but it is acutally in the middle bedroom again wall mounted near the floor.

So I am trying to figure out best placement for the thermostat. Ideally the new placement would help even out the variance in heating and cooling.

Second question.... with a bungalow.... I was wondering if one of these cold air returns should acutally be place closer to the ceiling?

Easy on me with the answers... HVAC is not my forte.... but since I about to make a mess... I figure now would be the time to move things if need be.

Thought's and idea's are welcome!

[billw]

About your cold air return on the ceiling. I have a bungalow, just built in 2007, 1,465 sq ft. I have ceiling returns in the main hall, each of 2 bedrooms, and front office.

These are directly above the floor returns. In the summer I close the floor return which opens the ceiling return.This improves the cooling effiency by drawing hot air from the ceiling.

I know not about thne postioning of the thermostat but I really don't think it will hurt it to be above the floor return, it is on the floor. Just make sure it isn't 1) above a floor/desk lamp 2) come into direct view of sunlight 3) near a window or drafty area 4) not on an outside wall

Good Luck with your reno
Bill

[wgauci]

I'm in the trade, in my opinion it's better to have your stat near the return air vent. Most older houses tended to have a single return in the main hallway and the stat was always mounted in the hall almost directly above the floor grill. Think of it this way, you're trying to condition your air to a certain temp. You don't want the unit to shut off until all the air reaches that temp which would mean that the air going into the return will be at the desired temp before the unit cycles off. Keep it out of sunlight and definately away from any areas that it might get airflow from a supply air grill.

As for placement of grills, to me it's a personal prefference. the set up that billw described is an ideal set up. Draw air from the ceiling in cooling mode and floor in heating mode. However I don't see a whole lot of places around set up for two returns in the same room.

PS.. try modulating closed some of your supply air grills in your open areas to force more air into your bedrooms that you say are not conditioned as well.

[teenie]

So, than you do not see any problem with the thermo stat being near the cold air return in the hallway. This would make it more centrally located in the house.

I do try to adjust the floor registers in different season to compensate for differences but very difficult to get it right for the whole house.

Do you think it is worth moving the cold air return in the hallway closer to the ceiling, and leaving the two on the wall near the floor where they are?

[wgauci]

Sure, if you're doing the changes to the drywall then you can move the vent without too much work. It's going to improve the over all air movement in the house drawing it from up and down. I just wouldn't recommend it unless your making changes to the walls anyway.

I'm a service guy so I don't really get into the ductwork side of the trade as much. However, if you're finding that some areas don't get the airflow you'd like, there are some options. If you have access to the round pipe leads going to your bedrooms, you could install a few inline booster fans that will increase the flow into the trouble areas.