Return air location

[White 99]

I am redoing the heating system in my house. It is a two story with propane forced air heating.

What are the considerations of having the return air located in the ceiling of the upstairs vs. having the return air from the floor of the bottom floor?

One thing I have heard is I want to pull the cooler air and heat it compared to pulling the hotter ceiling air and heating it.

This is for heat only, no air conditioning.

Either location will be in a open stairway in the center of the house.

 

[itsspeeds]

I am no expert, but I have been researching this for quite some time. I believe if its only heat you are looking for then the returns would be best at a lower location where it can **** up the cold air. It also depends on where your supply ducts are at. If they are on the floor as well, then you might have to put them up high to get a good circulation in the room. You might want to get a certified HVAC installer to really show you the options, since there are a few variables.

 

[Orangestang]

Considering heat rises pulling return air up high will make the floor seem cold, you might want to keep it down low to force the warm air down. I have returns both high and low that I can open and close depending on the season. During cooling the return vents are used up high,during heating the returns are open down low.It works fine for me. I prefer one high and one low you might want to consider that.

 

[White 99]

Thanks for the replys. I am leaning towards changing to a floor level return when I redo the heater. I suppose I could leave the 2nd floor ceiling return also but right now I think I will just go with the low level return.

 

[mrobins297aaa]

It'll work fine either way as long as the air has a path to get back to the furnace