whats the reason for this?

[diovol]

So i have been noticing that with the cold weather coming my basement has been pretty cold and after tackling my electrical for the garage i was putting back together the hanging ceiling in my basement and i found a vent that from outside almost looks like a dryer vent but without the flaps and it connects to a 4 inch sheetmetal pipe that goes staright across the hanging ceiling and does a 90 degree bend and ends about 16 inches from the floor right next to my furnance in the furnace room, but it is not hooked up to anything it just ends beside the furnace and i can stick my arm in it and it lets in frezzing cold air. Is this a vent or something for the furnace?

 

[stealthbob]

Sounds like a cold air make up vent...

It supplies combustion air for the furnace, without it you will not get a good burn or even worse get CO contamination in your house.

 

[CraigFL]

Most people finish the job by building a small closet around the furnace so that this cold air is only used for combustion and doesn't mix with the warm air...

 

[6t7gto]

some info here...
http://www.houserepairtalk.com/f8/cold-air-return-question-5879/

 

[diovol]

well i figured it was a fresh air intake but i thought they mate up to the furnace just not dead end by it.

 

[cowboyjosh]

In Colorado we have to have 2, 8 inch make up vents in the basement to the outside that terminate near the furnace and hot water heater. 1 of the 2 vents must be kept at ceiling height and the other about a foot off the floor. Normally in a tight house you'll only feel the cold when the hot water heaters or furnace burners are on. I have had people stuff the vents full of insulation only to ***** then that their furnace quit or the hot water heater pilot keeps going out. I always tell folks, we do things for a reason when we build a house, we didn't intentionally install 2 vents to the outside just to purposely make your house cold.

 

[scuba0459]

In my house I have one intake that terminates near the floor and one hooked to cold air return. Both are about 8" lines. My old demand hot water heater had a separate 3" intake. Even with all those we had a cold snap two winters ago and both furnaces, all 180,000 btu and our wood stove managed to take air from the demand hot water heater and it froze. The next morning it burst.

 

[jklingel]

I always tell folks, we do things for a reason when we build a house, we didn't intentionally install 2 vents to the outside just to purposely make your house cold.

And I thought it was because your 401K was loaded with oil company stocks. Now I know.

 

[tatra]

install a p trap with flexible tubing..............

 

[Falcon67]

I always tell folks, we do things for a reason when we build a house, we didn't intentionally install 2 vents to the outside just to purposely make your house cold.

One of the houses we looked at here had all the weep holes caulked shut in the brick exterior. Who plants these ideas?

 

[Hmrhead]

It sounds just like the make up/fresh air in my house. High efficiency furnaces and hot water heaters need extra air to burn efficiently(sp?). Without it they starve and performance drops considerably and you could get incomplete burning resulting in CO. Link below is what is in my house.

http://www.skuttle.com/makeupcontrol.html

 

[diovol]

well if it is normal i will leave it alone. thanks for the info....