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Add an air return

Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 11:18 pm
by samedpaul
Greetings,

I own a 1996 Southern 16x76. We installed a Trane 2.5 ton heat pump three years ago, which works great...only it works much greater on one end of the home than the other (same as the Coleman furnace OEM). The pump is about 20' from one end of the home, and the output at the registers on the other end is not so strong. So, here is what I'm thinking-maybe I should add a 2nd return on the end of the end farther from the heat pump. The current return is in the living room, and the kitchen, master bedroom and master bath are on the end farther from the pump. The winters do not bother us so much because we use vent-free fireplaces in the master br and living room, but in the summer it seems that the a/c has to work awfully hard to keep the house cool. My logic on the 2nd return is that maybe the return would pull more of the warmer air from the far end of the home, making it easier for the lower air output to cool those rooms. I would appreciate any and all feedback, opinions, suggestions, etc.

Thanks
Samedpaul

Re: Add an air return

Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:25 pm
by flcruising
This could work. Not only to pull more warm air, but to create negative pressure on that end of the house, thereby accommodating more supply air to feed there. What I would check beforehand though are obstructions in the supply duct. Or simply throttle down the good end to try and force more to the bad end.

Did you have this issue before the heat pump?