Hi All,

If a heating guru could help me out, I'd really appreciate it!

I am building a home with a volume builder, and whilst I was going over the plans, I noticed that the Return Air Duct was facing the Leisure Room. This 'wing' of the house is will not be as widely used as the Dining/Kitchen/Family rooms. So I thought it was odd that in the middle of winter, you'd be pulling in cold air from the unused Leisure room (which is zoned off) heating it, and then pumping it back into the rooms being used. Why would you not pull the air from the Dining/Kitchen/Family, heat it back up and pump it back into the same room?

I guess you could use the analogy of using 'Recirculate' in your car - no point heating cold outside air when you can keep heating the cooler inside air - surely that's more efficient?

I was thinking of moving the Return Air Duct to the other side, as shown:

[ img ]

Could any heating experts advise if this is worth doing?

Cheers

Makes sense to me. That's what I would do.

Your reasoning is sound. The other aspect, however, is aesthetics. Are you sure you would want to look at it all the time?

Perhaps you could move those double doors "up" (making the dining room slightly bigger and the leisure room slightly smaller) and put the return air at the side so it's less visible.