The furnace room in the basement of our 4 year old town house gets quite cold when the A/C is running. The only cold air return in the basement is in the family room portion, which is walled off from the utility room. Can I add a cold air return to the utility room to make use of this cold air? Any tips (IE distances from furnace, etc) so that I make use of this cold air but still draw the warm air from the second floor?
Answer:
Atually, every room in the basement should have its own return air grill. Only in the basement is this cost effective because cold air is heavier than warm air and it all collects downt here. You could tap it right into the return air plenum but make sure you're collecting cold air from the basement floor so the grill should be as low as possible.