Foyer Ceiling

DennisDe

I have a upstair furnace in the attic. Two HVAC service reps evaluated and recommend improvement for cooling performance. The focus was on my foyer ceiling which high and has neither a supply or return at the top stair which holds a lot of heat. One tech says to add a supply to the ceiling foyer and the other says add a return to the ceiling foyer. which of these thoughts is best? return the heat from the foyer or supply coool air to the foyer.

jim lockard

Well

Dennis----They could both have a ring of truth to em. You will want to pull the hot air off the ceiling and a high return will do that. Since this system is cooling only a high supply will also work as cool air drops. Dennis you will need to know before cutting holes in the supply duct if its is sized properly for you to pull off of, so as not to steal air from another part of the home Best Wishes J.Lockard

Mike T., Swampeast MO

What you might want to do is to take the return from the entry ceiling and put the supplies for the upper hall/stairway/entry into the upper hall concentrating them towards the top of the stairs.

You'll be pulling off the heat from the warmest location and allowing the stairs to act as a natural convection enhancer to keep the air in the entire space quite "well-stirred".

In old two-story houses around here I frequently see this and a single A/C unit upstairs with lots of supply and a good return in the upper hall doing a surprisingly good job of keeping the lower floor quite comfortable. This is an area with extremely warm, humid summers.