On Thursday, June 5, 2014 1:31:15 PM UTC-4, Scott Lurndal wrote:
trader_4 writes:

On Thursday, June 5, 2014 10:19:32 AM UTC-4, Scott Lurndal wrote:

Ed Pawlowski writes:

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On Wed, 4 Jun 2014 14:08:38 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

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Discovered today with standard AC check that the house we recently purc=

hased has fake cold air returns. Vents are there (high on walls) but at flo=

or level they are sealed shut with wood. Wondering if this has happened to =

anyone else and if inspection/old owners should have discovered/disclosed i=

nformation. Essentially, the second floor of our house has no AC. No issue =

with first floor/basement.=20

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Thanks

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You don't make a lot of sense. You say the vents are high on the

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wall, yet blocked at the floor. Return vents are never high on the

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wall. I have to wonder if you know what you are looking at or just

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doing a poor job of explaining.

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_Never_ is pretty absolute. I've seen houses that used the wall

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cavity as a return ductwork with a vent high on the wall.=20



They are not only common, but standard in houses that are outfitted

with central AC when built. The houses that don't have them up high are

typically ones that were heating only, eg old houses.









The

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base of the cavity had a cutout to the basement which was itself

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the return "ductwork" for the furnace. Supply vents were in the

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floor, usually under the external wall window openings. Built

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in the 70's, midwest.

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Sounds like someone plugged the opening at the bottom of the

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cavity in the OP's case.



More likely the cavity was never cut, I'd bet. He could check what's

beneath and see if a return duct is there. If so, he could cut out

the opening. And even if it's not, it could still be done, it would

just require some additional duct work.



Perhaps I wasn't clear enough. There was no ductwork, the entire

basement was the "duct". There was just an opening through the

floor at the base of the wall cavity, and a vent high on the wall.



The air handler unit had the filter and just pulled air from the

basement.

Good grief. I've never seen anything like that. I hope the basement
is finished, insulated and has HVAC? Otherwise to just use an unfinished
basement for the return for the upstairs conditioned space is an
energy waste. Even with finished basements, all the ones I've seen
there was a standard return air duct system.

And with what you have there, is it correct that there aren't even
any return vents from upstairs that connect to the open basement? If that's
the case, you have a very bad situation. You're creating a vacuum in the
basement, which will pull air from outside into the house, via any
means. That would include creating negative pressure for any WHs
or furnaces that don't have their own separate air intake going outside.
And it will pressurize the upstairs, driving conditioned air out
through leaks around windows, outlets, doors, etc. Very bad from an
energy loss standpoint and potentially dangerous from a CO standpoint too.

Was this inspected by a home inspector prior to purchase? He say
anything?