HVAC Air Return

bjacobus · Post by **bjacobus** » Mon Aug 25, 2003 11:00 am

I have a heat pump that has 1 air return for the unit. ( i have 1 unit for the studio in the basement and 1 for the upstairs living space). After I partition my basement into control room and live room the air return will be in the rear of the control room. Since in theory my live room will be airtight what is the best way to do the air return? Should I use flex duct and run it from the live room back to the air return duct?

thanks,
brian

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Mon Aug 25, 2003 1:09 pm

Brian, that might work but I don't have enough info on where everything is in your setup. It would help if you could post a drawing of your rooms, and where the HVAC supply and return are located now, where your speakers are going, where you want to run ducts, etc - if you don't have a drawing program, a lot of the people here use Smartdraw - you can get a trial copy here (if you're on PC)

http://www.smartdraw.com/

One problem I've seen with flex duct is that you have to be careful not to deform it or you get serious restrictions. AC is largely about flows and balancing pressures, so this can make a big difference... Steve

bjacobus · Post by **bjacobus** » Mon Aug 25, 2003 1:48 pm

on a mac so i'm struggling with illustrator.....i know there isn't any splaying going on with the walls yet, but you get the picture of the outer shell. anyway, the return duct is in that back wall. it has a grill that comes off with the air filter in behind it. the existing supply ducts are able to be moved since this is an unfinished basement. the 3 existing supply ducts are of the flex type "homerunned" to the unit so there is no daisy chaining between rooms. they had to use flex duct to get around the main trunk for the 2nd unit upstairs. it looks like they did a good job on the install.

from my understanding on the way these systems work is the gaps underneath the doors are usually utilized as the return path to the main return.

thanks again,
brian

AndrewMc · Post by **AndrewMc** » Mon Aug 25, 2003 2:16 pm

I just had HVAC installed a few months back in my studio currently under construction.

I have a return in the control room, the studio room and the entry soundlock.

It's all flexible ducting and all the returns and all the feeds have their own runs back to the blower unit - It's absolutely silent.

You should be able to run some 12 inch flexibles back to the return air and have the filters in the return register.