Cold air returns

[ImaginaryDay2]

So in my rental place, my suite is the basement suite, and the heat ducts run across the ceiling. The heat vents and the cold air returns are on opposite sides of the room, but both are at the ceiling. The landlord has blocked all the cold air returns. What effect will/does this have on the ability of the furnace to heat my unit properly? Keep in mind, I don't have a separate furnace/thermostat - it's controlled by the family above me for the entire home.
Would it make a difference to un-block the returns?

 

[Lamb]

There are only cold air returns on the ceiling? I have cold air returns near the ceiling and near the floor. In the winter I close the ones near the ceiling and in the summer I close the ones near the floor. It's supposed to help with recirculating the air according to whether the heat or air conditioning is on.

 

[tango]

So in my rental place, my suite is the basement suite, and the heat ducts run across the ceiling. The heat vents and the cold air returns are on opposite sides of the room, but both are at the ceiling. The landlord has blocked all the cold air returns. What effect will/does this have on the ability of the furnace to heat my unit properly? Keep in mind, I don't have a separate furnace/thermostat - it's controlled by the family above me for the entire home.
Would it make a difference to un-block the returns?

You don't have your own thermostat? I'm surprised the unit is considered fit for rental if you have no control at all over the heat level in there?

 

[Josiah]

It was 90 here.... with 11% humidity.

 

[ImaginaryDay2]

You don't have your own thermostat? I'm surprised the unit is considered fit for rental if you have no control at all over the heat level in there?

I'm looking into that. Some municipalities have started creating by-laws for rentals that require it. The city where I live has no by-laws in place afaik. (I'm going to check my residential tenancy board, though.

I guess it would make more sense to say the duct-work is above me. There are no vents at the floor. I do have a gas fireplace that lights when it wants to - about 15% of the time - but I don't want to run up the gas bill either.

 

[ImaginaryDay2]

It was 90 here.... with 11% humidity.

That's the opposite end of the spectrum for me - waaaay to hot. The nice thing about this suite, though, is that it faces opposite direct sun; so it should stay nice and cool in the summer.

 

[Josiah]

We are in the midst of YET ANOTHER "Santa Ana" - which results in high temps and low humidity (and sometimes strong winds). Bad for fires.... Bad for water needs..... but good for beautiful days.... With the very low humidity, most of yesterday (in the 80's ) felt really good.

But we SHOULD have highs in the mid 60's.... and we should be getting rain...... We're at less than half the rain we should have received so far this season, and this is usually our wettest month - but instead, it's been WAY warmer and drier than normal.

 

[Lamb]

I'm looking into that. Some municipalities have started creating by-laws for rentals that require it. The city where I live has no by-laws in place afaik. (I'm going to check my residential tenancy board, though.

I guess it would make more sense to say the duct-work is above me. There are no vents at the floor. I do have a gas fireplace that lights when it wants to - about 15% of the time - but I don't want to run up the gas bill either.

Your gas fireplace might have bugs building their web in the gas line! Ours is blocked so I shut the pilot light off so we don't waste gas. Having the pilot light on actually uses a small amount of gas. Yes, we're that frugal!! We'll get the gas line cleared out of bugs whenever it's time to move because our glass was always hot even with the pilot light on and that concerned me so yeah, we never used our gas fireplace.

 

[ImaginaryDay2]

Why I was curious about the returns is that it appears he had placed cut-away sections of the ceiling over them, and that's what's blocking them. So the cut-away sections are blocking the entire duct. There are only two heat vents in the entire main living area, which doesn't help heat the place either

 

[tango]

I'm looking into that. Some municipalities have started creating by-laws for rentals that require it. The city where I live has no by-laws in place afaik. (I'm going to check my residential tenancy board, though.

I guess it would make more sense to say the duct-work is above me. There are no vents at the floor. I do have a gas fireplace that lights when it wants to - about 15% of the time - but I don't want to run up the gas bill either.

Sure, I understand wanting to save on utilities (having just gone through a little over $500 in heating oil in barely a month). It's just that it should be your decision rather than someone else's.

 

[tango]

Why I was curious about the returns is that it appears he had placed cut-away sections of the ceiling over them, and that's what's blocking them. So the cut-away sections are blocking the entire duct. There are only two heat vents in the entire main living area, which doesn't help heat the place either

I'm not hugely familiar with heating systems, particularly ducted systems. My experience of fixing them extends to the time a friend seemed to be losing a lot of heat, and it turned out he had a leak in his ducting in the basement, so I helped him fix the leak. It turned out to be little more than replacing a couple of screws that had come out, to return a panel to where it was supposed to be.

If you've got something blocking an outlet vent, is it a sensible proposition to simply remove the obstruction? If it really is as simple as taking a screwdriver to it, removing screws and prying an obstruction out of the way, it could be a really simple fix for you.

 

[Albion]

I also have no expertise in this area, but I feel like the cold air returns being blocked in your apartment but not upstairs wouldn't make much difference, but the lack of your own thermostat could, I suspect, make a difference. That doesn't mean it would be an easy fix. On the other hand, you did not report any discomfort because of not having your own controls.

 

[ImaginaryDay2]

I guess it's just an issue of comfort in the main area of the suite. With only the two vents it can stay chilly. A little experimenting with the returns couldn't hurt, and see what comes of it.

 

[Lamb]

Not having your own thermostat is definitely something to worry about. It's like being stuck in an office where one guy is in charge of what the temperature is for the next 10 guys around him and he's hot all the time but doesn't realize women get colder...so that one woman has to wear her winter coat while working with fingerless gloves even! Been there, done that.

 

[tango]

Not having your own thermostat is definitely something to worry about. It's like being stuck in an office where one guy is in charge of what the temperature is for the next 10 guys around him and he's hot all the time but doesn't realize women get colder...so that one woman has to wear her winter coat while working with fingerless gloves even! Been there, done that.

I've had the opposite problem, with heat so stifling because a couple of women insisted on wearing thin blouses and short skirts to the office in January and then complained they were cold. In the meantime I was spending more time trying to keep comfortable than doing any useful work.

 

[Lamb]

I've had the opposite problem, with heat so stifling because a couple of women insisted on wearing thin blouses and short skirts to the office in January and then complained they were cold. In the meantime I was spending more time trying to keep comfortable than doing any useful work.

You have to blame the clothing manufacturers and store buyers of the products. When I started working again I couldn't find long sleeved thick clothing to wear in the wintertime. It was all short-sleeved sheer things which is ridiculous! So I ended up buying a sweater to put on the back of my chair to wear if I wanted to wear anything except a sweater as my regular top.

 

[ImaginaryDay2]

Clothing can be pretty tricky. I usually find the best stuff at second hand places. There's a few here that have practically new, but irregular stuff, or things that were well kept. When I was looking for a winter coat, we have Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart (junk), plus a rather expensive hunting place. I went to the states for what I have now, cheaper than Canadian, even with the exchange - double lined and all the bells and whistles.

Fortunately last night the fireplace decided to cooperate so it was nice and toast-y

 

[Lamb]

Extra blankets are nice to have on hand too!

 

[Tigger]

Its normal to have all of the ducting coming in from above when supplying a basement. Return air systems do two things for you. One they bring already heated or cooled air back to the appliance requiring that air to need less treatment to acquire desired temperature. And second by drawing air out by the return ducts helps cause a negative pressure in that area enabling the supply air to flow easier back into the area and with more volume. When heating a room from above it can be very advantageous to install a ceiling fan to blow the heated air that wants to rise to the ceiling down to where people can actually enjoy it more.

 

[ImaginaryDay2]

Okay, so I pulled down one of the return vents (so I thought) and it's just a gap in the ceiling that he's cut away near the duct work.