Return Air In Ceiling

[mathew stouffer]

This place was a beauty. What do you typically say about return air vents in the ceiling. The place was built in 1985.

[Jerry Peck]

This place was a beauty. What do you typically say about return air vents in the ceiling. The place was built in 1985.


I ALWAYS (okay, 97+% of them, the other 2-% are in the walls) see return air vents in the ceiling.

What I see in that first photo, though, appears to be a supply in the floor directly under a return. That sure is a great way to circulate the air through the system, but it does not do much for circulating the air through the house.

[Scott Patterson]

It is what it is! I'm tickled pink when I find return vents in rooms! Most of the time the home has just one large return per floor.

In your picture I would not worry about the return in the ceiling that is above the supply on the floor. Over that 8' distance the air will mix enough and dilute with the room air so it is really not a factor outside of a little air movement in the room. Yes, it would have been better for it have been on another wall, but it did not happen.

[Steven Meyer]

I don't see a big problem. Most slab on grade houses have the vents in the ceilings, including mine. House is toasty in the winter, cool in the summer. Not a problem.

[mathew stouffer]

Thanks guys. Around here it is very uncommon to find returns in the ceiling so I was curious. I found this one today right after I posted this thread. It is right next to the utility room in the ceiling.

[Jerry Peck]

Our house up here ("up here" is relative as to most of yall it is "down there"), built in 1978, originally had returns in each bedroom in the wall down low, used a stud cavity going up for the return. Also had/has a return in the hall ceiling and had a return down low in the dining room wall which goes up to the cathedral ceiling.

A previous owner had the returns in the bedrooms relocated from in the wall down low to up in the ceiling in the corners, which is the way it is down now-a-days.

The return in the hall ceiling is still there.

The return down low in the dining room wall was relocated (presumably at the same time as the bedroom returns) to up into the wall above the kitchen entry and faces the living room, it was cut through the cedar wall covering (the living room walls are all 1x6 T&G cedar boards, all the way to the 14' high peak in the living room).