LarryLeveen
Member
I just moved into an older (1918) 1,250 sq.ft., 1.5 story home in Tacoma, WA. Forced air gas furnace seems to work really well on the main floor (see pix of unit's "badge" at end of message), but there are no heater vents upstairs and we are curious about our options and what might be economical/affordable to provide heat on chilly mornings.
There is a vent coming out of the wall towards the bottom of the stairwell (see pix below). I was curious if that duct might be able to be extended upwards and to serve the two smallish bedrooms upstairs. I realize that ducting is ideally sized/balanced to serve the room areas and this might be less-than-ideal, but it would doubtless be an improvement over what we have now. I don't know if this house lacks firebreaks between the studs, but one never really knows what's in a wall till it's open, do they? Potentially, if needed, the duct could "emerge from the wall" in the stairwell and run upwards in an aesthetic enclosure to serve the upstairs.
The air return register is fairly adjacent to this stairwell heating vent (see pix below). This seems especially dumb as the second floor has no return. Seems like the upstairs would only be pressurized by the stairwell vent blowing hot air into it. Instead, logic suggests the hot air will instead move to the adjacent air return instead of upstairs. Am I right?
It is clear that there used to be a door at the base of the stairs that was removed (likely one of the doors in the basement). But without an upstairs air return, I would expect that a door would only help so much — the pressure issue mentioned above would remain and hot air would always follow the path of least resistance and be drawn towards the return. At least, if the stairwell heater duct was extended upstairs, its vents would wind up being at the furthest points away from the air return, making a somewhat decent circuit for heated air to circulate in the rooms and colder air to move towards the return.
Thoughts and advice greatly appreciated. Thanks.
I figured it might be helpful to supply this info:
There is a vent coming out of the wall towards the bottom of the stairwell (see pix below). I was curious if that duct might be able to be extended upwards and to serve the two smallish bedrooms upstairs. I realize that ducting is ideally sized/balanced to serve the room areas and this might be less-than-ideal, but it would doubtless be an improvement over what we have now. I don't know if this house lacks firebreaks between the studs, but one never really knows what's in a wall till it's open, do they? Potentially, if needed, the duct could "emerge from the wall" in the stairwell and run upwards in an aesthetic enclosure to serve the upstairs.
The air return register is fairly adjacent to this stairwell heating vent (see pix below). This seems especially dumb as the second floor has no return. Seems like the upstairs would only be pressurized by the stairwell vent blowing hot air into it. Instead, logic suggests the hot air will instead move to the adjacent air return instead of upstairs. Am I right?
It is clear that there used to be a door at the base of the stairs that was removed (likely one of the doors in the basement). But without an upstairs air return, I would expect that a door would only help so much — the pressure issue mentioned above would remain and hot air would always follow the path of least resistance and be drawn towards the return. At least, if the stairwell heater duct was extended upstairs, its vents would wind up being at the furthest points away from the air return, making a somewhat decent circuit for heated air to circulate in the rooms and colder air to move towards the return.
Thoughts and advice greatly appreciated. Thanks.
I figured it might be helpful to supply this info: