We are adding a family room and bedroom to our house. The HVAC guy placed a cold air return in the bedroom and one in the family room. The vent in the family room was placed on the ceiling right against the wall just over where we might be putting kitchen wall cabinets one day. The cabinets will not go to the ceiling. My question is, will the return get enough air if we put cabinets there or should it be moved into the room about 12 inches. It would not be right above the cabinets anymore, it would be just in front of the cabinets? Is there any reason that it should not be placed right next to a truss?

Is there any reason why the return grille was not placed low in the space, as is usually considered correct? If both supply and return are high in the space, there is the risk of short-circuiting, where the conditioned air simply comes out of the supply registers and goes directly into the return grille, without fully conditioning the space.

However, if there will be space above your future cabinets, I see no reason why the cabinets would affect the functioning of the return grille.

I still worry about the high placement of the grille, though.

The vents that the heat and air come out of are on the floor and the return vents are in the ceiling.

That's odd, but I guess there's a reason. Are you in a southern climate?

We are in Missouri. We have also lived in Colorado and Minnesota. We have always lived in houses where the heat comes from the floor and the return vents are in the ceiling.

Generally, heat should be supplied low in the space, and ideally, air conditioning should be supplied high. Usually, the return grille is also placed low, because cooler air falls, and that avoids short-circuiting if the return is properly placed. A high return might be used in warm climates when the system is designed primarily for cooling.

But, if it works, it works.

We just added a fireplace insert to our living room fireplace and it's wonderful. The cold air return is about 6' away and it's a baseboard return which has this computer desk sitting in front of it nearly blocking the flow. The owner of the shop recommended I block off the return and install a wall return a bit higher to help move that warmed up air. Seems like an easy idea as I could use the studs and not have to build a box, all it would require is removing some drywall and installing an open grate. Any thoughts? How far down would you recommend the open grate?
We do live in Iowa so we are a cold weather state, we don't know what Global Warming is Our home is very easy to cool as we have many large trees blocking the sun.

Thanks.
Jon

You don't want to move your expensive "warmed-up" air...you want to move your cold air which has already given off most or all of its heat to your spaces. Therefore, the return grille should be mounted as low as possible. to pick up the coldest air possible. A baseboard return is ideal; can you move or modify the computer desk, or get a different kind of desk that won't block the return? Or, just pull the desk two inches off the wall.

Thank you Richard for your reply, I was hoping you would reply as I've noted your qualifications in your signature line.

Our thought was to draw the warm ceiling air into the return duct work to even out the room and then send it to the furnace where it would be blended back into the house. I can move the desk 2" away from the base board return easily, not a problem.

I'm tempted to not do anything this winter and just see how it goes. It's just the two of us now and we do live in the living room, 13 x 26 with beautiful southern windows. With the new insert this room room it's much warmer and we just love it. The base board return is on a center wall, on the other side of that wall is a hallway that serves bedrooms, there's actually a cold air return in the same place on the other side of the wall in the hallway.

Thanks again for your suggestions.
Jon

Thanks for the kind words, but there are a couple of guys with real ahnds-on experience who contribute to this forum who are far more knowledgeable than myself and my general knowledge of the basics. I think, though, that on your issue, they would agree with me, and I tyhink pulling your computer desk two inches away will do the trick. It's as much art as science, actually...and what return air doesn't get past your desk will probably find its way into the hallway, anyway.