Cold Air Return on Coal Stove - Pictures

I have said lately I’m happy with my setup but don’t have any type of cold air returns. In fact I just have 12x14 on my gas furnace, what an idiot installer. I also have a baby with asthma. So the filtered air will be better for him, compaired to the cold, dusty, basement air. With that said, I wanted to build a filter box for my stove using what I had laying around. This is what I have so far.

More pictures.

More pictures.

Until I find time to run a 8x14 cold air return alongside main trunk, I’m done. This gives me two cold air returns, one 6 inch and one 10 inch.

Since this is a stove, and not a furnace it’s still pulling some air from the basement. Maybe with some sheet metal between the cast and the porcelain outside I could block air and force it to come from the back. I’ll know how much air it is pulling after one month or two months on the filter.

I had a problem with blowing air down into my gas furnace and then out my cold air return. I turned off my gas furnace and put a piece of duct metal onto of the gas heat exchanger, blocking the air. I’m getting much hotter duct temperatures now when I’m burning hard. I’ve seen 160 degree air at 840 cfm(yeah it was 5 and 30-40 mph winds), where my gas furnace only blows 130 degree air.

I’m using foil tape now, this is cool stuff. I thought that’s what I had before, but real foil tape feels like aluminum foil.

Where are these cold air returns pulling air from?? The far end of the house? or from a central hallway?

I see two hot air outlet ducts and now two cold air returns. Could you describe the general air flow you have now?

How much has the temperature in the basement dropped now that you aren't using the basement as a huge uninsulated cold air duct?

Hopefully this will help some other forum members to see the benifits of cold air return ducting.

Greg L.

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Where are these cold air returns pulling air from?? The far end of the house? or from a central hallway?

Cold air returns are only pulling from only two places right now. The first one as you can see is nearly right above the stove, in a downstairs bedroom that has a door open at all times. The second cold air return is in the kitchen. The kitchen is a bad place for a return(but it was already there), everything I’ve read said not to put a cold air return in the kitchen or the bathroom. There are times you never want to recirculate air from either one. I know everyone would benefit from a floorplan, but I don’t have one drawn up.

This is not enough for me, and I need to add two more in order to have one in each room on the first floor. I plan on changing one existing hot air register to cold air, because its on an inside wall. I will then putting in new hot air near the outside wall. I need to run a second main trunk to make this all happen, and just can’t find the time.

I see two hot air outlet ducts and now two cold air returns. Could you describe the general air flow you have now?

As you can see from the picture on this post, I actually have two 8 inch 420 cfm fans tied into the plenum on my gas furnace, and then going down my main 8x14 trunk(not just two ducts). Generally I have a very even temperature in all my rooms. I took advise to buy $1 thermometers for each room and its all balanced with everything wideopen and not dampered. Personally I can’t feel much of a difference from before and after the cold air returns, but I know its helping. I think I’m burning less overall to keep the same temperatures as before. I measured the temperatures coming off the return and always get temperatures in the high 60s… where my basement floor was more in the mid 50s.

How much has the temperature in the basement dropped now that you aren't using the basement as a huge uninsulated cold air duct?

I think the basement temperatures have gone up a little, but I really haven’t noticed it until you said something. I wish I would have kept an eye on them closer. The main reason behind the cold air return is to put a filter in place. The bad things in the ash dust has me nervous and I don’t want to aggravate my sons asthma by trying to save a few bucks.

coal_kid wrote:I think the basement temperatures have gone up a little, but I really haven’t noticed it until you said something.

It probably will go up. When you stopped pulling air out of the basement, you also stopped pulling cold outside air into it. Plus the air not moving will build heat from the appliance.