JohnnyV wrote:I just put a cold air return at the bottom of the first floor steps yesterday. Last night I noticed for the first time that the cold draft I have been feeling disappeared. I used a 2" X 12" inch return. Try and use as large of a grate that will fit between the joists for the hot air to go up. Depending on your layout and how many floors you want to heat you may need to put one in the floor/ceiling of the upstairs to get the air to go up and circulate. Don't go overboard though. Heat naturally rises, but you will notice a difference.
I agree with what you did. I too can feel the cold air pouring down my stairs. I am curious as to what that looks like. Having such a prominent grate is such a public area. Most grates tend to be along walls or in the corners. Out of the way. Generally stairs are right there in view when people enter. I think that is the most effective place for it. But the wife might not like it.
Vin.
We all can cut holes only to find cold air is heavier than warm air. Years ago 25 or more ago I too was experimenting. Luckily I took it slow unlike my neighbor. Another way to move heat from downstairs to upstairs is to pressurize the downstairs to help the warm air to rise. This can be done with small fans or in my case an inline energy effecient Panasonic fan. It worked well but the bedrooms got a little cool but other rooms where way warmer. The fan has since been reconfigured to pressurize the upstairs bedrooms, just trying to keep the women in the house happy. It was always in the latter configuration but a heating friend of mine suggested it. I thought it worked better but was out voted 
