# Vents and registers



## balavay (Jun 5, 2015)

Doing some woodwork for a customer - floor sections, stairs, window casings and trim, installing/replacing baseboards.

Not sure about something - customer asked about replacing very long baseboard vents with smaller modern ones (and adding baseboards), for a cleaner look. House was built in 1950s, ~2100 sq. ft. ranch style with a basement, central heat/air. All baseboard vents in the house are very long, probably original. For example, shown in the first two pictures, is a 15 foot long vent in the living room under the window. These are not baseboard heaters, there is just empty space behind it, except for two 14" openings which have a flap that can be closed/open by pulling on a chain. Looking at it in the basement, there are two 6" ducts coming from the main supply duct and are connected with 90 degree boots to those 14" openings in this baseboard vent. Does this vent need to be that long, is it for an even distribution of air? Would there be any issues if I replaced it with two small custom vents above the 14" boot openings? I guess I wanted to confirm if these are functional since I am no HVAC expert by any mean... 

Same question regarding the baseboard intake vents that are in the hallway (shown in the third picture). Each one is 2.5 feet wide and the hallway is 20 feet long. Do they need to be this wide?

Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestion!


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## beenthere (Mar 5, 2009)

The supplies don't need to be that long. You can probably use a 1.5, or 2 foot long baseboard supply instead. 

http://www.hartandcooley.com/products/406/steel-baseboard-diffuser-45-ht

http://www.hartandcooley.com/products/462/steel-2-ft-baseboard-diffuser

The returns are probably already smaller then they should be. So they need to at least stay as large as they are.


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## flashheatingand (May 3, 2008)

We usually have the returns up high on the wall. Might want to to put two 4* ten registers on either ends of the windows. I don't think I recall seeing supply registers like that


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## balavay (Jun 5, 2015)

beenthere said:


> The supplies don't need to be that long. You can probably use a 1.5, or 2 foot long baseboard supply instead.
> 
> http://www.hartandcooley.com/products/406/steel-baseboard-diffuser-45-ht
> 
> ...


Thanks for the info! Does it have to be a "diffuser" or can it be a simple vent in the floor?

Why do you say that the returns are "probably smaller", aren't those designed for the house? Or did they design them on the smaller side in the 50s?


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## balavay (Jun 5, 2015)

flashheatingand said:


> We usually have the returns up high on the wall. Might want to to put two 4* ten registers on either ends of the windows. I don't think I recall seeing supply registers like that


"Returns up high on the wall" - are your referring to those two in the hallway? I am guessing that has to be done when the house is built, not retrofitted?

4 by 10 registers, just in the floor, like vents? I agree, I've never seen 15 foot baseboard supply registers like that, I tried searching online, but could not find anything close, must be a 50s thing?  Btw, would those be called registers, vents or something else, maybe I am not searching for the correct thing...

Thanks again!


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## beenthere (Mar 5, 2009)

balavay said:


> Thanks for the info! Does it have to be a "diffuser" or can it be a simple vent in the floor?
> 
> Why do you say that the returns are "probably smaller", aren't those designed for the house? Or did they design them on the smaller side in the 50s?


You can convert the supplies to floor registers. But you have to cut the floor out away from the wall to get the new registers in. And of course repair the floor at the wall then.

Those return registers/grilles at 8x30 allow the air to pass through them quietly if you have enough of them. If you reduce them to 16x8 without adding more of them, the same amount of air now travels twice as fast. And the return grille is 4 times as restrictive to air flow.

Most homes have under sized duct systems to begin with. Adding more resistance by using smaller return grilles just hurts the system more.


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