ductsfloorhvacregistervent
My duct opening is right next to the wall. I pulled out this old register to replace the baseboards but now I can’t fit it in the opening anymore.
It seems like the existing duct gets in the way when the “fins” of the register are open, so it does not sit directly on the floor, but 1 inch or so above the floor.
Seeking options.
It is difficult to properly cool two spaces with vastly different heat loads and only one thermostat.
Assuming typical computers and monitors and two users, you probably have about a kilowatt of heating or 3400 BTUs per hour.
Rather than run ducts, have you considered a dedicated cooling unit for your office? You can go with a small window unit. Even the smallest one is 5000 BTU and only uses about 500 watts when running. That's just a few pennies per hour and even that is offset by the reduction in load on the main unit. With the thermostat in the same room, its load response will be much better and the temperature extremes you have been suffering with will be eliminated. Plus you can turn it off when no one is there and save energy that way.
Lately my thinking is that ducts are basically parasites and efficiency goes up when the heater/cooler is in the same room as the load. In the past, the equipment cost was lower with a shared unit but operating costs (energy) have gone up a lot (and will continue to go up) and that could change the equation on selecting shared or dedicated equipment. Comfort will always be superior with dedicated equipment.
All right, I found a manual for a nearly-identical unit and cross-referenced what it says with applicable sections of the 2012 International Fuel Gas Code. Now I feel like I have a much better idea of what's going on.
The huge duct is supplying input air for combustion and dilution through the attic, which is code-approved and is sized correctly. There's a hole in the ceiling of the furnace room that I didn't even notice; it's for the output air. It all corresponds perfectly to this illustration in the code:
The alternative is to get the air partially or wholly from inside the conditioned space as long as the building envelope's tightness isn't 0.4 air changes per hour at 50 pascals of pressure or better, which my house most certainly is not (that's Passivehaus-level!). In this case, I would need 50 cubic feet of interior airspace per 1000 BTUs of all interior gas-fired appliances. The furnace draws 125k (waaaay too high), and the gas range is capable of drawing 54k when the oven and all the burners are firing. So the worst-case scenario is that I need 8950 cubic feet (or 1118 square feet) of interior space when all these appliances are in use. I don't have that; the whole interior is only 1100 square feet, and I can't even count bedrooms and bathrooms that have doors, reducing the amount of square footage I can use for combustion air purposes to 650, or 5200 cubic feet, or a maximum of 104,000 BTUs worth of gas drawn by interior gas appliances. Even downsizing the furnace, I will still likely exceed that, and the deficit will get worse as I air-seal the building envelope.
So I have to keep the existing setup, which is all kosher with the code and perfectly safe. And I'll never get carbon monoxide poisoning. So that's good.
The question becomes how to offset the energy penalty of having two huge penetrations into the conditioned space where outside air can flow. I'm thinking that my best option is going to be separating the furnace closet from the rest of the house as much as I can. There are huge holes and thermal bypasses which I'll be sealing up, and if possible, I'm going to add insulation to the stud bays separating the furnace closet from the rest of the house. In essence, I'll turn it into a mini-unconditioned-space within the conditioned space.
Best Answer
You can try one of these: