Comfort Balanced Rooms | Building America Solution Center

For homes with central “forced air” furnace and air conditioning systems, stale air needs a path to get back to the central air handler. Usually that path is through large centrally located return registers that are ducted to the return side of the air handler. When stale air can’t get back to the return registers from bedrooms or offices because the doors are closed, air pressure can build up in those rooms causing pressure imbalances that can result in drafts and temperature differences between rooms, strain on the HVAC equipment, and overpressurization of the rooms, which can force conditioned air into wall cavities where condensation can occur. Homes can be designed to eliminate these risks by installing comfort vents such as jump ducts or transfer grilles in the rooms to provide a path for stale air to return to the air handler. Jump ducts use a piece of flex duct that connects to vent registers in the ceiling of the bedroom and the ceiling of the hallway or open area near the central return, providing a path for air to move from the bedroom to the return register when the door is closed. Transfer grilles use a vent in the bedroom wall that connects to a vent on the opposite side of the wall that opens to a hallway or open area near the return register.

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