Silly question for any heating and air people?

[JD Mandrell]

I live in a house built in 1960, today we had a new furnace installed, and after the workers left, I went around checking all the heat registers and while doing so noticed something.

1. All the floor heat registers are along an outside wall, which I get because that's were you put ductwork.

2. All the heat registers are directly below a window.

Dumb question, is there a reason that they were installed directly centered under a window?

 

[Gollnick]

Yes! So that the drapes will blow open unexpectedly when the furnace turns on suddenly and the neighbors can catch a peek!














Seriously, classically the vents are centered along outside walls because outside walls tend to be the coldest. A lot of windows are also centered on wall.

Second reason, most people don't put large furniture in front of windows since it would block the window. So, this means that the vent is also unblocked.

 

[Bob W]

It's best to have the heat registers below the windows. The cold air coming off the windows mixes with the hot air coming out of the registers. So there aren't any cold drafts.

The design is nothing new either. Our home was built in 1904 and the standing hot water radiators were installed shortly after. All of the radiators on the first floor are located beneath the windows. On the second floor the windows come too low to the floor, so the radiators are next to each window.

One resulting problem we have on the second floor, where to put furniture. Our bedroom has four doors, two windows, and two radiators. There's very little available wall space.

My parent's house was the worst. The heat registers were along the interior walls. So the heat blew out and up to the ceiling, and the cold air from the windows creeped down. That crap-shack was always drafty and cold in the winter.

I could draw a diagram with blue and red arrows showing the results of having heat registers located in different positions, but hopefully you get what I'm saying.

Best Wishes,
Bob

p.s. I'm not a "heat and air" person; I'm just passing along what I've read.

 

[JD Mandrell]

Thanks, folks, it was one of those things that was gonna bug me until I learned!

The furniture placement thing makes sense, people don't tend to block windows with large furniture, so that would discourage covering registers with them.