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I’d like to build a ducting system to actively push air from one room to another. Is that a thing? (self.homeimprovement)

submitted 6 months ago by ch00f to c/homeimprovement

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So my home office is in our basement while my wife’s is in a finished attic space. We have a mini split system, but it has to be all heat or all cooling, and many days it’s cold in my office, but hot in my wife’s office.

Thanks to a defunct chimney, I have a pretty decent path from the attic to the basement that could easily accommodate some kind of ducting.

I’d like to make a system that can push air from my office to hers or vice versa as needed. I think this would really help the house in general as cold air tends to pool in the basement.

I’ve seen plenty of ducting booster fans, but I’d like something with a speed (or at least direction) control accessible from the outside.

Does something like this exist? It would need to force air through maybe 30-40’ of ducting.

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[–] Death_Equity 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

If the masonry is gone and there is just a framed out hole then galvanized would totally work with fairly easy install with the help of a second person or some clever use of support. You wouldn't want to just blow air through the cavity without ducting as it would be horribly inefficient and tank the air velocity across that much distance.

Adding an in-line towards the middle does mean having controls up in the attic more involved and you do want the Mrs to have control over the fan there instead of her having to go downstairs.

If you wanted to circulate the air instead of forcing air with a passive return, then you get into a more complex situation with two ducts and fairly informed placement of intake and return.

Pulling into the attic will help to lower temps and will be the simplest/cheapest option so long as there isn't a wall you can put a window heat pump unit in.

[–] ch00f 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Do you think I could get away with some flexible ducting? Might be hard to navigate the rigid stuff into these spaces. Also, insulated ducting or no (thinking about condensation).

[–] Death_Equity 2 points 6 months ago

When you say flexible ducting, are you talking aluminized plastic or the corrugated aluminum? That would be a fair amount of weight for flexi in either case, you would want to have access along the route to secure it, especially if it is insulated. The aluminized plastic would need more support than aluminum.

Without site inspection, I couldn't say how necessary insulating the duct would be. Using insulated duct would be a good "better safe than sorry" move but will make installation without full access a bit of a bother.