CHARLIE: David in Tomball has sent us this question to the homeshowradio.com website, using the Ask Tom tab, by way of introduction. He says, “I have a 17,757 square foot, give or take, home, that’s two years old-”
TOM: 17,000?
CHARLIE: It’s 17,000, bigger than casa grande, here.
Podcast: Play in new window
TOM: Yeah. 17,000 is bigger than most bowling alleys. Somebody hit a 0 in there or something.
CHARLIE: You think it may be only 7,500 feet? Anyway, let’s just-.
TOM: Maybe 1,700
CHARLIE: For sake of argument, let’s say, well, here, this is the real giveaway that might it might be a typo.
TOM: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
CHARLIE: Yeah. It might be a 1,700 square foot house, because he says it’s two years old and it has one return air.
TOM: Yeah.
CHARLIE: All right. “It has a 20 by 30 filter in it, no matter when I change it, it doesn’t really look dirty,” he says. This is kind of an odd question, here. “It’s in the front of the house, near the garage, so is that right? For it to have very little dirt on it? I don’t change it that often, and the house seems cool enough, except the front bedroom.”
TOM: I guess, if you want to throw dirt on it, you can, but if its not dirty, it’s not dirty, but still change it regularly. He lives by himself, maybe? He’s got a very pristine lifestyle, he’s not there much, he has no dogs, no cats. So, yeah, it doesn’t have to look like you’re living in the desert.
CHARLIE: But that front bedroom, if its not keeping cool like the rest of the house, you could always have absolute comfort air supply.
TOM: Oh, no, there’s a balancing that’s like static pressure’s and stuff, but usually one air return in a home is not enough.