What's a "return air grille"?

Question

...and what is the difference between that and the grille that is on the ceiling that distributes the air?

I'm looking for two grilles, both of which are the kind that are low on the wall, and don't blow air...

Answer 1

The air that comes from your furnace into the room has to go somewhere, and the air that goes into your furnace has to come from somewhere. The return air ducts do exactly that: they allow the air that circulates into your room to go back to the furnace to be rewarmed and recirculated (or recooled, if the A/C is on instead of the heat.)

The supply grills usually have a baffle so they can be adjusted or shut off, but the return air grills do not.

Answer 2

Both answers are correct.  using the already warmed air from your house, or cool air as the case may be, assists in lowering your energy costs.

On the other hand, you will see some closed systems like gas heaters and some fireplaces that draw their fresh air from outside, thus reducing the potential for swirl of heated air and maybe smoke from wood fireplaces, even if a fireplace fan is used to disperse the warmed air farther into the room.  Never close off entirely the return air grills.  You can adjust to get more cooling up and less down by opening up full and closing down a bit, or vice versa for heating since warm air rises.  If your furnace is starved for air supply, it won't run as well and could be dangerous in that the fuel is not fully burned, resulting in potential for vapors to be distributed along with what warmed air is sent out.  For cooling the issue is less critical, but you want that cooled air moving across the A frame on your AC, makes it work less hard.

Answer 3

Grilles have no regulators or dampers.

Registers are the ones that have air blowing out and are typically adjustable.

There are many brands of grilles and registers like Hart & Cooley, Lima, J&J Register, Contenental Register Co.

Answer 4

When you have a forced air furnace, you have a fan that blows hot air throughout the house.  There would be a central return point where the air is drawn back into the fan to get heated some more.  It's more efficient to re-heat the air that's already been heated.  The already once-heated air that goes back to the furnace is called the return air, and it gets there via a 'return air grill' which is ducted back to the funace.  It is also referred to as a 'cold air return'.

Most big box stores should carry a selection of grills.  If you can't find what you want there, look for a sheet metal shop or sheet metal supplier.

Answer 5

Simply the return air grill is like the back of a fan, you close that off and you don't get air from the other side! you'd also burn out your fan motor.

Answer 6

A 'return air' grill is used to cover the air that is being returned to the air handler/fan.

Some air vents have on/off controls -- but a return air grill does not -- you typically* don't want to shut of the air return.

*There are some instances where you want to shut off some of them to help control hot/cold spots.