Ask your contractor where “Open Interior Door System” is discussed in Manual D? What part of country are you located?

 

Opening post says, Texas.

 

Undercut the door bottoms.

 

If system can not maintain temp with doors open, returns aren’t going to help. You have other issues to deal with first.

 

True. Thanks. They say they will balance the system, but we will still need to keep all our doors open all the time. Would have liked to have had that disclaimer from the beginning. Were told many builders use this "system"...so far we cannot find any in our area that do. Thanks again.

 

The distance to the return at the back of the house does not matter. It would have to travel that far if it were ducted.

 

There are also passive returns where you put a grill low on the bedroom side of the wall and high in the same stud space on the living space side of the wall to equalize air flow with doors closed. It does not matter which side is high or low just to be clear.

 

Thanks. They say they will balance the system, but will still need to keep all our doors open all the time. Would have liked to have had that disclaimer from the beginning.

 

Return grilles and ducts can be put in each bedroom and hooked to the common return or down south it seems common to use jump ducts, a return in the ceiling of the bedroom and just hooked to a return in the area of the house with the main return. Fortunately that hasn't found its way up here yet.