I'm getting clobbered with propane fuel costs (2.91/gal as of 15 JAN 08). Thinking of buying a corn/wood pellet stove, I had a general contractor friend of mine visit and do an energy audit.

Among MANY things I need to caulk, insulate, etc., he observed there is NO cold air vent at the furnace to allow the furnace to use basement air. He highly recommended installing a cold air vent on the cold air return duct work on the furnace.

Now....is my friend correct ? I don't have a clue about HVAC and have to take his comments as factual. It just seems hard to believe that a Lennox furnace, installed in 1998 would not have been installed without a cold air return vent at the furnace.

Can you advise ?

If you didn't have a friend mis-guiding you, you wouldn't have noticed. You want to take cool air from the rooms you live in, not from another place in the house that you don't live in. That is why your installer put a return duct all the way from upstairs, instead of just taking the air from the basement without a return duct.

www.heatpro.us energy businessmen's knowledge

Yes, you really have to find out the MAKE and MODEL to get good answers. There IS more than one machine made.