I live in a 1978 split level. Finished basement. I have three cold air returns up stairs-one in the livivng room and one each on the two bedrooms. The previous unit I had you couldn't really feel anything blow upstairs but it would really blow downstairs. I thought this was due to the unit "burning out". We got a new 95% furnace with a 3 stage blower, Still upstairs you can't hardly feel anything blow from the registers and that is with shutting all the registers in the basement. No cold air returns in the basement. I am at a loss. I thought with a new furnace we would now feel the air through the vents. Do we need cold air returns in the basement to balance everything? Is our ducting not sufficient? It runs from the furnace horizontal to the end of the house and up to the bedrooms. In the middle of that they cut a hole for a basement bedroom right in the min duct and adjacent to that made a branch right out to the family room in the basement.

i don't think that right.