Want to insulate this wall with a cold air return

I was hoping to insulate most of this wall, but I have a cold air return in it. Could I flip the shroud and put it up top, then insulate under it to the floor, would get me 90% of the wall done then, I'd vapor barrier the insulation from the cold air return. Or is it going to be useless at the top vs the bottom? Wouldn't be cold at that point eh? This is in the basement. Kind of wanted noise reduction and leaving those 2 studs open might make it loud still.
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Let me think further but first of all, do not move it to the top and do not use vapor barrier, there.
Neither of those things make any sense.

The idea of a cold air return is to pull cold air in to cycle through the furnace. Cold air is always at floor level, so putting the return at the top near the ceiling, you are drawing out the hot air, leaving the cool air behind. so, no, that doesn't really work, and you lose probably like 75% of your efficiency.

To insulate as much as possible of the wall, I would add in 2 more studs to frame in the return as much as possible, and then insulate those voids. It looks like you are trying to sound proof the room, so I get why you want as much insulation as you can, but, short of relocating the return to a different wall and location, that's what you get.

You could also add a wall on the back side of that wall and insulate it. Know what I mean? Like "fir" it out.

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Originally Posted by spikerS

The idea of a cold air return is to pull cold air in to cycle through the furnace. Cold air is always at floor level, so putting the return at the top near the ceiling, you are drawing out the hot air, leaving the cool air behind. so, no, that doesn't really work, and you lose probably like 75% of your efficiency.

To insulate as much as possible of the wall, I would add in 2 more studs to frame in the return as much as possible, and then insulate those voids. It looks like you are trying to sound proof the room, so I get why you want as much insulation as you can, but, short of relocating the return to a different wall and location, that's what you get.

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Yes, trying to sound proof the room as much as possible. I kinda of figured it wouldn't be that great to have it up top, was just looking for some compromises. Will just have to deal with it. Perhaps adding two studs, or moving it over slightly then adding one stud will be the best I can do. The other walls of that room are outside walls or storage/stairs so no other choice really. Thanks

Can you double up that wall entirely? If you can add another 2x4 based wall that's not touching the other wall it'll work better for soundproofing. A lot of noise transmission is through the studs themselves.

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Originally Posted by blitz

Can you double up that wall entirely? If you can add another 2x4 based wall that's not touching the other wall it'll work better for soundproofing. A lot of noise transmission is through the studs themselves.

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I could double the wall ya, where it meets the wall there's a jog so it would work well. For now I added a couple studs to close it up as much as possible and will see how it goes.