As someone who doesn’t know much about HVAC, it’s interesting to learn about the relationship between ducts and vents.
Prior to being enlightened by someone who works in the industry, I actually thought that ducts and vents were the same thing.
Silly me! Especially fascinating is the way that that relationship between ducts and vents can be compared to major systems within the human body—but more on that in a minute! Both ducts and vents are indispensable elements of any building’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning (or HVAC) system. The same basic arrangement applies regardless of the size of the building; what works in a so-called “tiny home” is pretty much what works in a skyscraper (with a few tweaks and adjustments here and there to accommodate for the increased distances involved). Multiple vents are required for air to enter and exit a building’s ducts. In fact, the entire system operates in a manner very similar to the cardiovascular system within the human body. If we think of the indoor air handler as the “heart” of the system, it becomes extremely convenient to think of “supply” ducts and “supply” vents as equivalent to human arteries—the passages that carry blood from the heart to the body. It’s just as convenient to think of “return” vents and “return” ducts as equivalent to human veins. After distribution, these passages return air to the indoor air handler in much the same way that veins carry de-oxygenated blood back to the heart. While a gross oversimplification of how HVAC (and the human body) work, this is also a comparison that can help those who know nothing about HVAC grasp the basic elements of the system almost instantly.