Gas and Oil Home Heating Furnaces - Air return

Recently purchased a weekend place. The furnace/ac is located in a closet with louvered doors. There is a vent located above the furnace on the wall connecting the closet and the main living room. There is a filter placed on top of the furnace, but no duct work connecting the furnace to the vent on the wall (basically sucking the return air from the closet/surrounding area. The inspector said it should be connected. The owners and a HVAC service technician said it wasn't necessary. Could you offer another opinion please? Thanks.

it sounds like you have a downflow with what we call a free return this is ok if your furnace generally is not gas as this would posssibly rob the unit of combustion air

Thanks hvac4u. It is gas, but seems to run fine...at least so far. I guess I'll leave it for now.

Since your unit is gas, there is probably a draft diverter on the flue in this closet. Unless the unit is direct venting with a fresh air supply vent. In either case, if you intend to leave it the way it is now with the return in the closet without ducting to the outside of it. I strongly advise you get yourself a good carbon monoxide detector.

Thanks resercon, I'll have to take a closer look at the flue/venting. We did plug in a carbon monoxide detector as soon as we took possession.