OT - Any HVAC Types around?, Vents, point which way? Options

[DuckRyder]

O.K. heres the question:

In my house all of the vent louvres point toward an outside wall (and they are all near a wall) as a result, it usually feels real warm by the wall and real not warm in the room.

Is there a proper way to determine which way a vent points, and what is it.

(I'm talking about the downstairs, and the vents are in the roof, I don't ever go upstairs and there isn't any bitching from up there, so it must not need fidling with)

Thanks in advance for any enlightenment. [wheres the blanket smilie?]

[DuckRyder]

THANKS!

See I knew there was someone here that would know about it.

To answer a few questions.

It has two units, each with its own thermostat. The downstairs unit for sure is a heat pump, the exterior units look identical except that one says "10 seer" in the middle of the fan guard.

The heat exchanger for the downstairs unit sits in the upstairs closet, it draws its air from a vent in the kitchen ceiling. The roof is a high slope and the ducting runs in the eves created by the upstairs rooms (does that make sense) the vents are in the ceiling along the two long walls.

The heat exchanger for the upstairs sits above the upstairs bedroom in the attic, and draws its air from a vent in the stairwell/upstairs landing. I will go look tomorrow at where the vents are.

It is a very open floor plan and the living room/kitchen/hallway/stairwell is all shared space. The master bed room and bath take up the other half of the downstairs.

The stairwell runs up the middle of the house to an open hallway with a bathroom in the middle and a bedroom on each end.

Probably hard to picture, but I always thought having the air return in the stair well was somewhat stupid, but I thought it was wrong to have the vents pointing at the wall too.

Any tips gladly accepted, and I will try to get someone out here to look at it (I would just like to have at least a rudimentary understanding, so I could at least converse like I got some sense...)

EDIT, maybe I can get some pictures tomorrow if you won't make fun of the mess.