Fan in the stove room door... WOW!!!

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bluedogz

Minister of Fire
Oct 9, 2011
1,245
NE Maryland
On the suggestions I got here, I took a tower fan we had around, pointed it into the door of the stove room (but set it outside the door), and turned it on super-duper low so you can barely tell it's running. The Sierra is munching on small BL splits, temp on the stovetop running 500-550. Not an especially big fire- the box is less than half full.

The heat started pumping out of the stove room like I wouldn't believe! Inside 30 minutes the adjacent dining room jumped from 70 to 75, and I can even feel a warm draft at the top of the center stairs on the 2d floor.

I shut off the heat pump at 9am... Mrs. Blue hasn't noticed yet.
 
There ya go. It's so much easier to work with mother nature than against her.
 
As it should be!

People want to fight this phenomenon, but it does work even if instinct is to try and make the hot air move.

pen
 
Thats the ticket. I learned that from Dennis (Backwoods Savage) and haven't stopped using the method ever since. If you place a piece of tissue at top of the door leading out of the stove you will see it being pushed out by the warm air rushing out. Enjoy your newly found trick bud.
 
pen said:
As it should be!

People want to fight this phenomenon, but it does work even if instinct is to try and make the hot air move.

pen

You said it right... my instinct was always to make the hot air move, and i never worked as I'd hoped. Fortunately, I didn't waste a bunch of money on door fans and whatnot.

Why is this method easier? Going back to college physics I can't come up with a reason...
 
Wait till you get that 30 in there!
 
bluedogz said:
pen said:
As it should be!

People want to fight this phenomenon, but it does work even if instinct is to try and make the hot air move.

pen

You said it right... my instinct was always to make the hot air move, and i never worked as I'd hoped. Fortunately, I didn't waste a bunch of money on door fans and whatnot.

Why is this method easier? Going back to college physics I can't come up with a reason...

Because you're moving the heavy, dense cool air and the lighter warm air is flowing in to replace it. If you try to blow the less dense warm air, you're trying to use it to move heavy, dense cool air.
 
I am going to try this trick. Sounds great.
 
its teh convection cycles. cold air moves lower and towards the wood stove or heat source... when you put a fan on the floor you help move the cold air towards the wood stove which makes the hot air on top move farther away because the cold air on the bottom is moving faster ... its great... the cold air forces the hot air to balloon up and out of the room. sounds and looks ass backward when you have a fan blowing towards the stove... BUT ITS JUST THE WAY IT WORKS!
 
BeGreen said:
There ya go. It's so much easier to work with mother nature than against her.

That's it!
 
Yes Young Grasshopper .. . you have mastered the Kung Fu Woodburning Trick of the Fan.
 
If you really get bored walk around and hang like 2ft lengths of toilet paper in the middle of your door ways.
I tried it with the fan off on the stove and was surprise how good the air was moving..blowing away from the stove room pretty good...matter of fact the stove fan didn't really make much diff.
I also walked around with another strip to hold near the bottom of the doorways to see the cold air heading to the stove.
 
I have done this since i got my stove as it helps heat the house. It really works. My house would not really heat well with out the fans as its not an open concept.
 
HotCoals said:
If you really get bored walk around and hang like 2ft lengths of toilet paper in the middle of your door ways.
I tried it with the fan off on the stove and was surprise how good the air was moving..blowing right toward the stove room pretty good...matter of fact the stove fan didn't really make much diff.
I also walked around with another strip to hold near the bottom of the doorways to see the cold air heading to the stove.

Thank you for coming up with yet another way for us to appear strange to our SO's, children, and in-laws. As if walking around with burning incense and a flashlight, muttering incantations and formulas was not bad enough . . .

I believe the toilet-paper-strip technique will best be accompanied by a tuneless harmonic purposeful humming.
 
snowleopard said:
HotCoals said:
If you really get bored walk around and hang like 2ft lengths of toilet paper in the middle of your door ways.
I tried it with the fan off on the stove and was surprise how good the air was moving..blowing away from the stove room pretty good...matter of fact the stove fan didn't really make much diff.
I also walked around with another strip to hold near the bottom of the doorways to see the cold air heading to the stove.

Thank you for coming up with yet another way for us to appear strange to our SO's, children, and in-laws. As if walking around with burning incense and a flashlight, muttering incantations and formulas was not bad enough . . .

I believe the toilet-paper-strip technique will best be accompanied by a tuneless harmonic purposeful humming.

Yeah..and I wrote it wrong..it should have read..the hanging toilet paper was blowing away from the stove room! lol
I had it hanging in about 6 diff places.
One of the kids stopped by and looked around and shook his head and said he didn't want to know!

I corrected it!
 
bluedogz said:
On the suggestions I got here, I took a tower fan we had around, pointed it into the door of the stove room (but set it outside the door), and turned it on super-duper low so you can barely tell it's running. The Sierra is munching on small BL splits, temp on the stovetop running 500-550. Not an especially big fire- the box is less than half full.

The heat started pumping out of the stove room like I wouldn't believe! Inside 30 minutes the adjacent dining room jumped from 70 to 75, and I can even feel a warm draft at the top of the center stairs on the 2d floor.

I shut off the heat pump at 9am... Mrs. Blue hasn't noticed yet.
So if I have a corner installation and mind have a ranche style home stove is on one side of house
and the bedrooms on the other how far away do I put the stand up fan? And where do I point it at??? Sorry novice here lol...
 
I've gone around the house with a lighter to see the air currents moving.
I had to go with a smaller fan. The fan I originally used was too much and the cold air blowing on me in the living room kind of defeated the purpose. I still haven't decided if the fan should be at the far end of the hall or closer.
 
snowleopard said:
Thank you for coming up with yet another way for us to appear strange to our SO's, children, and in-laws. As if walking around with burning incense and a flashlight, muttering incantations and formulas was not bad enough . . .

I believe the toilet-paper-strip technique will best be accompanied by a tuneless harmonic purposeful humming.



I showed Mr Gamma the toilet paper thing last night....he said are you effin kiddin me, where did ya hear about that...oh wait, I know...Hearth.... :coolsmile:

The fan trick is amazing...
 
Chopernator said:
bluedogz said:
On the suggestions I got here, I took a tower fan we had around, pointed it into the door of the stove room (but set it outside the door), and turned it on super-duper low so you can barely tell it's running. The Sierra is munching on small BL splits, temp on the stovetop running 500-550. Not an especially big fire- the box is less than half full.

The heat started pumping out of the stove room like I wouldn't believe! Inside 30 minutes the adjacent dining room jumped from 70 to 75, and I can even feel a warm draft at the top of the center stairs on the 2d floor.

I shut off the heat pump at 9am... Mrs. Blue hasn't noticed yet.
So if I have a corner installation and mind have a ranche style home stove is on one side of house
and the bedrooms on the other how far away do I put the stand up fan? And where do I point it at??? Sorry novice here lol...

Chop, I actually have the fan outside the room, pointing at the door from about 6' away. My fan is not actually pointing 'at the stove' in any way, just at the door of the room the stove is in. This works for me, as it's one of those tall skinny tower fans and that distance lets it tuck away in a corner out of the traffic flow.
 
The phenomenon has to do with rotor efficiency in a way. A fan mounted high in a doorway moving air out of a room moves less air than the same fan moving cold air into the stove room. It's the same volume of air, but the cold air is more dense and thus has more mass. It's just like a helicopter can lift more weight on a cold day than it can on a hot day or a jet engine that can get more air into the combustion chamber to produce thrust on cold day than on a hot day.. As the cooler air is pushed into the room, it heats and expands thus increasing the air flow of warm air out of the room. Depending on the flow of cool air into the room and the output of the heating appliance it can affect comfort in that room. That's the way I understand it. YMMV. You'd be better off with a big round fan in the bottom of the doorway as long as it's not too much of an inconvenience as a trip hazard.
 
macmaine said:
firefighterjake said:
Yes Young Grasshopper .. . you have mastered the Kung Fu Woodburning Trick of the Fan.



Lol grasshopper

Your Fan Fu is strong.
 
BrotherBart said:
Your Fan Fu is strong.

You owe me a keyboard.... I snarfled coffee all over mine.
 
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