I have a heatpump/ac unit. I have been playing with running the fan only to circulate the heat from my insert. Does this end up just using too much electricity? Does anyone else do this?
Anyone run their ac fan
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I tried this and I found it didn't do anything for me.
My air intake is on the floor. Since cold air sinks all I seemed to do was blow around cold air.
I let it run for a hour or so w/ no increase in temperature. In fact it went down. I've moved to keeping a strategically placed tall fan running on low. It's out of the way and circulates the air well for the house.
I have a center chimney cape and the stove installed as an insert in the fireplace.
My air intake is on the floor. Since cold air sinks all I seemed to do was blow around cold air.
I let it run for a hour or so w/ no increase in temperature. In fact it went down. I've moved to keeping a strategically placed tall fan running on low. It's out of the way and circulates the air well for the house.
I have a center chimney cape and the stove installed as an insert in the fireplace.
Thats the first thing i did try when i installed my stove in the basement. It did not work at all for me. You will be pulling the air from inside to the outside (were its cold) then back in. Just cools the air to much.
You will be fighting a losing battle especially when it gets really cold outside. Others have had some luck with a furnaces fan. Still yet the air will need to be really warm, for just having the rapid movement of the heated air will in effect lower the temperature.
You will be fighting a losing battle especially when it gets really cold outside. Others have had some luck with a furnaces fan. Still yet the air will need to be really warm, for just having the rapid movement of the heated air will in effect lower the temperature.
My return (the only one) for the 1st floor is 3/4 up a wall, 9 feet away from my stove.
I do notice something odd. When it is running with a higher flame it appears to make the flame a little lazier. Not like when I open the stove door, but just a little. I think this has something to do with the negative air pressure in the 1st floor, since I have all the supply registers blocked, and the return wide open. I do not have a OAK, which would probably fix this.
I do notice something odd. When it is running with a higher flame it appears to make the flame a little lazier. Not like when I open the stove door, but just a little. I think this has something to do with the negative air pressure in the 1st floor, since I have all the supply registers blocked, and the return wide open. I do not have a OAK, which would probably fix this.
jeffd3889
Member
I blocked all the cold air returns except the one in the room where the pellet stove is, then run the furnace fan to circulate the air. only a couple degree change but noticable over an hour. heat gun shows 3 degrees higher out of the vent.
GrahamInVa
Minister of Fire
I run my fan only at night. When the temps drop it helps keep the heat more even on my first floor. My return is only about 10 feet from my stove which helps a lot.
John97
Feeling the Heat
I did alot of experimenting the past week and figured out some things.
Under some conditions, I have found that running the air handlers helps even out the temperatures throughout the house. I have a split-level with dual-zone heat pumps. The smaller unit handles one side of the house, the smaller part where the Mt. Vernon resides. I have found that since the registers are on the floor and the return is high up on the wall in the living room with the stove, it does quite a bit in terms of moving the air to the kitchen and dining room on the same level. Generally, I only run the downstairs air handler for like a half hour or so after the stove fires up to get the heat moving quickly.
Upstairs, my returns are also up high. Registers are in the floors just like downstairs. So, when I run that air handler it pulls the warm air that comes up the steps and into the upstairs hallway through and distributes it to all the bedrooms. I only run it when we have the bedroom doors closed, which is at night. During the day with the bedroom doors open, the rooms warm up just fine.
Under some conditions, I have found that running the air handlers helps even out the temperatures throughout the house. I have a split-level with dual-zone heat pumps. The smaller unit handles one side of the house, the smaller part where the Mt. Vernon resides. I have found that since the registers are on the floor and the return is high up on the wall in the living room with the stove, it does quite a bit in terms of moving the air to the kitchen and dining room on the same level. Generally, I only run the downstairs air handler for like a half hour or so after the stove fires up to get the heat moving quickly.
Upstairs, my returns are also up high. Registers are in the floors just like downstairs. So, when I run that air handler it pulls the warm air that comes up the steps and into the upstairs hallway through and distributes it to all the bedrooms. I only run it when we have the bedroom doors closed, which is at night. During the day with the bedroom doors open, the rooms warm up just fine.
I have to give up on the experiment for now. We have a 8 week old baby and my wife doesn't want the temp to drop below 65 in the baby's room, so I have to run the heat pump. We are not comfortable running a space heater in the bedroom. So, we'll run the stove during the day.
John97
Feeling the Heat
I am entertaining the thought of replacing my heat pump thermostats with ones that have a programmable fan-only setting which will automatically run the fan for a certain amount of time each hour throughout the day.
But that is on the back burner for now.
But that is on the back burner for now.
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