My fans aren't cutting it. What are you using?

akbear said:

I think the lasko blower that I linked is rated around 350-375 CFM from what I can find.

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They are useful ,i have 1 of those you listed and 2 larger ones just like it. All came from sams club for about $50.
I use them for drying carpet,ventilating areas for painting and blowing insulation. And of course now for distributing the heat from the wood stove up 3 floors.

My .02 is you are loosing heat from the sunroom. If you can insulate then the hot air will build up while you are burning. A friend of mine has a stove in his sunroom with single pane windows and barely insulated and he uses a fan to push the air out of the sunroom. Works ok, but far bedrooms are still pretty cold.

if you put bubble wrap on most of the windows in the sunroom you can give them a boost in the R value without sacrificing light

Not to get to off topic, but i have my fan running on my furnace all the time. The basement is cold or cooler should i say, so the vents are cold in the basement and i feel i am blowing cold air into my house. Am i being counter productive? am i more or less cooling the house down. I almost feel like im running my a/c. or is that cool air circulating warming up? What do you guys think?

BurningBrutus said:

Not to get to off topic, but i have my fan running on my furnace all the time. The basement is cold or cooler should i say, so the vents are cold in the basement and i feel i am blowing cold air into my house. Am i being counter productive? am i more or less cooling the house down. I almost feel like im running my a/c. or is that cool air circulating warming up? What do you guys think?

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Here is something to consider, if you are running just the blower fan and not adding heat, you are just circulating the air with no real rhyme or reason. Try selectively shutting down registers in rooms that you don't want cool air blown into, and covering air returns in rooms that you are trying to get the air from the vents to go to (ie the stove room. Magnetic sheeting like they use for signs is a good way to cover a steel return, and as for the cellar, likely close off both intakes and returns)

Bster13 said:

I would agree. The sunroom gets nice and toasty during the day with sunlight, then drops like a rock over night. Even with the big fan on the ground blowing back towards the stove, it can't keep up.

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My sunroom is the same way only i just close the door to that room after it has warmed the house and the sun goes down. Otherwise you are just giving back all that heat,and then some to the cold night. Looks like you sun room is part of another room. a set of french doors or a dividing wall would cure that. Plus i dont know how your stove room is only 74.I cat keep mine under 85 even at the lowest air setting. I guess that the beauty of those cat stoves ,you can dial it back very low.

Bster13 said:

Yeah I can crank that stove down to just a trickle. If the stove room gets over 77F it's uncomfy for us, haha.

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Its good my stove is in an unused room in the basement. I dont care if its 90+ in there. It sunder my kitchen so it keeps the floors warm too. About your sunroom ,if you find a way to isolate it it could give you a big portion of your heat over the winter. mine i is 144SF and i get about 12-15 hours of free heat every sunny winter day. usually i dont need any additional heat till about midnight. I run the wood stove from about 10PM till about 10 the next morning,1 load a day.

Bster13 said:

I wonder how much of a difference new windows in the sun room would make cs. insulated curtains? Triple pane? The current ones are very old double pane that aren't tight in the slightest. It's either new triple pane windows or insulated curtains. And whatever we do it'll make a difference in the summer as well when I am trying to prevent that room from cooking.

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Dont worry so much about the windows. I got mine from a lumberyard auction for $65 each. they are 3ft x 8ft double pane and i have 6 in my sun room. ID concentrate more on keeping the heat you do get. If i let my sunroom door open overnight it would freeze us out as it only stays about 10 deg over the outside temp at night,but during the day it can go up to 100 at any time in winter if i dont open the door.

Bster13 said:

I wonder how much of a difference new windows in the sun room would make cs. insulated curtains? Triple pane? The current ones are very old double pane that aren't tight in the slightest. It's either new triple pane windows or insulated curtains. And whatever we do it'll make a difference in the summer as well when I am trying to prevent that room from cooking.

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Windows tend to get awful pricey, and unless there is a special need that they can fulfil, often times don't recoup the investment. That's why I suggested the bubble wrap before. A less expensive solution may be to have storm windows made up (they could be added to the interior or exterior, and studies are finally now admitting that properly sealed storm windows are more effective than a double pane window) and for summer put a reflective mylar film on the window (they usually apply with water or a soap solution, so they should be able to come back off and be reused)

Bster13 said:

I had an idea for my situation using the items you mentioned below. Can you link me to the 20ft vent hose? I can't find it. Also, how loud is the 1500CFM fan compared to a normal fan? Thanks.

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Correction i got a 25% coupon so the fan was actually $57.75 from $77 list. Northern tool want $99 for this same fan. and they want like $79 for the hose.
Its does not seem any louder than the carpet dryer fans. Remember its pushing 1500CFM which is 4-5 times those carpet dryers.
Heres the link. Remember to do a search and get a 25% off coupon code off the most expensive item on the order or do 2 seperate orders and the $10 off the hose will more than cover the shipping.
I like the fact that you can either pull or push the air depending on which side you hook up the hose. This fan would work better with a vent or duct than the other type.
http://www.harborfreight.com/8-inch-ventilation-duct-97763.html