Re-figuring my house, heat and circulation.

andybaker · Dec 7, 2013

I see this thread has veered off from circulating warm air, but to get back to that I had this issue big time for a while til someone on here helped me. I have a 2000 sq. ft. house with the fireplace in the back family room at the far end. Hallway in the center of house leading to the stairway going upstairs near the front door. I wanted to get warm air upstairs to the bedrooms. I put an air duct in the ceiling by the hall in the family room and off set the hole above it with a small fan between floors to push warm air upstairs hallway. It worked ok but not as great as I hoped. I did for several years til I wrote something on here about it once. Someone told me that it is much easier to move cold heavier air than to move warm lighter air. So, I reversed the fan between floors and it made a huge difference. By forcing cooler air into the family room it forces warmer air to offset that into the hallway and from there it naturally flows upstairs.

BrianN · Dec 8, 2013

We were out of the house for 8 hours yesterday. Before I left I put a few splits in the stove, but, forgot to close the damper. Some thing I never do. I always triple check to make sure, but, I guess I was rushed.
Anyways, came home to a stove that was cooling down and had a few coals still glowing. The house was down to 16 ::C

(61

) I got the fire going again, and got the cat up to temp. Closed the damper and waited for the temp to start climbing. Outside temp was -17 ::C

(1.4

). Within an hour, the house was getting up to 20 ::C

(68

) which surprised me. Around midnight, going to bed, house was still around 20 ::C

(68

) and we decided to turn off all the fans and see what happens over night.
Well, to my surprise (again), the house was at 18 ::C

(64.5

) and the stove still had plenty of wood.
So, I decided I was going to cut the hole through the stove room ceiling up into the bedroom. As soon as I did that, I noticed the stove room went from 36 ::C

(99

) down to 30 ::C

(86

) and the bedroom went from 18 ::C

(64.5

), to 21

(70

) while the rest of the house is now sitting at 22 ::C

(72

).
Although it has warmed up to -11 ::C

(12

) outside, I think that this may have helped, if not fixed our problem of distributing the heat. We'll see how it goes next time the temps dip.

Lumber-Jack · Dec 9, 2013

BrianN said:
Although it has warmed up to -11 (12) outside, I think that this may have helped, if not fixed our problem of distributing the heat. We'll see how it goes next time the temps dip.

I've always noticed that as the outside temps warm up it seems the residual heat in the house can really carry you though without much extra heating. It seems I need to burn more wood over the course of a couple days to keep the house comfortable while the temperature is dropping from 0 ::C

to -10

then I do while the temperature is rising from -20 ::C

to -10

, even though it's actually colder outside during the later.

lml999 · Dec 9, 2013

BrianN said:
It is a 2x6 construction. About 2000 sq. ft.
Right now I am thinking of cutting holes all over the house Above the doors in the stove room, and inline fan under the stairs... The list goes on. I probably will not do any of those just yet, just keep playing with the fan placement and adjusting stove temps.

Do these vents between floors create potential fire hazards? I know that walls are required to have fireblocks so that a fire can't jump between floors. I'm surprised that these vents aren't a code issue...or considered a hazard. I understand the goal...I'm just wondering if safety is an issue.

altmartion · Dec 9, 2013

they are considered a safety hazard. there is a code against ductwork being opened that close so I can only assume that a hole cut through the ceiling and floor directly above the heating appliance would be included. it may never bee a problem until the house gets put on the market.

begreen · Dec 9, 2013

Floor penetrations require fusible-link dampers like this to prevent the rapid spread of fire. This is especially important for bedrooms. It may only buy a few minutes, but that can be enough to save a life.

http://www.atlantasupply.com/swscripts/NLNETUPD.OBJ?SESSION_NO=GEE1GATOMO4MGGM44ZDG9DG2G&NL_ORDER_NO=@VAR_NL_ORDER_NO_@&STOCK_NO=12AH12X08 &REQUEST_ID=CSTKDET

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Re-figuring my house, heat and circulation.

andybaker

Feeling the Heat

BrianN

Feeling the Heat

Lumber-Jack

Minister of Fire

lml999

Minister of Fire

altmartion

Feeling the Heat

begreen

Mooderator

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