Why Is It So Cold In Here?

UncleJoe · Dec 18, 2013

There is going to be a temperature difference between the room where the stove is located and a room at the other end of the house. So how do I convince my wife that it isn't cold in here?

She sits in the stove room where the computers are and the temp can sometimes reach the upper 70's. Then she goes to the other end of the house (2 rooms away) and complains about how cold it is there. The first year we were here, we ran the box stove in the computer room and the Baker insert in the living room. It was always 80F in the main living area (3 rooms). I found myself retreating to the bedroom to get away from the heat. It was horrible.

I don't have a thermometer in the computer room but there is one in the kitchen which usually reads around 75F, and one in the living room that's between 70F and 73F. She tries to tell me that they must not be working properly but I find it highly unlikely that they are both wrong. She just gets acclimated to that high temp in the stove room and when she moves into the 70 degree area, she feels it's "freezing". It's an ongoing battle that I can't seem to resolve without firing up the Baker and roasting us out.

Any ideas?

begreen · Dec 18, 2013

Brandy in her coffee?

Instead of firing up the other stove try this trick. Do you have a table fan? It works quite well assuming that there is a line of sight path between the cooler area and the stove room. The idea is to blow the cooler air down at floor level, toward the stove.

For more even heat in the house put a table or box fan in a cooler room within sight of the stove room, placed on the floor, pointing toward the woodstove room. Run it on low speed. It will blow the cooler air down low, toward the woodstove. The denser cool air will be replaced with lighter warm air from the stove room. Running this way you should notice at least a 5F increase in the room temp after about 30 minutes running. And the stove room temp should drop by a corresponding 5+ degrees.

UncleJoe · Dec 18, 2013

begreen said:
Brandy in her coffee?

She drinks tea in the evening. Hmmmm.

Instead of firing up the other stove try this trick. Do you have a table fan? It works quite well assuming that there is a line of sight path between the cooler area and the stove room. The idea is to blow the cooler air down at floor level, toward the stove.

For more even heat in the house put a table or box fan in a cooler room within sight of the stove room, placed on the floor, pointing toward the woodstove room. Run it on low speed. It will blow the cooler air down low, toward the woodstove. The denser cool air will be replaced with lighter warm air from the stove room. Running this way you should notice at least a 5F increase in the room temp after about 30 minutes running. And the stove room temp should drop by a corresponding 5+ degrees.

There is a tower fan behind the stove pointing towards the line of sight living room. I also have one of those small corner fans you mount in the upper corner of doorway. But a cold air return fan is lacking. I'll have to look around and see if I can find something that won't overwhelm the doorway from the living room.

begreen · Dec 18, 2013

The tower fan setup is not ideal, nor the corner fan. Temporarily move the tower fan as far away from the stove room as possible keeping line of sight. Lower it as far as possible and aim it low toward the floor at the entrance to the living room. Run it on low speed and check temps.

Sully · Dec 18, 2013

I moved a small fan into a far cold room. It was aimed as good as possible toward stove room. Thermostat in other room went up 3 degrees in about hour. 71 degrees outside of stove room is nice. A cooler room feels good after sitting in stove room all night !

Baker_Falcon · Dec 18, 2013

Joe I run a Baker insert too. Would love to see a pic of your set up! My Baker roasts my living room out @ 85 degrees and depending on outside temperature. We like it hot though my wife and I are both cold blooded. I sometimes open a window at the far end of the house to draw the hot air out. Cheap heat so I am OK with opening a window.

gyrfalcon · Dec 18, 2013

begreen said:
The tower fan setup is not ideal, nor the corner fan. Temporarily move the tower fan as far away from the stove room as possible keeping line of sight. Lower it as far as possible and aim it low toward the floor at the entrance to the living room. Run it on low speed and check temps.

This.

Uncle Joe, Begreen speaks the truth. It's counterintuitive, but it totally works. Just make sure she wears good socks when she's in the stove room or she's going to complain about cold ankles! More seriously, keep the seating arrangement in the stove room in mind when you place your fans and reposition a bit if need be. Having cooler air blowing on your lower legs tends to spoil the pleasure of sitting by the stove.

I sympathize with her reaction, by the way, because the same thing happened to me when I got a bigger stove and better heat. I so quickly got used to basking in near 80 in the living room, when I went into my office off the far end of the room, I felt chilly, and when I looked at the thermometer, it read 70. Prior to getting the bigger stove, I was happy to get my front room into the low 70s and the office in low 60s. Kinda humiliating for a lifelong New Englander, but I seem to have gone soft.

Warm_in_NH · Dec 18, 2013

I installed my stove a month ago, first time my living room saw mid 70s ever.

Just thought to myself, hmmm, chilly in here. It's 72, lol.

I agree on the fans, blow towards the stove. Every home is different but ultimately, in both my home and my gfs, a fan towards the stove works best. Note though that the slightest angle change can make all the difference, be patient.

Sully · Dec 18, 2013

Warm_in_NH said:
I installed my stove a month ago, first time my living room saw mid 70s ever.

Just thought to myself, hmmm, chilly in here. It's 72, lol.

I agree on the fans, blow towards the stove. Every home is different but ultimately, in both my home and my gfs, a fan towards the stove works best. Note though that the slightest angle change can make all the difference, be patient.

I'm always changing fan. I changed it tonight. Thermostat was saying 68. Moved fan pointing directly at stove room entrance and this is new reading after an hour

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1387414445.700379.jpg

eclecticcottage · Dec 18, 2013

UncleJoe said:
She drinks tea in the evening. Hmmmm.

Ginger Tea. Seriously.

We run the blower on the stove to help move air. When we bought the place there was an old Fisher here with no blower, they had a little fan mounted up in a doorway, in the corner. Said it really helped move the air.

UncleJoe · Dec 18, 2013

Sully said:
A cooler room feels good after sitting in stove room all night !

I couldn't agree more.

Baker_Falcon said:
Joe I run a Baker insert too. Would love to see a pic of your set up!

We picked it up at an estate sale quite a few years ago; cheap! I was going to use it to heat my small shed at the time. Never happened. Got this place a few years ago and slide the Baker right into the fireplace. The Baker company is about a 1/2 mile down the hill from where I park my trucks. I stopped in one afternoon to get some bricks and see about the missing blower that mounts on the side and talked to Nancy. I described the insert and she said it sounded like an older model Falcon without the glass in the door. I'll post a pic later on.

gyrfalcon said:
I so quickly got used to basking in near 80 in the living room, when I went into my office off the far end of the room, I felt chilly, and when I looked at the thermometer, it read 70.

And therein lays the problem. Except for first thing in the morning, it's always 70-72 in the living room. In the summer she sets the AC to 68 but at 72 "it's freezing in here". Go figure. :rolleyes:

Looks like I'll have to find a fan to use as a cold air return. Either that or fire up the Baker and live in the basement where I have a nice steady 60-65 all year long.

Paulywalnut · Dec 18, 2013

You know you get used to the warmth of wood heat and then you go to a friends house with
Old outdated oil heat set at 72 and you're freezing !!!

Craig S. · Dec 18, 2013

Similar issue here ... Stove room sits between 72-80, while the rest of the downstairs sits around 70. Wife walks out of the stove room and complains she's "freezing". Meanwhile, when I burned oil, I never set the thermostat to 70.

bjkjoseph · Dec 18, 2013

leave a sweatshirt in the cold room...I have sweatshirts strategically located.

UncleJoe · Dec 18, 2013

Craig S. said:
Similar issue here ... Stove room sits between 72-80, while the rest of the downstairs sits around 70. Wife walks out of the stove room and complains she's "freezing". Meanwhile, when I burned oil, I never set the thermostat to 70.

Exactly! The last year we used oil for heat, we kept the thermostat set at 68 when we were there and 60 if we were going to be out for awhile. That was in '03.

I just walked into the living room. It's 74 in there and she's wearing a hooded sweatshirt.

Craig S. · Dec 18, 2013

UncleJoe said:
Exactly! The last year we used oil for heat, we kept the thermostat set at 68 when we were there and 60 if we were going to be out for awhile. That was in '03.

I just walked into the living room. It's 74 in there and she's wearing a hooded sweatshirt.

Yep ... they get spoiled quickly.

rwhite · Dec 18, 2013

If I could have the perfect house the living room would be 68 and all the sleeping rooms would be 65. Once you get under the covers its plenty warm. I'm a believer that much over 68 just breeds colds and flu's. But everyone has their perfect temp.

gyrfalcon · Dec 19, 2013

rwhite said:
If I could have the perfect house the living room would be 68 and all the sleeping rooms would be 65. Once you get under the covers its plenty warm. I'm a believer that much over 68 just breeds colds and flu's. But everyone has their perfect temp.

65, eh? Pretty wimpy. The 2nd floor, and therefore bedrooms, of my old farmhouse is unheated, except for whatever heat comes up through the floorboards from the stove below, meaning the bedrooms are actually colder in less cold weather when I'm not running the stove full-out. I can't see my breath, but it's mighty cold up there, usually somewhere in the low 40s. I like it like that and wouldn't heat the rooms if I had a way to do it. (I have the narrow stairway blocked off to keep the heat downstairs where it belongs.) As you say, it's wonderful to crawl under a couple of comforters and feel how quickly the warmth spreads just from my own body.

Each to his/her own, and my bedrooms are definitely not a place to lounge around eating bon-bons in wintertime,so I dress in the bathroom downstairs. I do like the heat in the stove room, though, once I'm up.

UncleJoe · Dec 19, 2013

gyrfalcon said:
65, eh? Pretty wimpy. The 2nd floor, and therefore bedrooms, of my old farmhouse is unheated, except for whatever heat comes up through the floorboards from the stove below, meaning the bedrooms are actually colder in less cold weather when I'm not running the stove full-out. I can't see my breath, but it's mighty cold up there

You must have one of those late 1800's/early 1900's balloon frame, uninsulated farmhouses like we used to have.

Ours however, had 14" square grates in the ceiling of each room that "heated" the upstairs. Yeah it could be mighty chilly up there on a cold, windy, winter night.

tsquini · Dec 19, 2013

My wife sits in the stove room, the temp is 78. Walks into the kitchen where it is 73 and starts complaining about being too cold. People I my office keep the thermostat at 68 or lower. They laugh at me when I tell them we keep my house around 75.

firebroad · Dec 19, 2013

rwhite said:
If I could have the perfect house the living room would be 68 and all the sleeping rooms would be 65. Once you get under the covers its plenty warm. I'm a believer that much over 68 just breeds colds and flu's. But everyone has their perfect temp.

+1

gyrfalcon · Dec 19, 2013

UncleJoe said:
You must have one of those late 1800's/early 1900's balloon frame, uninsulated farmhouses like we used to have. Ours however, had 14" square grates in the ceiling of each room that "heated" the upstairs. Yeah it could be mighty chilly up there on a cold, windy, winter night.

Well, no. There's a moderate amount of insulation in this house, and excellent insulation up in the attic/crawlspace. It would be a lot colder than 40 on 2nd floor if there wasn't. I know plenty of people here, though, who grew up on farms, helped the family stack up 25 cords for the winter, and still slept on the floor in front of the stove a lot of times in the coldest weather because the 2nd floor rooms were almost as cold as outside.

mass_burner · Dec 19, 2013

Paulywalnut said:
You know you get used to the warmth of wood heat and then you go to a friends house with
Old outdated oil heat set at 72 and you're freezing

uh, going to have to disagree. I have a Buderus furnace and 12" x 2" thick cast iron wall registers all through the house. Heating wise, the Buderus will get the house roasting in 1/8 of the time that a cold stove will. And with the perimeter of registers, there not a cold or drafty inch in the house.

begreen · Dec 19, 2013

Yes, it helps to have a balanced whole house distribution system. What is the BTU output of the Buderus?

mass_burner · Dec 19, 2013

begreen said:
Yes, it helps to have a balanced whole house distribution system. What is the BTU output of the Buderus?

Its a G115, setup is similar to this, but our storage tank seems taller. keep in mind ours is a 1999 version, I think.

http://www.technicalheating.com/

Gross Output BTU/Hr 85,000

Net IBR BTU/Hr 74,000

Firing Rate (GPH) 0.70

AFUE 86.7%

Why Is It So Cold In Here?

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