Pellet stove shopper

St_Earl said:

i've read of some folks getting great results with heating a second story just by having wide openings to the upstairs and not needing fans at all.

if you run into any problems though, sending cold air down ( low along the steps or other path ) will displace warm air up.
same principle as blowing cold air from a first floor room along the floor towards where the stove is.
it seems counter intuitive to some people, but it's (usually) a lot easier than trying to push the warm air into a room where it still has to then displace the cold air.

i have a narrow, restricted path to the back bedroom. so when it's really cold i use helper fans up high pushing the warm. but it all starts with sending the cold air low and towards the stove.

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St_Earl said:

i would most definitely stick with working with your existing layout and absolutely not start cutting holes.

BUT... taking the question based solely on the physical aspect, any passthrough from upper levels (as long as it was placed in a reasonable position along what would be the resulting convection loop) would be better off used to blow cold air down.

though a stairwell is already a giant pass through. air blown down low will allow displaced warm air to replace it by flowing up high along the same well.
that is if you even find the need for fans at all. many people don't.
i live in a single level home and i do need fans. but the path to the back bedroom in my house is much more narrow and indirect than i assume most stairwells are.

but just say hypothetically you had a pass through directly above your stove with a fan in it blowing down.
that cold air blown into the stove room will displace far more heat out and up than trying to suck heat upward through a hole far smaller than your stairwell
and also, that very same fan would be pulling from the backside and create a power assisted convection loop and that heat will have an easier path up the much larger opening that is your stairwell

musing further that you run it on very low setting most of the time, the noise and any breeze felt in the living(?) room would be negligible.

BUT, you very probably don't need to do this at all.
take your time and work with these principles and your existing layout.
eventually you will find what works best for you. you will get it "dialed in."

i would absolutely NOT start by cutting holes.
and not just because of the oft discussed code reasons
just all the more so that you almost certainly can succeed without doing so.

as i mentioned before, many people don't even have to use fans.
test your situation yourself and do it in the lowest impact way would be my advice.

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Big papa said:

Running a hair dryer all night would be a good analogy but a hair dryer doesn't have a thermostat and have used mine in years past as a supplement not that much differnce maybe $20 at most on the coldest months

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