Moving the Heat Around the House

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nosinjcted

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Oct 17, 2014
11
Massachusettes
I'm wondering the best way to move the heat around my house. I have a Lopi Freedom fireplace insert with the blower in my living room. The house is approximately 2000 sqft and is 2 floors. I have attached a rough sketch of the floor plan (excuse my poor MS Paint skills!). The stove room is about 10'x30' with only one doorway into the room. Last winter I experimented with fans on the floor, pulling cold air in and blowing warm air out trying to get the heat to the other rooms of the house, all with varying results. . The master bedroom is above the fireplace room so the bedroom was fairly warm for us. However, we just had a baby on Sept. 11, so I'm going to need to keep the upstairs a lot warmer this winter. My other heat source is an oil forced hot air furnace and the only zone is on the first floor which stays pretty warm so the furnace doesn't come on often.

So what do you guys think, what are some options to get the heat to move throughout the house and to the second floor?

1st floor layout.jpg 2nd floor layout.jpg
 
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To create a convection loop I would put a thru the wall fan, down low, between the kitchen and the LR with the fan blowing into the LR.

PS: Don't worry too much about the baby. They are tougher than you might think. My mom said she always kept a window cracked open in my room no matter how cold it was outside.
 
begreen said:
To create a convection loop I would put a thru the wall fan, down low, between the kitchen and the LR with the fan blowing into the LR.

PS: Don't worry too much about the baby. They are tougher than you might think. My mom said she always kept a window cracked open in my room no matter how cold it was outside.
Click to expand...
I put my through wall fans up high and blowing into my other rooms and they are working perfectly at keeping all room temps the same. The air circulates back into the main room under the doors.
 
It is more efficient to blow cool air toward the warm. And it is a bit safer if there was a fire. This is why return air registers need to be at least 10 ft from the stove.
 
On the baby thing. Keep the little one bundled up warm and you could leave it outdoors in the winter on a sunny day. I was born in a house with no insulation up in Quebec and spent my first winter getting plenty of sunshine on the front porch. Sunshine was considered a big plus for health at the time. Nary a sniffle all winter.
 
begreen said:
To create a convection loop I would put a thru the wall fan, down low, between the kitchen and the LR with the fan blowing into the LR.

PS: Don't worry too much about the baby. They are tougher than you might think. My mom said she always kept a window cracked open in my room no matter how cold it was outside.
Click to expand...
I should have mentioned in the original post, there is a pantry in the kitchen on the wall against the LR to the right of the stove and a dividing wall in the kitchen to the left of the stove. I could put a thru the wall fan above the pantry, what is the benefit of having it lower vs higher? would it being higher still work? Would I still want to blow air from the cooler kitchen to the stove room if it was up high? Do you have any recommendations on which fans to use? If I go above the pantry I'll need some sort of duct work that is about 3'-4' long as that's roughly how deep the pantry is.

PS Thanks for the advice, being our first child we're still a little nervous about a few things.
 
nosinjcted said:
I should have mentioned in the original post, there is a pantry in the kitchen on the wall against the LR to the right of the stove and a dividing wall in the kitchen to the left of the stove. I could put a thru the wall fan above the pantry, what is the benefit of having it lower vs higher? would it being higher still work? Would I still want to blow air from the cooler kitchen to the stove room if it was up high? Do you have any recommendations on which fans to use? If I go above the pantry I'll need some sort of duct work that is about 3'-4' long as that's roughly how deep the pantry is.

PS Thanks for the advice, being our first child we're still a little nervous about a few things.
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High vs low is an ongoing long debate. I prefer to move the warm air to the next room. Others prefer to move the cold air to be heated.
 
Cold air is going to be lower in the room. It is denser so the fan can move more air lower. Still you have to work with what you've got unless there is a mod to change the kitchen setup. Is the pantry open shelving or behind closed doors? If open shelving then a grille may be installable.

If going above the pantry is the only option then there are through the wall fans that either go directly thru or that use the stud cavity as a duct to blow into the stove room at a lower level. Tjerlund makes fans for both applications.
http://www.tjernlund.com/airshare_ventilation.htm
 
begreen said:
Cold air is going to be lower in the room. It is denser so the fan can move more air lower. Still you have to work with what you've got unless there is a mod to change the kitchen setup. Is the pantry open shelving or behind closed doors? If open shelving then a grille may be installable.

If going above the pantry is the only option then there are through the wall fans that either go directly thru or that use the stud cavity as a duct to blow into the stove room at a lower level. Tjerlund makes fans for both applications.
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That statement is questionable. Heated air is lighter so I'd like proof that cooler air moves easier.
 
I actually applied this to cooling this summer in revese. Instead of two window units upstairs I just installed one. With a fan high at the other end of the upstairs blowing the warm air toward the other end. And had the coolest house we have had in years and knocked $60 bucks a month off of the electric bill. In the hottest summer in VA on record.

In winter be blow the cold air low back toward the stove.
 
Its really a experiment thing in my opinion. Do whatever works. First would be to make sure your fix any air leaks you can find. Get yourself a handheld laser thermometer 15 bucks on amazon and find your cold spots and address them quick.

When you moving hot air around from one spot to another in the winter in cools itself down real quick. The quickest and fastet route would be to make vents in between your 1st floor and scond with fans in em. But some dont like this approach, some do. I did it last year in my house and it was the best way for me. I cut threw my hardwood floors upstairs in my house installed register with 8 inch duct fans went dowmstairs and cut threw my sheetrock. Made them all nice, pretty and safe, my stove is on the first floor like you so I had all my heat stuck up on my ceiling of my first floor. My thermometer which is so handy was telling me everything my eyes could not see. So the duct fans where pulling the heat upstairs to my family room, then in the family room i took a small box type fan and screwed in to the ceiling of my second floor. That fan blew all the hot air down my hallway to all my other rooms. :)

This year tho im not doing any fans as i redid the floors and sheetrock, fans where just very annoying all winter. I plan on installing another king ultra upstairs next year and run both stoves on very low or spray faoming my whole attic and making it air tight.
 
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Wisneaky said:
That statement is questionable. Heated air is lighter so I'd like proof that cooler air moves easier.
Click to expand...

What you are doing is moving the cold air out at floor level and the lighter warm air moves in to replace it because of negative pressure.
 
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BrotherBart said:
What you are doing is moving the cold air out at floor level and the lighter warm air moves in to replace it because of negative pressure.
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well I can tell you my fans are up high and blow away into my other rooms. Prior to installing the fans my rooms would be 60-63 degrees. Now all my rooms are exactly 70 where my heat is set. And all same temp when my ac is on
 
Yeah I did that for twenty years. No more for the last five years.
 
Hey Nos, we use electric oil filled space heaters in the bedrooms. This gives us the option to close the door when we want. During the day the doors stay open. At night we turn on the small electric heater in the kids room so we can close the door. This works best for us.
 
Wisneaky said:
I put my through wall fans up high and blowing into my other rooms and they are working perfectly at keeping all room temps the same. The air circulates back into the main room under the doors.
Click to expand...

Have them set to blow the warm air into rooms or blow cold air toward the stove?
 
Wisneaky said:
That statement is questionable. Heated air is lighter so I'd like proof that cooler air moves easier.
Click to expand...
Not easier, just more air is moved. Cold air is denser. There is more air for the fan blades to push when it's cooler. Both ways will work, it's a bit more efficient to move cold air toward warm. That way one is assisting natural convection with the fan. Some also prefer the noise of the fan to be low and not at ear level.
 
Any reason you can't run the furnace circulator fan, and block off/restrict air returns except in the stove-room? Seems like you have a built-in distribution system in the fan/ducting of the furnace...just have to rig the thermostat to turn on the fan without the furnace.

I am not an expert, I am asking the question as much as asserting an answer.
 
You can use the furnace fan. It might not work well unless the ductwork is sealed and very well insulated. Older forced air systems lose too much heat through the ductwork and actually can cool air circulation in the winter due to heat loss from the ductwork in the walls and cold basement. If the system is completely insulated including plenums then it is worth a try. It will use more electricity due to the larger motor. If you try this, don't restrict the returns. That can create a system imbalance that can shorten the life of the blower.
 
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