Insert and Ductwork

riken · Jul 20, 2008

Hi All,

I'm a newby so I'm just getting to know the world of pellet stoves. I'm planning to buy a QuadraFire Mt. Vernon insert. The room that I'm putting it in has a return for my forced hot air system. Is it at all feasible to rewire the fan in my heating system so I can turn on the fan and draw the air into the return and distibute some of the heat from the pellet stove to other parts of the house? I'm not looking to heat my whole house like this but just boost the temp up a little so my gas usage will be less. If this is possible am I doing any damage to my gas burner? Am I causing any type of problems with gas fumes entering the system? Thanks for any info.

riken

webbie · Jul 20, 2008

Usually this will not work well - and it is against code if the return is not over a certain distance (I think 10 feet) from the stove.

All in all, not a good idea as it will de-pressurize the room. Better to install a smaller room to room fan, doorway fan or even (if there is an attic) a small exhaust fan on the ceiling dumping into another room. The idea is usually very low air movement (less than 120 CFM).....your furnace fan is 10 to 20x that powerful and ends up diluting the heat too much for any good.

riken · Jul 20, 2008

Craig,

Thanks for your reply. If the system fan is too strong is it then possible to put a small fan in the return? The return (another return in next room) is just a few feet from the front of the fireplace off to one side. The room has a cathedral ceiling and the upper wall abuts our bedroom wall, so I was hoping to put a vent and fan dumping heat into that room. The house is a cape (2100 sq. feet) and this room (12 X 24) is at one end with the fireplace on the inside wall abutting the center of the house. The room also has a ceiling fan. This may be useless info but I thought it would give you an idea of the layout of my house and maybe you'd have other thoughts about distributing heat.

riken

webbie · Jul 20, 2008

Best idea is to install the stove and see where the heat ends up - before doing anything. Air currents within a house - especially with the addition of a space heater - are hard to discern.

The fan in the duct is probably not the solution. Keep in mind that your ductwork is meant to distribute 120,000 BTU's at a time, and that less than 10,000 (maybe even less) are likely to be recoverable from a room where a pellet stove is located, so there is a mismatch (and lots of ductwork heat loss) to make up for.

Once the stove is in and running during cold weather, it will become more evident as to the possibilities.

riken · Jul 20, 2008

Thanks Craig that does make sense.

hoverfly · Jul 20, 2008

riken said:
Hi All,

I'm a newby so I'm just getting to know the world of pellet stoves. I'm planning to buy a QuadraFire Mt. Vernon insert. The room that I'm putting it in has a return for my forced hot air system. Is it at all feasible to rewire the fan in my heating system so I can turn on the fan and draw the air into the return and distibute some of the heat from the pellet stove to other parts of the house? I'm not looking to heat my whole house like this but just boost the temp up a little so my gas usage will be less. If this is possible am I doing any damage to my gas burner? Am I causing any type of problems with gas fumes entering the system? Thanks for any info.

riken

How old, how big is your house and do you change your furnace filter?

No running the blower will not do any damage to the gas burner, have you considered adding a pellet furnace add on instead? The duct work should be insulated, but depending on how your house is built you could use more pellets to heat the house. Depending on what you have, the furnace can be wired so you can run the fan separate with a T-stat located near the pellet stove. Some times it works other times it won't, try it.

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Insert and Ductwork

riken

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hoverfly

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