Floor register location

I was thinking about cutting some holes and putting in some vents for two bedrooms roughly above the downstairs woodstove location. The installer recommended I wait. His opinion was that I may end up closing the bedroom doors partially to keep the heat out. We'll see how it works this winter. Sounded like good advice...see how it works before going through the pain of doing the work first!

kinda had the same thoughts....

it seems like my break in fires are warming the rooms furthest away from the fire on the same floor about 8 degrees... the main room is now 85

i measured the bedroom at 69 which for me is about 2-3 degrees too hot

Iam guilty of having floor registers in my home for this purpose. A minimum is that these holes through the floor must be metal sleeved with a spring loaded fire damper with a fire rated UL approval. This still might not be allowed by the authority of having jurisdiction. RE; local inspector, fire-marshal ect... Smoke detectores in every room these are placed in is a must.

I looked into the Broan in wall fans and the biggest one I could find was only around 200 cfm. That does not move much air. We have a raised ranch home with our Jotul insert in the lower level room. At first I put a 200 cfm fan in the stairway landing wall which is opposite the top of the wall where the stove is. My first full heat fire the room downstairs got up to 94 degrees and the upper floor was only around 68. I thought the air would move upstairs easily with heat rising and the help of the fan, boy was I wrong. Some heat moved up, but not nearly enough to heat 1100 square feet in the upper level.

I searched high and low and could not find a fan to fit my application. I finally ended up getting a thin 20 inch box fan and put it right in the wall with a 20 inch air grate on each side. The box fan circulates over 1000 cfm. This circulates the air perfectly. I also set up the fan using some home automation parts to automatically turn on when the lower room goes above 72 and off when it drops below 69. The fan will also turn off if the fire alarm goes off.

Definitely look at the cfm ratings of the fans you are looking to get. It would take a 200 cfm fan 45 minutes to exchange all the air in our approximately 9000 cubic foot upper level. Only 9 minutes with 1000 cfm.

jeb said:

north of 60

I was explained that holes could be placed in locations in the 2nd floor
bedrooms and using a type of fan in the registers would create some
type of movement. One pushing, one pulling. These holes would have
to be 14x14 or better.

North of 60 where?

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Think of the opening and fire / smoke spreading. Also an oxygen feeder. Your fire rating between upstairs and downstairs will be jeopardized. Where am I? Im @ the computer. %-P It says Yukon below my avitar. Im near Alaska for a GEO reference.

jeb said:

North of 60

So you are saying this is not a safe practice. I did install smoke detectors
all around the house and hardwired them in.

60 what?

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Does it not make sense about smoke and fire ratings ect. Fires spread fast when there is a path. When your sleeping it could have issues for safety with your family. Hope someone else chimes in here. I need help. Fossil, BeGreen... anyone...?
60 is location. On a globe it gives lats and longitude's. Iam a lat of 60. Iam done for the eve. Got a steak to BBQ and the sun is still trying to shine. Its 3deg above freezing but I will still enjoy my beer. CHEERS N of 60 ;-)

I think I need to say that this might not be a code violation in your area but Iam just erroring on the side of caution as you asked for our thoughts and how to do it proper. I was doing just that as ive been through it.

Jeb, here are some thoughts. I know this has been discussed numerous times, and I know there have been vague references to codes and such, but I don’t have any definitive answers, nor can I remember a thread that contained any. If you’re talking about floor or wall registers associated with a central air-moving system (heating &/or A/C), then I think there’s a mechanical code that requires any return register (going back to the air handler) to be at least 10 feet away from any solid fuel-burning appliance. I’m not aware of any similar restriction on the placement of supply (from the handler) registers. A simple through-the-floor register that has nothing to do with a central heating/cooling unit, and isn’t ducted to anywhere, but is just a hole through the floor...I’m not smart enough about it to know just when that's allowed and when it's not. Houses are full of stairwells, lofts, open walls, whatever. The only places I can think of where it would definitely be a problem are “fire walls” & floors. These most commonly are the walls and floors that separate living spaces from garages & require special treatment, i.e.: 5/8” fire-resistant drywall, solid core or metal-clad doors, and stuff like that. Punching a random hole through one of those would be a definite code violation/safety hazard. But...i’m just rambling here, I’m not an authority having jurisdiction over anything but my axes, my splitter, and my tractor. Whatever you do, think about it carefully beforehand, and ask questions if in doubt. Rick

jeb said:

north of 60

I was explained that holes could be placed in locations in the 2nd floor
bedrooms and using a type of fan in the registers would create some
type of movement. One pushing, one pulling.

Click to expand...

NO..no no no no no no. Keep any and all firestops that you currently have. Walls and floors are temp firestops. Poking holes in them and you are begging for rapid fire spread in a case where you have a fire. There is a fella or two that posts here that is a firefighter....PLEASE add your $.02.