Home sick today from work, sitting around the fire and thinking....My first floor bath was an old addition on my 1890s brick house, as such, it sits on the otherside of 1 foot thick brick wall. It has always been the coldest room in the house because it kindof sticks out into the weather all byitself. Now that I'm heating with wood and not forced air, it is literaly freezing in there all the time. I was thinking utilizing the blower skirt as an intake to duct heated air into the room via the already existing flexible duct and floor register. This would essentially suck from the blower manifold and blow into the duct to the remote bath. Ideas? Does the stove absolutly need that natural convection to cool the rear, and would I have to the blower on constantly if the stove was operating? I've got a Lopi Leyden
Reversing blower to suck hot air and duct to a cold room? Lopi Leyden
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Backwoods Savage
Minister of Fire
Anyone I've known personally have had very poor results with this.
Have you tried sitting a small fan in the doorway of the bath...blowing the cool air out rather than trying to push the warm air into it? That is the best way to move warm air even though it sounds backwards. We have a long hallway but find that if we set a small fan, running on low speed, blowing the cool air into the stove room, the rear rooms heat up much, much better than trying the other way around.
That Lopi stove was one of the stoves we considered on our last purchase. I've betting you like it.
Have you tried sitting a small fan in the doorway of the bath...blowing the cool air out rather than trying to push the warm air into it? That is the best way to move warm air even though it sounds backwards. We have a long hallway but find that if we set a small fan, running on low speed, blowing the cool air into the stove room, the rear rooms heat up much, much better than trying the other way around.
That Lopi stove was one of the stoves we considered on our last purchase. I've betting you like it.
I'd say the best results would come from a small electric space heater. Just suck it up and have the best of both worlds for just a couple of bux a month.
I have not turned my furnace on once this winter. However, I do consider the bathroom to be "special". As such, when I renovated our main bath a few years ago I installed electric radiant heat underneath the tile floor. I set this between 75-80 (floor not air temp) and I always have an extra warm bathroom and a warm floor to put my toes on in the middle of the night as I make a barefoot visit since I didn't know enough to stay out of the beer and off of hearth.com...... but........ i digress.
Anyway, this to me is like spending the couple of extra bucks to go out to dinner once in a while. Sure you could do the same meal at home cheaper, but a little treat never hurt anyone.
As such, with the exception of my heated floor that uses 5watts per square foot, I have heated my house entirely with wood. To me, I'm ok with that little exception. Now in my case, the room would still be plenty warm w/out the floor heat. However, I think I deserve this one little treat after working my a$$ off to get the firewood ready to heat entirely w/out oil!
If I were in your circumstance, I'd still feel like I was doing better than par even if I was spending 50 cents per day on an electric heater! In fact, I'd be willing to trade a warm bathroom for a cherry coke out of the vending machine at work during the winter months to make myself feel better about the extra expenditure
pen
I have not turned my furnace on once this winter. However, I do consider the bathroom to be "special". As such, when I renovated our main bath a few years ago I installed electric radiant heat underneath the tile floor. I set this between 75-80 (floor not air temp) and I always have an extra warm bathroom and a warm floor to put my toes on in the middle of the night as I make a barefoot visit since I didn't know enough to stay out of the beer and off of hearth.com...... but........ i digress.
Anyway, this to me is like spending the couple of extra bucks to go out to dinner once in a while. Sure you could do the same meal at home cheaper, but a little treat never hurt anyone.
As such, with the exception of my heated floor that uses 5watts per square foot, I have heated my house entirely with wood. To me, I'm ok with that little exception. Now in my case, the room would still be plenty warm w/out the floor heat. However, I think I deserve this one little treat after working my a$$ off to get the firewood ready to heat entirely w/out oil!
If I were in your circumstance, I'd still feel like I was doing better than par even if I was spending 50 cents per day on an electric heater! In fact, I'd be willing to trade a warm bathroom for a cherry coke out of the vending machine at work during the winter months to make myself feel better about the extra expenditure
pen
Lumber-Jack
Minister of Fire
pen said:I'd say the best results would come from a small electric space heater. Just suck it up and have the best of both worlds for just a couple of bux a month.
I have not turned my furnace on once this winter. However, I do consider the bathroom to be "special". As such, when I renovated our main bath a few years ago I installed electric radiant heat underneath the tile floor. I set this between 75-80 (floor not air temp) and I always have an extra warm bathroom and a warm floor to put my toes on in the middle of the night as I make a barefoot visit since I didn't know enough to stay out of the beer and off of hearth.com...... but........ i digress.
Anyway, this to me is like spending the couple of extra bucks to go out to dinner once in a while. Sure you could do the same meal at home cheaper, but a little treat never hurt anyone.
As such, with the exception of my heated floor that uses 5watts per square foot, I have heated my house entirely with wood. To me, I'm ok with that little exception. Now in my case, the room would still be plenty warm w/out the floor heat. However, I think I deserve this one little treat after working my a$$ off to get the firewood ready to heat entirely w/out oil!
If I were in your circumstance, I'd still feel like I was doing better than par even if I was spending 50 cents per day on an electric heater! In fact, I'd be willing to trade a warm bathroom for a cherry coke out of the vending machine at work during the winter months to make myself feel better about the extra expenditure
pen
That's a great idea, the extra warmth would help dry out the floor faster too. Thanks Pen, I'll be looking into that more when I tile my bathroom.
Ixnay on the uctday. If anything you want to suck the cold air out of the room and feed that into the blower intake. That will force warm air to replace the cold.
Another option would be to put a heated towel rack in there for a steady gentle warmth.
Another option would be to put a heated towel rack in there for a steady gentle warmth.
LLigetfa
Minister of Fire
I have 400 watts of gentle infloor heating in both of my bathrooms. Sure is nice. I have a fan in the crawlspace that sucks air out of the downstairs bathroom so it's toasty warm. The upstairs bathroom is just off the top of the stairs so it gets lots of heat by convection.
Putting the house on solar next year and the woodstove and other mods around the place are a concetrated effort of reducing elect. I'd like to stay away from electric resistance heating because of the electric draw. I can't believe that reversing the blower wouldn't work with all the heat that it cranks out, but heat wants to rise so perhaps that why trying to suck it down doesnt work. I could also just have it on when I want, etc. The fans do indeed work well, but am looking for a permenant fix...No one else fool with reversing the blower??
Lumber-Jack
Minister of Fire
I'm sure that if you blew the warm air from near the stove into your bathroom it would warm it up in there, especially if there is only a wall separating the two rooms. Personally if I was to go that route I would use a separate duct fan to accomplish that though, and leave the blower on the stove to do it's job of blowing excess heat off the top of the stove.
Thanks for the responces everyone, OK I'm steering away from the idea of reversing the blower, doesn't seem to be anone who has had success with it around here, tells me for whatever reason it not that good of an idea. How about this... a waterjacket, expansion tank, small circ pump and a gycol loop to a radiator heater? I bet a thermostat controled small-low wattage circ pump like a grundfos would even use less electricity in that application than any type of air mover. Ideas?
Problem with moving the hot air versus cold air is you are trying to use a less dense substance (hot air) to move a more dense substance (cold air).
Cold naturally wants to move to hot. Evidence of this is opening a window in the winter w/ a cigarette in your hand. Smoke stays in the house. Do the same thing in the summer when it's cool inside and hot outside, and the smoke goes straight out the window.
Now, I am not recommending you try this out of the sheer probability that you could possibly blow you, your house and your loves ones all to smithereens. However, this is something I have often thought about that would work for someone like you who is trying to limit electricity usage.
My grandparents heated their home with wood and an old fisher stove that was in the basement of their ranch home. Grandpa built a manifold (bunch of copper pipes resembling a radiator w/out fins) that mounted to the side of the wood stove. Next, this ran to an old electric hot water heater (used for storage and not hooked to electric) where he had water circulating into this constantly. It used a small electric circulator pump to keep the water moving from next to the stove and into the tank, and back. It also contained a blow off valve that was plumbed outside should the thing have ever overheated (it never did in 25 years of use). They used this for their domestic hot water.
Now, what I have thought of doing (won't but I like to let the mind wander) would be building the same kind of manifold to fit in the rear heat shield of my wood stove and building the similar setup (but w/ a small storage tank), for use by running to hot water baseboards to rooms in the far corners of the house (like your bath). This would only require a small circulator pump and shouldn't use that much electricity. Using antifreeze in w/ the water in these lines would help prevent boil over problems and also give freeze protection if you were to turn the unit off.
Just me thinking
pen
Cold naturally wants to move to hot. Evidence of this is opening a window in the winter w/ a cigarette in your hand. Smoke stays in the house. Do the same thing in the summer when it's cool inside and hot outside, and the smoke goes straight out the window.
Now, I am not recommending you try this out of the sheer probability that you could possibly blow you, your house and your loves ones all to smithereens. However, this is something I have often thought about that would work for someone like you who is trying to limit electricity usage.
My grandparents heated their home with wood and an old fisher stove that was in the basement of their ranch home. Grandpa built a manifold (bunch of copper pipes resembling a radiator w/out fins) that mounted to the side of the wood stove. Next, this ran to an old electric hot water heater (used for storage and not hooked to electric) where he had water circulating into this constantly. It used a small electric circulator pump to keep the water moving from next to the stove and into the tank, and back. It also contained a blow off valve that was plumbed outside should the thing have ever overheated (it never did in 25 years of use). They used this for their domestic hot water.
Now, what I have thought of doing (won't but I like to let the mind wander) would be building the same kind of manifold to fit in the rear heat shield of my wood stove and building the similar setup (but w/ a small storage tank), for use by running to hot water baseboards to rooms in the far corners of the house (like your bath). This would only require a small circulator pump and shouldn't use that much electricity. Using antifreeze in w/ the water in these lines would help prevent boil over problems and also give freeze protection if you were to turn the unit off.
Just me thinking
pen
BeGreen said:
This sounds like the best idea yet, the first time I read this I thought we were talking about fans...duh...I think I'll try this first, sucking from the bath register. Think I should shift the door downwards on the jam so the space is at the top, this would make it so that the incomming air would be towards the celing where it is hottest. My floors are hardwood and quite cold.
Pen, I like your idea alot, with this setup you wouldn't even need a waterjacket because everything is external and by putting it in shroud its totally hidden aswell. No voided warranties, no holes in the stove, etc. My bath is 10x10, I'm just wondering if there is enough heat generated externally at the rear of the stove to keep the bath warm.
rkymtnoffgrid said:
I think it would all depend on the size of the baseboard you put in. Typically, baseboards run water up to 180. Your setup would of course be variable.
Another option that would work even better for you (if you had access under the floor) and would operate at lower temps would be to run piping under the floor of the room for radiant hot water. That would keep your hardwood floors warm too.
pen
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