Fan or no fan? What are you using ? fan works moves heat around

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Lighting Up

Feeling the Heat
Jan 30, 2010
338
Roc City NY
Newbie question... just wondering if everyone uses their fans ?...if you have them on the stove or other fans (Ceiling) to move the heat? Sorry for the newbie question but with spring coming I'm not able to baby sit the stove and my house was so hot that I needed to open the door to cool it down after plowing the snow. Not sure if I should make smaller fires or turn the fan off...when I leave to regulate the heat? I've seen these fans that sit on the stove to move the heat...they don't have great reviews so your info will help me. thanks.
 
The blower on the back of my stove is used pretty regularly when the outside temps go below the 20s I also use a fan in a doorway to distribute heat to other spaces in the house. W/O these fans the heat generated by the stove would not be used as well as it is with the fans.
 
House to hot make small fires and do not burn 24. You just want to bring the temp up and if your home is insulated it should hold the heat.
 
A few separate questions here I think.

Trying to move the heat efficiently through the home . . . Try using regular, ol' Walmart or Kmart or Whatever Mart fans . . . position them on the floor blowing the air from one room toward the stove. Cool air at the ground is moved towards the hot stove, stove heats the air, hot air rises and the current of air you have established moves throughout the house, eventually cooling down and falling to the floor where it is again moved back to the stove by the current of air set up by the fan. Very simple. Very efficient. Not quite as pretty or as expensive as the stove fans.

Trying to moderate temps on a cool, but not frigid day . . . Try using smaller loads in the stove if the day is forecast to stay relatively cool, but not frigid . . . if the day is forecast to get warmer, go with a hot, small fire and then let it die . . . place heats up and then gradually cools . . . as Snowtime mentioned if the place is insulated well enough it should retain most of the heat during the next few hours.

Trying to cool down because you did like I have in the past and messed up and put in way too much wood or had the fire going way too long: Open the window . . . and be happy that you have a fantastic woodstove that can completely heat your home.
 
Ceiling fan full time on low, cheapo fan on floor in hallway to bedrooms on low pointing at the room the stove is in, blowers on stove when I need more heat output.
 
A fan behind each stove works best for me.
 
I just kept my stove fan on low and the ceiling fan on medium (in the same room as the stove) and burned the stove on low. I was using an oversized stove (3.4 cubic foot in a 1500 ft home) but the combo of the fans kept the house heated at 68-72 degrees regardless of how cold it got outside, and did it very evenly.
 
Fan - pull cold air from the bottom and blow it out the top. I don't always need the fan, but it is nice to have if I want to get the room to temperature quicker and run the stove harder.
 

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Basement installation. Ceiling fan at the top of the stairs helps draw heat up and circulate.
 
My opinion about the fan has changed in the past 2 years as my wood supply has continued to dry. I'm using the fan less and less. When the the weather is below 20 I use the fan, or to really boost the temp quick. But when I have time to keep the stove going continually, I find leaving the fan off and pulling back on the air gives me as even a heat as using ceiling/floor and stove fans.

I leave the fan off when its 30 or warmer. I'm getting much more complete burns and my ashes are still hot for days. Warm up the house quick, then pull way back and let osmosis take over.
 
Thanks all... for all your info. You all have once again helped me, the fan on the floor was one I did not think about and Firefightjake your help of the air flow was SPOT on. Again if you haven't heard I've been buring wood for 15 years and never had the heat that his stove gives me. It is so different but brings good problems to have. taking off my shirt did not work...thanks again.
 
I put a fan at the end of the hallway pointing at the stove and don't use it now. The only thing it does is make the back rooms heat up quiker but there is still a 2-4 deg temp diff so I figure why bother. Oh, and after the stove has died down a bit the whole house seems to magically all fall (or rise) to the same temp-1500 sq ft ranch. I like the silience too.
 
SolarAndWood said:
Ceiling fan full time on low, cheapo fan on floor in hallway to bedrooms on low pointing at the room the stove is in, blowers on stove when I need more heat output.

Ditto
 
With the old stove when it's really cold out and we want to heat the house up quicker we close the bedroom doors during the day until the rest of the house is in the seventies. Once temps are up we put a fan on the floor of bedroom doorways pointing out toward the heat source. This gets negative pressure in the room and causes them to suck in the warm air that is up high. This is not a necessity unless the house temps are low 60's and it's well below 20 outside. Even then the heat will do it by itself but takes longer to heat the spaces.

I just got a new stove that heats slower than my old pre-EPA stove, but temps are far more constant with less frequent loading and longer overnight burns. I bought a blower for the stove to help harvest the heat from the convection walls. It seems to throw good heat while keeping firebox and pipe temps cooler with hotter fires. Our main stove is in the basement.

We also have a old box stove in a fireplace that takes the chill off the living room in a hurry. About twenty to thirty minutes after a fresh load is lit, the cast iron is hot and the masonry walls around it are getting hot. This is an unbaffled, non air tight stove. But when i add a fan pointing into one side between the stove and fireplace, it creates a channel that heats up the air. The back of the stove is the hottest part of it, with a 36" clearance to combustibles. Even with a block plate the heat doesn't come out as fast without the fan. By the time the air comes out of the other end it makes this stove a heating machine. It wont heat up the whole house but sure heats up the living room and could keep the entire house bearable.
 
My fan runs about 90% of the time there is a fire in the stove, you jsut get alot more heat output overall.
 
I'm still working on it also. It's these warmish days and cold nights that are getting me. By the time I get the bed of coals(600-650 stovetop), the house is plenty warm, but I've got to put some wood on or we'll be cold in the morning.

Also trying to determine just how much the fan is cooling off the combuster in back of stove. Right now, I'm leaving it on lowest setting.

I'm thinking about posting on the shoulder+ season. When shouldering is fine for day hours, but you still need a decent overnight burn. Probably no magic bullet there.
 
Chadwylde said:
I put a fan at the end of the hallway pointing at the stove and don't use it now. The only thing it does is make the back rooms heat up quiker but there is still a 2-4 deg temp diff so I figure why bother. Oh, and after the stove has died down a bit the whole house seems to magically all fall (or rise) to the same temp-1500 sq ft ranch. I like the silience too.

For anyone who doughts if this works I can tell you it does. With the new insert our one room that is the farthest end of the house was now the coldest. After this posting, I put a fan in the hall way BLOWING towards the stove and within 1 hour the room has changed temps buy 3 degrees. There were other threads about this (can't find them now) but it works. The fan does pull the cold air out making the heat circulate...thanks again
 
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