Split level fireplace insert heating air flow

I own an 1850 sq ft split level. Right hand half of house is 2 stories. 3 bedroom & 2 baths on top story and utility room & living room with an Osburn 2200 fireplace insert on bottom story rated to heat a 2000 sq ft house. The left half of the house is mid level height between right half 2 stories and includes family room, dining room and kitchen. There is a crawl space on left half and slab on right half of house.

The problem I have is the bottom story room with the insert gets super hot and the rest of the house stays cold. I don't mind a difference in temp, but I can't get the heat to the rest of the house to stop the oil, forced air furnace from kicking on.

I've tried door frame fans in the top of the doorway between the bottom story and mid level to try to get the air flowing. I've also cut a hole in the bottom story ceiling to open up the cold air return to try to use the furnace fan to move the air from the bottom story to the rest of the house. When I did this I closed off the cold air returns in the rest of the house to force the new opening to be the only return used.

The furnace still kicks on in the evenings once the temp gets to below 65 degrees. I have a baby, so I don't want to go down below this temp. It must be 15 to 20 degrees warmer in the bottom story.

Does anyone have any other suggestions? Am I expecting too much from my insert? Does the furnace fan work better than the door jam fans or visa versa?

Thanks!
Eric

Thank you for the reply!

I cut the hole in the center of the downstairs living room where the insert and the warm air is located. I originally tried just creating the opening and turning on the fan with the other returns in the house open as well. I could feel more air entering the room from the main room enterance, but as far as heating the rest of the house, it didn't seem to work very well. To see if it makes a difference, I'm running the furnace fan with seran wrap covering all of the other cold air returns throughout the house. This makes the new opening the main draw. Still doesn't work very well.

I just read in another thread about blowing cold air towards the insert as you are suggesting. I'm trying to determine where I should put my floor standing fan in relation to the insert. I could put it right on the floor in the middle of the room pointing it at the insert. This would throw the cooler air located on the floor towards the insert, but I'm not sure how well this will work since I have a blower on the insert. The other location I am thinking of is in the doorway entrance to the room. This would basically throw cool air from the center of the house (main hallway) down the stairs into the room where the insert is located. Which do you suggest? I'll try it both ways tonight with and without the furnace fan on.

Thanks!
Eric

Thanks Crabby. Let me see if I understand. You have a 2 story, bi-level house with the stove on the 1st level on 1 side of the house. You cut a 12x12 hole in your floor above the stove area to either the living room or kitchen to allow for the hot air to rise to that room. You then created a 12x12 hole between the floors on the other side of the house that allows for cooler air from the other room on the 2nd level (either the kitchen or living room) to descend to the side of your house opposite your stove. Is this right?

Thanks!
Eric

Thank you! Do you find that the bedrooms get enough warmth from the air flow? Also, the layout of my house is almost the same as your's only my fp is on the other side of the house below the corner bedroom. If I were to do this I'd probably have to put a register in the floor of all three of my bedrooms. This would all be much easier if I could see air.