moving heat in a ranch <revisited>

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ohiohearthstone

Member
Hearth Supporter
Jan 27, 2010
51
Bowling Green, Ohio
just checking to see if there has been anyone with updated luck moving heat in a ranch
yes, I understand the concept of pointing the cold at the heat..
as an update to the pic, we have done the pass through, also now have a header fan between the insert room (this has helped alot...but there is still a boatload of heat in the stove room..Such a waste....Considering a ceiling fan too (would like a nice one in black)..

main ? is :would like to do a insulated flex duct/wall pass through from stove room to living room or go through attic?
anyone actually have any luck with this?
already have a return in stove room...but it did didly
 

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If the stove were in the LR this would be an easier problem, but you probably already know that. My initial plan would be to have an intake, low at the end of the bedroom hallway that is ducted to feed the cooler air and blow it into the the stove room. Is there a basement or is this a ventilated crawlspace?
 
it is a ventilated crawl. It would be completely within my means to run flex dryer duct from one end to another but I really am not "trying" to heat the whole house...after a while the bedrooms do reach 72 which isnt bad for a 8o foot ranch with a non-open floor plan..
I'm just trying to "evacuate" the hot air in the stove room and give it a quick out. Header fan is helping but I think I can do more...Completely understand theory of pushing cold to displace heat but if there isnt a route for it ...etc.
 
Pushing cold air in there will help cool down the stove room. Though it would take a larger, insulated duct than dryer duct.
 
Ceiling fans to stir it up if you are already pushing the cold air towards the stove.

Shawn
 
In our old house, the ceiling fan did a lot to push hot air off the ceiling through the doorway. If you stood outside the door (in the next room), you could really feel warm air being blown.

I tried running the HVAC fan, which moves a lot of CFM, and it worked OK at cooling down the room with the stove, but didn't really warm up the rest of the house. I suspect I lost too much heat to the ductwork in the crawlspace.

Later, I cut a hole in the return and put a 150 CFM fan into the hole, in an attempt to draw warm air directly into a cold room. It kind of worked. The air coming out of the fan was warmish (same temp as stove room, say maybe 80F.) but the quantity of air wasn't enough to really make a difference. Maybe 2F in the target room at bedtime.

So I'd say that running 4" flex duct through your attic is a total waste of time. If you could run like a 12" duct with an HVAC blower, then maybe, but only if you could run it in conditioned space -- I'm certain my crawlspace is warmer than your attic...

Now looking at your floorplan -- if you could make a large duct that went out through the garage (over the entry door) and into that other room, and put a big fan in it, then you'd move air in a circle through the primary living spaces.
 
My opinion would be that it doesn't look like you've optimized your cold air feed, and I'd give that a try. A header fan only on the doorway to the stove room (if I'm reading this correctly) is not the best you can do. For one, get a fan down on floor level, pulling air out of those back rooms. If it were me, I'd put a table fan on the floor at the junction between the living room/kitchen/hallway and see what that would do for you. I essentially heat a back bedroom from two rooms away with an 8" fan on the floor in the bedroom doorway....and it is not a straight shot. The difference is pretty dramatic. It doesn't really take much to get that loop circulating.
 
Your idea for the attic routing can work well, but you have to be very careful to use high R rated ducting...and seal it. Btw, duct tape is good for almost anything other than that task for which it is named. I'd check out the Fantech in-line fans. Excellent product. For room to room transfer fans it is hard to beat the Tjernlund Airshare. I have been involved in a number of projects using several hundred of them on housing authority work. Not wood applications, but the Airshares were excellent.
 
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