House Air Flow Issues

Cutting vents from one floor to anotehr doesnt have to be a fire hazard as long as there is a fire damper incorporated. This is a spring loaded damper with a fusible link that shuts when the temperature goes too high.

Don't take this the wrong way, but if you think you're going to heat a 3200 sq. ft house with one stove, think again. By the time the heat gets down those hallways, etc, it will cool off.

My advice.....keep the stove cranking, or add a second stove.

Mr GreenBean said:

Looking for suggestions to move air through the house. My first floor stays warm but the upstairs does not get above 63 degrees unless I am really cranking my Mt Vernon Insert.

I am trying to heat around 3200 feet and currently have a celing fan in the same room, a corner fan pushing the air from the room and a celing fan in the kitchen. The house is 10 years old with limited drafts. The living room where the stove is has a cathedral ceiling and its connected to an large open concept kitchen. There are two rooms attached to the kitchen with a hallway running to the front of the house. I am trying to get ideas to push the warmer air to these two rooms and the hallway to get the heat up the stairs to the second floor.

I was thinking about putting vents in the first floor ceiling to the second floor but told this is a major fire hazard.

I tried turning on the furnance blower and use the fan intake to circulate the air but I found the round trip cooled off the air to much.

Thanks,

Leo

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Do you have a cold air return upstairs? Can you get a fan in there somehow to pull the heat from the cold air return on floor 1? This would save you from blowing through all the duct work and that ice cold heat exchanger in your furnace.

The gravity heat holes are a good idea, my house has them with no vent work upstairs and its just a little cooler upstairs than down stairs. I understand if your house started on fire these holes could help feed the fire. When someone says fire hazzard I think of (gasoline on the walls lol) something that will start a fire. Is knotty pine on your walls a fire hazzard compared to sheet rock? They do work and you don't need to be a dare devil to have them.

I think this is a common predicament among many pellet stove owners. These units are basically "space heaters" not heating systems. So, unless your house resembles a gymnasium, it is very difficult to get heat transfer to every square foot. In some larger homes I think it would be better to buy a couple of smaller sized stoves rather than a single big # BTU model.

Mr GreenBean said:

firestarter... what is a gravity heat hole?

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Its the holes you are talking about in the ceiling downstairs that go to your bedroom upstairs. Old people around here call them gravity holes, all though they don't really have anything to do with gravity.

I'm going to pay close attention to this thread as I will be trying to heat as much of my house as possible with a Mt. Vernon as well...

Is there a ceiling fan in that living room w/ the cathedral ceiling? If so, how tall is the ceiling and how far down does the fan drop from the ceiling?

The only way it would work is with a wood fire furnace or boiler.

Even in my well insulated house that is 1/2 the size the back of the house will be 7-10* cooler if it's cold outside (below zero temps)

imacman said:

Don't take this the wrong way, but if you think you're going to heat a 3200 sq. ft house with one stove, think again. By the time the heat gets down those hallways, etc, it will cool off.

My advice.....keep the stove cranking, or add a second stove.

Click to expand...

***BUMP***Watching this thread about air movement.Having my 5" attic insulating brought up to R30 this week.

snoops said:

Mr GreenBean said:

firestarter... what is a gravity heat hole?

Click to expand...

Its the holes you are talking about in the ceiling downstairs that go to your bedroom upstairs. Old people around here call them gravity holes, all though they don't really have anything to do with gravity.

Click to expand...

Well they do sort of, cold air is heavy compared to warm air and is usually found near the floor, so the registers allow the cold air to drop down to the next lower level and that allows the warm air to come up the stairs.

If the air is really warm at the ceiling it is also possible for the warm air to enter the upper floor this would depend upon the cold air finding another means to come on down.

Older hot air systems made use of this both by these so called gravity holes and a single cold air run that actually was all around the furnace (frequently a solid fuel beast) with exactly one combined hot air cold air return register that was about 4' feet by 4'.

Somewhere I may have a picture of such a beast specifically an old Glenwood that had huge coal grates in it. I put a few ton of coal though that.

Mr GreenBean said:

I tried turning on the furnance blower and use the fan intake to circulate the air but I found the round trip cooled off the air to much.

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I use my furnace blower to circulate heat. When it first cuts on I get a 8-10 degree drop, but after about 10 minutes I get a 1-2 degree drop. My furnace is in the basement so it's not real cold, around 55-60 down there. The trick is to leave the blower on for an extended period. If your cutting it on and off it going to cool off each time.

I run my blower only at night. This helps get that heat to the furthest rooms. It also helps that my stove is only about 12' from my HVAC return.

My house is 2 stories and 2200 sq ft. I leave the upstairs heat pump set on 69. Otherwise it gets too cold up there in my kids rooms at night. The stove is helping heat up there, just not enough.

Downstairs it is 100% heat from the stove and cozy warm.

IMHO, 3200 sq ft is way too big to heat with a SPACE heater. You may try running your furnace blower again. Let it run a while then take some temp readings around the house.

I need to run my Harman Accentra Insert 24X7 since I am pushing it to the limit (and beyond) to heat our 3000 sq. ft. home.
I run it in Room Temp mode at 73 degrees. The upstairs temp will rise to 66 during the day and dip to 64 at night.
I have a ceiling fan in the room with the insert and it runs in reverse on medium. We have a guest room upstairs that is only used occasionally, so we keep that door closed.
Iv'e experimented with different fan configurations, but haven't found a consistent method to get more heat upstairs, other than the ceiling fan.
The insert was installed in early February, so we haven't experienced frigid temperatures yet.

I disagree and I am sure mine is the exception to the rule

4600 sq ft 2 floors ranch style full finished lower level
stove on lower level
3 sided balcony around main floor overlooking lower level
approx 700 sq ft opening
main level stays 70
lower level 68
2 box fans circulating air
furnace blower programmed to run 10 min every 30 mins

imacman said:

Don't take this the wrong way, but if you think you're going to heat a 3200 sq. ft house with one stove, think again. By the time the heat gets down those hallways, etc, it will cool off.

My advice.....keep the stove cranking, or add a second stove.

Click to expand...

+ 1.

The temp drops when the central blower is turned on because the stove simply isn't generating enough heat for the entire house.

If you have existing heating ducts or water pipes for a oil, gas, electric furnace or boiler why not take advantage of them and trade the pellet stove for a pellet boiler or pellet furnace. That is a big commitment but why live for years with cold spaces in your home. A pellet furnace does not cost that much more than a big pellet stove. Get the heat directly to each room and be able to control it with floor registers or water valves.

I've been having a bit of an issue getting the upstairs in my house warm as well and it's TINY compared to yours. Mines a 2 story, only 500 sq ft per floor. Stove is on the main floor and I can get it hotter down there than I would ever want it... but the air does not seem to want to travel up the stairs. The stairs are on the opposite end of the house from the stove, and going the opposite direction (ie if you walk up the stairs, you're on the opposite end of the house, and walking towards the stove).

I put a fan on the wall in the stair well, trying to blow warm air up, and it kinda helped but not really. Then I tried the same fan on the floor near the top of the stairs, to blow cool air down the stairs from the floor, and it was kinda better but still not good.

In my case, the furnace won't do it either as the furnace and all the duct work is in the crawlspace which is uninsulated and unheated, so it just ends up blowing cold air around.

I think there has to be a 2 way street there. A way to let heat upstairs and a way for the cooler air to escape back downstairs.

I am very curious on how you can heat your McMansion on what equates to about 3 cords of firewood per year. Is Ohio much warmer in winter than I think it would be?

My WHOLE house is about 1/3 the size of yours and that is how much wood I use.... AND most people seem to think that isn't possible, that I should use more.

ironpony said:

I disagree and I am sure mine is the exception to the rule

4600 sq ft 2 floors ranch style full finished lower level
stove on lower level
3 sided balcony around main floor overlooking lower level
approx 700 sq ft opening
main level stays 70
lower level 68
2 box fans circulating air
furnace blower programmed to run 10 min every 30 mins

Click to expand...

NATE379 said:

I am very curious on how you can heat your McMansion on what equates to about 3 cords of firewood per year. Is Ohio much warmer in winter than I think it would be?

My WHOLE house is about 1/3 the size of yours and that is how much wood I use.... AND most people seem to think that isn't possible, that I should use more.

ironpony said:

I disagree and I am sure mine is the exception to the rule

4600 sq ft 2 floors ranch style full finished lower level
stove on lower level
3 sided balcony around main floor overlooking lower level
approx 700 sq ft opening
main level stays 70
lower level 68
2 box fans circulating air
furnace blower programmed to run 10 min every 30 mins

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

1) the house is very tight ex; If I run the whole house fan and close the windows the shutters close from no air flow
2) extremely open floor plan
3) we love 68-70 degrees not 78 like alot on here
4) and some luck in stoveplacement house design working together

4 tons = 3 cords??

1 cord = ~1.5 tons. Your threads say 22 tons is for 5 years of heat, that means 4.4 tons per year, or around 3 cords of firewood.

Not saying it can't be true, but to me just seems like very much sq footage for minimal heat needed.

I have an uncle that lives in a house about that size and they burn 12-15 cords of wood to keep the place at 65-68*

2800sq' 2 story..
Pellet insert on first floor, 9' high ceilings with ceiling fans CCW. I cut holes in the wall leading out to the foyer which is open to the upstairs..
Upstairs is always 4 degrees cooler than downstairs, which is fine by me.. Wife and kids love it HOTT though, so downstairs stays 74-76 and upstairs is 70-72 which is very comfortable.

I have another ceiling fan at the top of the stairs that i have tried in both CW and CCW direction to try and get more heat upstairs and neither has made any improvement, if anything it goes down in temperature...So that one is off.


Good luck and lmk what you come up with..
SHOC

Do you have central heat? If so, try running the circulation fan all night. My house is 2200 sq ft, 2 story and it helps a lot.