Another Heat Movement Thread, but with drawings!

[NoobTube]

Hey guys and gals. I've been lurking around here for a while and trying to read as much as I can in preparation for my new home that i just purchased. I noticed that a lot of people will ask about moving heat around their house and don't really provide a diagram that helps. So I figured Id get a leg up on the situation with a diagram and some details.

Details of the home:
25 Year old Colonial Oil Heat (baseboard)
2200 Sq Ft with a semi-finished workshop basement (not included in the sqft)
Well insulated and has Anderson Wooden Windows.
Wood Stove: Quadra Fire Cumberland Gap
I plan on using this as my almost-primary heating source.

So the age old question on how to get heat from the main floor to the second in a traditional colonial. I've heard fans are great moving the cold air down to the main floor. So i'm thinking at the top of my landing upstairs of putting in a ceiling fan to push the air down (or should I pull it up?) Either way, that technically should move a ton of air down the stairs and toward the wood stove... The stove is located in the Den/family room which is the back right side of the house.
* Yes this will be professionally installed, and all precautions will be taken

Here is the diagram. Its just me and my lady for now, but I do want to heat that second floor. Possibly in the future, I may convert to a different heat source, but for now I'm stuck with oil.


Some guidance from you all who have been doing this for a while would be greatly appreciated!

 

[NoobTube]

And I just thought about this but I technically could also put the stove in my Kitchen Dinette Area as I would just exhaust straight up through the vaulted ceiling. Not sure which placement would be better though.

 

[BrianN]

I have a ceiling fan at the top of my stairs, pushing the cold air from upstairs, to the wood stove down stairs. Works wonderful. I also have a small fan in the laundry room, at the end of a short hall, pushing the cold air from that end of the house to the stove.

 

[Grisu]

Unless your house is really super-insulated you are asking quite a bit from a stove with a 2.4 cu ft firebox. The vaulted ceilings do not help either. For that size house we usually recommend a stove with a 3 cu ft firebox. If you have not bought/installed it yet I would think about switching.

Do I assume correctly that the bottom of your stairs is at the front entry? How open is that stairwell to the living room? You could try to put a fan at the lower right corner of the living room. Once that room gets warm the warm air should rise upstairs pretty well if the staircase is open. Another placement of the stove more central in the house would be on the other side of the bathroom in the kitchen/dinette. That will also get more heat to the dining room. A fan at the bottom of the stairs blowing cold air towards the stove could work. May mess up your entryway, though.

 

[NoobTube]

Thanks for the replies:

Grisu: The house is really well insulated as this house i purchased was the builders home and he spared no expense in just about everything in there. There is only one vaulted ceiling and that is in the dinette area, not even throughout the entire kitchen just a small area. This stove was actually given to me from some friends of ours who were using it as supplemental heat in their 3500 sqft house with vaulted ceilings. Granted, there house was built in 2005 but still they had no complaints regarding heat output and distribution upstairs. You have assumed correct that the bottom of the stairs is the front entry. The opening is roughly 5 feet wide from the living room into the front foyer.

What would you recommend, keep it in the hearth area, or build a hearth pad and install in the dinette area? So the picture attached gives a good idea of what I'm working with. Im thinking the left of the photo that wall in the dinette area. As you can see its only vaulted in that small area. not the entire kitchen