Heat circulation question

[jophysx]

I got my first insert last winter (Hampton HI300). I really enjoy it. The only thing I would like to improve on for next year is figure out a way to circulate the heat around the house a bit better. My house is a funky layout and doesn't lend itself to using fans because they would have to be placed in awkward places.

I tried using the furnace fan to move the air around, but I ran into the following problem which I was hoping some member of this forum may have already solved: My furnace fan is a variable speed fan, and if I put the fan into the manual "ON" setting at the thermostat controller (digital), it just comes on at the slowest speed, which isn't much. Does anybody know what controls the speed of the fan and how to force it to a medium or high speed?

-Jim

 

[zzr7ky]

Hi -

I have a similar situation.

Large Ranch shaped like a 'Y" (? - The 1st wife liked it)

I find that putting a 'Tower' fan at the mouth of the hallway to the bed rooms to push cool air into the main living area where the stove is worked well. The small squirrel cage units worked well also but made more noise.

The tower I have came from Walmart or the like. It is not a big around as a dinner plate, and is about 30" tall.

The furnace fan is a bit heavy handed in my experience.

ATB,
Mike

 

[jeff_t]

Changing the blower speed prolly won't make much difference if it doesn't work already, just use more electricity. Most people find they don't have much luck moving heat that way. Have you tried a ceiling fan, set in reverse to blow air up?Any way you can post a layout of your house?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

When trying to circulate the warm air, remember that to do so, you have to move the cool air. That is, use a small table fan (not a pedestal fan) and sit it on the floor blowing the cool air into the warm stove room. Also set your ceiling fans to blow up and not down. It may sound backwards, but it works.

 

[begreen]

Jim, as others have noted, using the furnace to circulate heat is often pretty inefficient due to power consumption and duct heat losses. However, if you have a dc, variable speed blower system and IF the ductwork (all supplies and returns) are well insulated (R8 or better), then the system may help even out the heat. Given the low temps you are moving you'll want to keep the speed on low; (that will save some energy too). If this is not working out well based on the last season, then I don't think it will work better at a higher fan speed. In that case you will need to increase insulation and tightening of the house and may need some supplemental heat for the more remote parts of the house.

 

[mesuno]

When trying to circulate the warm air, remember that to do so, you have to move the cool air. That is, use a small table fan (not a pedestal fan) and sit it on the floor blowing the cool air into the warm stove room. Also set your ceiling fans to blow up and not down. It may sound backwards, but it works.

Sav has it spot on - we did draft tests around our house using small fans set low in doorways. Just use an incense stick and you'll get an idea very quickly about how air is circulating. Small fans set low work well for us - they give the natural convection currents an extra kick. You can also use an incense stick to test for drafts which can be alarming - in my old rented place we did this and discovered an ill fitting window frame tucked away in the back of the pantry in the kitchen. The overall opening direct to outdoors would have been about 10 square inches.

I plugged it full of kitchen roll and taped over the seams and within 20 minutes the place was 2 degrees C warmer AND we were able to turn the boiler program down.

It can also show why an Outside Air Kit can be so nice - my wife loves to sit on the floor by the fire sewing. We worked out that all the cold air feeding the fire is being drawn straight across the floor where she likes to sit. Unfortunately the geometry and listed building status means we can't start cutting holes in the floor and walls.

 

[mesuno]

Also, trying being a bit more active about opening/closing doors to rooms that you are not using. During the day we close all the upstairs doors to bedroom and a couple of hours before bed open them again.

It is quite effective at keeping the heat where you want it.

 

[Wood Heat Stoves]

I've sold and used little computer fans that are very quiet, use very little electricity and can go up in the corner of a door jam to move heat from one area of the house to another, as in down a hallway. They don't move a lot of air but can be left on for hours to keep it moving.

 

[joefrompa]

Think through how your house wants air to move - cold will move toward the stove along the ground, hot will move away along the ceiling. Now speed up that process - you probably can't insert ceiling fans on blowing sideways on the ceiling, so you'll want to do it on the floor. Keep cold air getting pushed OUT of your coldest rooms - this will force warmer air to pour in.

I have a terrible layout too and getting good heating to all parts is just not in the cards. I use a few small space heaters (radiators) to heat some bedrooms, and otherwise let the heat soak into the main living spaces.

 

[jophysx]

Thanks everybody. You've given me some good ideas to try next year. I'm definitely going to use the incense trick to find the drafts. I found some big gaps early in the season and plugged those, but I am sure there are many more.

The house is cross-shaped viewed from above with the insert in one arm of the cross. It's sort of an A-frame style with two stories. Two BR and a loft overlooking the insert room upstairs, two BR downstairs. The room with the insert has a vaulted ceiling with a ceiling fan which definitely helps move the air around. I tried blowing up and blowing down and decided blowing up worked best. The challenge is getting the heat "around the corner" into the wing where the kitchen is.

The insulation is not the best. The bare roofing boards (tongue-in-groove) are exposed on the interior along with the framing beams giving the place a ski-lodge kind of feel which I like. But no space for traditional insulation. We re-roofed last spring and added a 4" rigid vented insulation board which is supposedly R18 if I remember correctly, but I suspect that's a bit generous. The room with the insert has massive windows from floor all the way up to the vaulted ceiling. Nice view, but I am surely losing a ton of heat.

If I find anything interesting, I'll report back.

 

[begreen]

We have a few of that description locally. Is this a Lindal home? They are not exactly energy efficient. I suspect that the solution might be a small stove in the kitchen wing.

 

[mesuno]

I've sold and used little computer fans that are very quiet, use very little electricity and can go up in the corner of a door jam to move heat from one area of the house to another, as in down a hallway. They don't move a lot of air but can be left on for hours to keep it moving.

That is exactly what we use - you put them together from recycled parts.

Take a mobile phone charger, strip the lead and connect it to the pc fan. It can plug into any mains socket.