Heat on the ceiling?

[ontheneck]

I recently installed a Hearthstone Hearthmount, replacing an older Pacific Energy wood insert. Love it. A significant improvement. But here's my problem. I have a vaulted ceiling - 11ft 4" - and there's a ton of heat sitting up there. The room (kitchen) is 160 sq ft. If the stove is putting out heat at a steady 70 degrees at kitchen-table level, when I put the same thermometer up on a beam at 8ft, it's 80 degrees. I have a ceiling fan whose blades are at 7'8" which I set on 'low', rotating clockwise.

The entrances to the room - on either side - are just your typical 3'x 8' ft openings.

Any suggestions about how to get that warmer air down so that it's more useful? Or is that just the normal way of things?

 

[begreen]

Set the ceiling fan in reverse so that it is pulling air up toward the ceiling. Run it on medium or medium low speed and see if that helps.

 

[ontheneck]

Ok, begreen. Will try it. Your word is bond after you helped me with the block-off plate for the install. But to a kid who never took physics, this seems counter-intuitive. Why would pulling air UP make the room warmer?

 

[begreen]

Dunno about that.
The theory is that air distribution will be better. Cold air is denser and easier to move. Also, running in reverse takes advantage of natural convection. Worth a try for a couple days to see if it helps.

 

[peakbagger]

Why would pulling air UP make the room warmer?

It works for me. I have "tray" ceiling in my office that goes up about 24". I have ceiling fan in the center of the tray and it works much better in the winter in reverse with the fan direction upwards. It does cut way down on drafts that way.

A lot of the older passive solar designs had an active "chase" installed at the peak of the ceiling the ducted warm air from above to heat storage below. In many cases there was way to much solar heat when the sun was out and these chases would be vented outdoors.

 

[ontheneck]

Dunno about that.
The theory is that air distribution will be better. Cold air is denser and easier to move. Also, running in reverse takes advantage of natural convection. Worth a try for a couple days to see if it helps.

View attachment 189076

Ok. Good graphic. Easy enough to try. Thanks much.

 

[jatoxico]

I believe another thing is that by running in reverse the breeze goes up across the ceiling and down the walls so you're less likely to actually feel the breeze like you would want to in summer running in normal mode. The hotter air is still higher winter or summer, you just don't want to feel that cooling from the air movement now. It may let you run them faster, moving more air and still be comfortable.

Edit; I see it says as much in last pic.

 

[Pertzbro]

You should be able to reverse the flow to winter mode as i call it and at the same time increase the speed of the blades as you wont feel any actual breeze. This should help move the air around more evenly as shown in the picture. It's also the main reason fan manufacturers allow for reversing of the fan motor in the first place.


There is also this product. I'm sure it works in theory but dont know about in practice. Looks rather crude, but you could drywall it in and if you did that you might as well use a big in line duct fan...

http://www.heatstick.com/

 

[Espartaco]

You should be able to reverse the flow to winter mode as i call it and at the same time increase the speed of the blades as you wont feel any actual breeze. This should help move the air around more evenly as shown in the picture. It's also the main reason fan manufacturers allow for reversing of the fan motor in the first place.


There is also this product. I'm sure it works in theory but dont know about in practice. Looks rather crude, but you could drywall it in and if you did that you might as well use a big in line duct fan...

http://www.heatstick.com/

This has got to be a joke? I see the pot heater thing on Pinterest but then see the rest of the site the stare in disbelief

 

[Pertzbro]

This has got to be a joke? I see the pot heater thing on Pinterest but then see the rest of the site the stare in disbelief

Yeah it's pretty funny. But no, it's serious.

Also, there is this brand for the same concept. https://tube-works.com/shop-all/hot-tube-air-recirculator

 

[begreen]

It would be pretty easy to construct a setup like that with some 6" duct pipe and an inline duct fan for a lot less money. Paint it the same as the wall color.

 

[Sprinter]

http://www.heatstick.com/

I want to try the hummingbird thing. You know, for my wife...