Heat Redistribution - Sauna Downstairs, Cold Upstairs

[ajstephan]

My Pelletmaster does a great job of heating the downstairs up - too good. I had hoped that the heat would radiate upstairs on it's own, but the only configuration that seems to work is by strategically placing a series of household fans from the stove, across the room, down the hall, and up the stairs. This is with the stove at its lowest settings (lazy flame/creosote generating mode), but this still only reduces the temps down from 79 degrees to 76. I would really rather burn the stove hotter, and keep the house cooler and a more consistent temp.

My heat pump furnace is in a room located in the opposite corner of the downstairs, and I would like to put a cold air intake downstairs, but the only 2 places to do it are directly on the furnace ducting in the furnace room, or a 6" pipe that I could run a short distance from the furnace into my office, next to the family room that has the stove.

I was wondering what others have done to redistribute the heat throughout the house before I start cutting holes in the ducting and walls.

 

[littlesmokey]

Turn those fans around. Push the cool air to the stove. I think you will notice an immediate response. You need to create a space for warm air upstairs. My old place in New York state needed only one 8" fan at the head of the stairs to start things moving and heating the second floor.

 

[tjnamtiw]

You might also be able to place floor grates upstairs that will let the hot air get directly up from the stove. It worked really well for me when I had a coal burning Franco Belge in the family room of a former house. You would be surprised how much heat comes 'flying' up through that vent.

 

[StrangeRanger]

Turn those fans around. Push the cool air to the stove. I think you will notice an immediate response. You need to create a space for warm air upstairs. My old place in New York state needed only one 8" fan at the head of the stairs to start things moving and heating the second floor.

So you had a fan blowing down the stairs?

 

[mnkywrnch]

That would be the way to do it,push the cold air towards the stove.

 

[jtakeman]

That would be the way to do it,push the cold air towards the stove.

I agree, Hot air will rise on its own(but I still like to help it with small fans in my floor vents.) Move the cold air to the lower level and the warm air will try to replace it.

This is why a hot air furnace has a cold air return. Helps it to circulate warmer air around.

 

[ajstephan]

Turn those fans around. Push the cool air to the stove. I think you will notice an immediate response. You need to create a space for warm air upstairs. My old place in New York state needed only one 8" fan at the head of the stairs to start things moving and heating the second floor.

Interesting idea. However, I still need to have a return, otherwise there will be no place for it to radiate up. My thought with the cold air return would be that it would use the fan in the heat pump to pull the air across the basement and redistribute throughout the house, plus it would be pre-heated air. A floor vent is a good idea as it would help with the whole house recirculation. I'll give the cold air push down the stairs a try.

 

[littlesmokey]

Pushing the cold air down allows the warm air to flow by convection across the ceiling up the staircase and into the cooler second floor. You do not want to cut holes in your heating system return lines or through your floor. Search this site for all the reasons why, but most importantly is the potential for compromising fire control in your house. If something happens and you have a fire, the vents become chimneys to move the heat into other areas like a chimney. The heating system with holes in it is also compromised. Yes, others will dispute this, but read the searches.