Help me design Heat plan for house w/ insert

[afblue]

So I am not crying uncle yet because I am not going to be home for another week and fireplace still isnt in, but as soon as it does happen I want to be moving heat so I can stop using the gas furnace. Below are a crude MS paint diagram of my house. The fireplace is on the west wall of the house and the front porch is open, unheated but has full basement under it. The red and green lines show the supply and returns to the furnace below (blue box) am trying to come up with an air loop that will distribute upstairs evenly and have rooms 65, and hopefully livingroom no more than 75ish. People say its not optimal but if I was to use the furnace fan, what would be the best way to get a cold air return high on the livingroom wall? Or is my best bet to have a through wall grate to the stairs and figure out how to get the cold air from upstairs down independently?

 

[Dune]

Yeah, hot air rises, cold air settles, with the shape of your house, you should be fine.

 

[begreen]

With the returns on the outside walls and the supplies on the inside walls, it looks like this is an old coal furnace adapted system. If so, I would guess that the ductwork is uninsulated which would mean a lot of heat loss in the ducting by using the furnace fan.

If necessary to even out the heat, it looks like a better approach would be to use a small fan in the cooler area of the house blowing towards the area where the stove is. Based on the drawing, the upstairs should get convected heat without assistance.

 

[afblue]

With the returns on the outside walls and the supplies on the inside walls, it looks like this is an old coal furnace adapted system. If so, I would guess that the ductwork is uninsulated which would mean a lot of heat loss in the ducting by using the furnace fan.

If necessary to even out the heat, it looks like a better approach would be to use a small fan in the cooler area of the house blowing towards the area where the stove is. Based on the drawing, the upstairs should get convected heat without assistance.

The house is old circa 1922 so I am sure it had a gravity fed coal furnace.


I am hoping the heat will make its way up the stairs without too much help, but I would like to distribute its even if I can. So here was a thought I had today, depending how the rafters are run in the floor, I might be able to tie the far left sides of each bedroom upstairs together under the floor, and in the closets and create my own cold draft that will come down between the dining room and 1/2 bath downstairs wall and exit into the dining room. This would create a loop that will draw more hear upstairs through the smallish doorway to foyer and up the stairs.

 

[begreen]

I'd leave it alone. The heat will get upstairs pretty well on it's own. Just leave the doors open. Besides, it's nice to have a bedroom a few degrees cooler than downstairs.

 

[afblue]

I am going to run it unaided for a few weeks monitoring the room temps with a Oregon Digital thermometer and see what I get. I am just concerned that enough heat is going to make it through the standadr sized door and heat the whole upstairs.