Help me move this air...tight rooms. (PICS)

[TTigano]

Second year burning and Im trying very hard to heat this drafty cape house with wood only. I filled the oil tank last week and don't want to use it unless I absolutely have to. Attached are some pictures of the rooms I am trying to heat. Please disregard how horribly messy the house is. It's just my wife, the dog and I. Attached are some pictures of the room that the stove is in as well as the layout of the first floor. The second floor isn't an issue as alot of the heat goes right up the stairs to the second floor and heats the upstairs just fine. I have very poor insulation in the attic and second floor and I understand that I need to fix this but I'm just wondering if I can do anything else to move air around. Notice that i have a fan in the small doorway in the living room (where the stove it) pushing warm air down the hallway and a doorway fan blowing it into the kitchen. I also have a small box fan pushing cooler air into the area of the stove but can't send it directly to the stove itself due to the small doorway. Thanks for any tips or info you can give me.

 

[firefighterjake]

Have you tried reversing things so that the fan on the floor is pushing the cool air towards the room with the stove to see if that would help at all?

 

[Jags]

Yes, move the cold air. Cold air is more dense than warm air (hence stratification). Could you actually post up a floor plan?

Edit: I also notice that you have one pedestal fan. It works best if you keep all fans at floor level to create a thermal loop. The pedestal will "mix" the air and make this more difficult.

 

[Huntindog1]

This is an idea Begreen has told many people.

Get you a small low to the floor fan set it up at the top of the stairs blowing down to the heated room.

Its will take the cool air off your floors upstairs and move it down towards the room with the stove. This allows the hot air to move upstairs traveling along the ceiling of the stair well.

Tape you a piece of toilet paper at the top of the stairs at the top of the door way up there and see how it moves when you turn on the low to the floor fan facing down towards the room below. The fan need to be on the floor and move the cooler air off the floor to the room below.

This fan is a 9" diameter size this fan is super quiet on low and still moves alot of air on the low setting.

 

[TTigano]

I guess I wasn't as clear as I thought in the original post... I have no problem getting the warmth upstairs... if I stand at the bottom of the stairs with no fans running I can actually feel the cool air rushing down the stairs towards the stove. The pedestal fan is set up as high as possible pushing air down the hallway. The small box fan that is on the floor at the end of the hallway is pushing air (cool as it is on the floor) towards the stove room. My intention this spring is to almost tear down the wall that seperates the living room and kitchen/dining area. I'm sure this will open things up a bit to help move the air around better.

 

[Jags]

That tall fan is still "mixing" the air. Not a bad thing in some situations, but for creating a convection loop, it is easier if the air is stratified, cold on the floor, warm at the ceiling)

 

[Huntindog1]

so which rooms are cold for you?

Do you burn 24/7 as if you dont once you let the stove burn out and you let the house cool down its hard to get the heat back up so its best to keep temps up all the time best you can.

 

[milliburner]

I have good luck moving heat with just my ceiling fans. My house makes a loop. The fan in the stove (living) room is blowing air down. One door into that room is wide open. At the other end of the house the ceiling fan is blowing up. The second door into the living room is only open a crack. Sounds crazy, but it works. You can feel the cold air coming through the cracked door and warm air moving through the wide open door.

 

[TTigano]

Thanks for the responses guys. I guess I would like to get some more heat down the hallway to the other 2 room as a test. Not that I'm even using them right now. I just want to make sure I can when the time comes. I do burn pretty much 24/7 now that the temps are dropping here. 24 last night. I do let the stove burn through a complete cycle most of the time before reloading. It just seems as though if I let the stove go out and let some time go by the temps drop quick as this house (bought from good ole grandma and grandpa) is under insulated. Jumped into the attic yesterday to find R13 up there.....

 

[jeff_t]

The strip of TP at the top of the doorway really helps. I have found that moving my hall fan less than two feet closer or farther back makes a huge difference in the amount of air moving down the hall. Tape some TP up and start experimenting with fan placement. The gate in the hall was a problem for me also.

 

[James02]

Let the dog run around like a maniac....That will move air...

 

[f3cbboy]

under insulated. Jumped into the attic yesterday to find R13 up there

adding some will help alot, slow down the chimney effect.

 

[Huntindog1]

Turn your blower down on the insert as what I have found with blowers is they will heat the room your in really warm. I like radiant heat better as it doesnt seem to run me out of the room the stove is in. If its extremely warm in the room with the insert it going to make the other rooms seem colder than they really are. Maybe you should measure the temps in the other rooms. I personally shoot for 70-72 degrees and my bed rooms down at the other end of house is cooler which I like for sleeping with the covers on. I am thinking a lower stove blower setting will help balance out the heat in your house better, just something to try. Your sitting in there by the stove with all that hot air blowing around then you go to the other end of the house and it will seem really cold. Also like they said insulation will also help more than you think.

Fans at that other end of the hall way I think you said your blowing the cool air towards the hot room but I think you need a small fan that will sit low to the floor to create that separation of moving cold air along the floor towards the hot room and getting warm air moving back along the ceilings. That 9" fan I posted the pic those work extremely well for this type of situation. They will move alot of air at a low, very quiet setting. They are small and sit low to the ground and will not block your door ways like the big box fans do.

http://www.amazon.com/WindStream-Inch-Velocity-Floor-Table/dp/B007SO2CI4/ref=sr_1_2?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1354283658&sr=1-2&keywords=9"

http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12790267&cp=2568443.2568453.2627946.4390792

 

[PapaDave]

TTigano, the fan thing works well if you can find the right setup.
We put an air purifier on the floor (moves air and cleans at the same time.....dogs) in the LR aimed into the stove room. I can be in any other part of the house and feel the cooler air moving past my legs low, and the warm air moving past my head up high. It's not a huge amount (the fan is always on low), but is noticeable.
The heat moves to the other end of the house to get the back bedroom warmer than it was before the air purifier.
This also helps keep the stove room less than a bazillion.

 

[Ashful]

I got a kick out of the butane torch on the mantel.

 

[Fod01]

Hi - Cape Cod here too. When we first got the stove in '08, we also tried the 100% wood heat route, but a couple seasons later resigned to 'supplement' with wood heat. The biggest tool to move the heat around is the ceiling fan in the stove room on low, blowing up. To be honest, I haven't found that a fan in the hallway blowing in to the livingroom has had much of an effect. We let the heat come on as it will ( 6am for 1/2 hour, and 2pm for 1/2 hour. both set to 69deg). All those 'tight rooms' get a bit of heat when we get up, or when kids are back from school. The cast iron baseboard ensures that the heat stays around a while.

After an overnight burn, I will generally wake to 68/69 where the tstat is in the hallway, mid-60's in the downstairs rooms/ kitchen, and 70 in the stove room. When winter temps really set in, I will make a morning fire, and load twice for the evening/ overnight.

My experience only. I hope you find a solution that works better for you.

Gabe