I'm a little slow...

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.

BrowningBAR

Minister of Fire
Jul 22, 2008
7,607
San Tan Valley, AZ
So, I just got around to taking the fan that has been behind the Intrepid and I propped it up and put it behind the Vigilant to see what the difference would be.

HOLY HELL!

When the outside temps are no higher than 25° consistently and I do not have the other stove or furnace running in the rest of the house I could only get it up to 70° in the room with the Vigilant. I turned the fan on and I have the room sitting at 82° with the stove only at 400°-450°. Before I shut down the air controls and the stove touch 600° the room temp was 86° and seemed to still have room to climb. What a difference.

Yeah, I'm a little slow.
 
Story is repeated time and time again - airflow makes a huge difference in getting heat out of the stove and into the room.

Strangely enough - I'm working on a post to discuss using fans to circulate air around the house - I found almost the opposite. I had one fan on the mantle blowing hot air out along the ceiling and one fan near the back bedrooms blowing cold air in across the floor. Thermostat in the hall would do 66 sometimes 68º if the stove was burning like a crematory. Shut mantle and floor fans off, but kept the fan on the insert running and the hall hit 72F with a modest fire and temps outside 15-20º lower than they were when I could only get 68º in the hall with all fans spinning.

I suspect the hot/cold air was getting diluted / stirred up by the fans so it couldn't flow smoothly out across the ceiling and back across the floor.
 
I seriously can't figure out why I didn't do this sooner. With the outside temps in the low teens last night I had the Vigilant hovering at 400-450, yet the room is 8 degrees warmer (eighty-freakin'-two degrees!) than when I had no fan and it was burning at 550 degrees.
 
Forced convection, properly applied, can be a beautiful thing. :) Rick
 
I would love to read that. I'm constantly struggling to heat the WHOLE house.

BTW- Great site! I've been reading for a couple a weeks now as I have been contemplating a new stove.




[quote author="cozy heat" date="1262735317"]Strangely enough - I'm working on a post to discuss using fans to circulate air around the house -
 
Status
Not open for further replies.