Is it worth trying to spread the heat from my stove?

[josserman]

My house is 3200sq ft plus a basement and attic. I'm thinking about using a combination of corner door fans and maybe a floor vent to help circulate the heat from the stove to the upstairs area and throughout the house. Do you think the results will be worthwhile or am I wasting my time and money?
Thanks!

 

[Steve M]

Is your stove located in the mid level or the basement and is it big enough to heat the area you want heated? Without knowing, I would say, yes. If your stove is up to the task then floor vents and fans will only make it easier to get the heat from your stove into the areas you need it.

 

[savageactor7]

Yup fans are you friend, don't rule out ceiling fans...they're much quieter and move lot's of air.

 

[geoffm24]

The main return for our forced air system is in the living room where our wood stove is. We have been running the whole house fan with and have been able to raise room temps to as much as 69 degrees in rooms far away from the living room. I must admit it is 82-85 degrees in the living room and 72-74 in the kitchen which is the next room over. We have had some luck using portable fans to move things around but they are no comparison to the whole house fan.

 

[branchburner]

Fans on the floor blowing cool air toward the stove work better than trying to blow warm air away from the stove.

 

[begreen]

A drawing of the stove level floor plan will help us see what you are trying to accomplish. Often you will get better and quieter results by following branchburner's suggestion.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

+1, or is it +2

 

[josserman]

Fans on the floor blowing cool air toward the stove work better than trying to blow warm air away from the stove.

thank you all for the suggestions! I don't have a floor plan, I have a bunch of pics I can link to, but not sure that will help.

This is an interesting idea, did not think of it. My main goal is to move the hot air from downstair to upstairs. Based the comments especially the one in quotes maybe I should have a floor vent with small fan blow the air up stairs and then have another fan near the stair case blowing the cold air from upstairs down?

Here is a link to pics of the house on facebook, you shouldn't need a fb account to view them: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=283659&id=790934907&l=ab5eb4022a

 

[DanCorcoran]

First, beautiful house, grounds, and view, and nice cat and dog!

"...maybe I should have a floor vent with small fan blow the air up stairs..."

If you mean a vent in the downstairs ceiling (where the warm air is) blowing into a second-floor floor vent, that would be helpful (along with the all-important floor fan upstairs blowing cold air down the stairs). Based on the photos, though, it's difficult to understand how close the stove is to the stairs, where a second-floor floor vent would be located on the second floor, and how that loft (in the bedroom?) plays into the picture. A lot of warm air would be trapped up there, if the loft is close to the stove.

To reiterate others' comments: blow cold air down, and warm air will take care of itself, getting back up to replace the cold air. Cold is easier to move because it hugs the floor and you can put fans on the floor.

 

[traviswalken]

Based on some other threads I've read, a vent between the the main floor and upper floor will cause hot air to move up the stairs and cool air to move down the vent. I can't vouch for this, but have read it on the forum a few times.

 

[shawneyboy]

Based on some other threads I've read, a vent between the the main floor and upper floor will cause hot air to move up the stairs and cool air to move down the vent. I can't vouch for this, but have read it on the forum a few times.

Noe I am not a Thermodynamics professor but,,,

Heat like electricity will take the path of least resistance, therfore if you have an open stairwell, larger than said vents, the vents will work as a cold air return, the heat rises up the stairwell, essentially making a slight vacuum, this in turn pulls the (colder) air down the vents, and is a good way to move the heat through the home. Positioning of the vents is very important, meaning for instance in my home I have 3 floor air echange vents. all 3 go to 3 different rooms in the upstairs living area, and all are not very close to the stairwell. This allows for even draw and good mixing of the warmer and cooler air upstairs. Note: way back when they used to use VERY large vents, The heat would rise through the large vent as long as there was another cold air return, or more likely, the house was no where near as "tight" as current homes are. I think you get the idea.

With current tight homes, you need to have some sort of cold air return,

In my home we also use ceiling fans in most rooms upstairs blowing up (important) to mix the air, and warm the rooms.

Again, I am not a Thermodynamics professional, but if there is one on this board I am confident they would agree with my annalysis. Even if they dont agree I can tell you this is how my home works.

 

[Jay G]

Our house is a single story but the family/living are one whole end of the house and that's where the stove is. An arch opens through the kitchen down a hall to the bedrooms. we just have everybody leave their doors open and use a box fan to draw heat and push it down the hall into the rooms and the whole house will stay pretty warm. We also use ceiling fans set to draw up set on low to circulate air in the rooms. Our big room has two fans. I'll run one drawing up and the other blowing down and it doesn't matter what level air you check, it's plenty warm enough.
So I say yes to fans, at least as far as heating one floor goes.

 

[josserman]

thank you all for the feedback...dan appreciate it, we feel very lucky!

Here is some narrative to go along w/ the pics to help get a better sense of things: kitchen is attached to den on one side, the other side exits to a small hallway with stairs going up to my office attached to it. The bedroom without any furniture is the one above the stove and the main bedroom w/ loft is down the hall from that. So the idea is to move the air up stairs and then over to the other side of the house into the master. There is a ceiling fan in the kitchen and one at the top of the stairs by the bedrooms.

I'm thinking to take this in stages. I'm going to look for some inexpensive fans and see if I can manipulate things with those. If that doesn't do the trick, then I think the floor vent (properly places) or maybe take it a step farther and go with a feed into my forces air a/c ducts (upstairs bedroom area only).

Do you guys know if these types of door fans work well? http://cgi.ebay.com/EntreeAir-Sunco...0649615942?pt=Ceiling_Fan&hash=item3f03f96646

thanks!

 

[southland]

+1 about using fans to blow cold air towards the room with the stove. Works well for me. The only problem I have is I can't find a quiet floor fan to move the air. If anyone knows of a good brand/model to use, let me know. I don't know why a ceiling fan can be quiet and a floor fan sounds like an airplane.

 

[begreen]

thank you all for the feedback...dan appreciate it, we feel very lucky!

Here is some narrative to go along w/ the pics to help get a better sense of things: kitchen is attached to den on one side, the other side exits to a small hallway with stairs going up to my office attached to it. The bedroom without any furniture is the one above the stove and the main bedroom w/ loft is down the hall from that. So the idea is to move the air up stairs and then over to the other side of the house into the master. There is a ceiling fan in the kitchen and one at the top of the stairs by the bedrooms.

I'm thinking to take this in stages. I'm going to look for some inexpensive fans and see if I can manipulate things with those. If that doesn't do the trick, then I think the floor vent (properly places) or maybe take it a step farther and go with a feed into my forces air a/c ducts (upstairs bedroom area only).

Do you guys know if these types of door fans work well? http://cgi.ebay.com/EntreeAir-Sunco...0649615942?pt=Ceiling_Fan&hash=item3f03f96646

thanks!

Not really, and they are noisy.