Line Voltage Timer

[wingarcher]

During the massive gut/rebuild process in our home, we put a Fantec duct fan to pull cold air from the end of the house away from the stove and deposit it near the stove. Theory is move cold air into the stove room, thus pressurizing it a little and hot air will make it's way down the hall...

Anyway- during construction I figured I could find a timer that would fit in a regular 1 gang box and use that to operate the fan. Our stove really cranks the heat for 4 or 5 hours- that's the time I want to run the fan. After that, it's a bit of a wash on whether or not running the fan will make much difference. Since we build a fire and go to bed, neither of us is getting up (or coming home from work) to turn the fan off.

Turns out this sort of timer might be hard to find- anyone have any experience? I don't want to wreck my drywall and remove the box, etc etc.

Digital is good, but not required...

Nat

 

[RustyShackleford]

Anyway- during construction I figured I could find a timer that would fit in a regular 1 gang box and use that to operate the fan.

I easily found such a timer for my bathroom vent fan, so I could run it 15 minutes or so until
the ... uh ... aroma ... dissipated. At Home Depot or the like. But the max it'll do is 30 min.

I found this:

http://www.1000bulbs.com/product/3295/ELEC-KM2ST1G.html

... but it looks like you'd just have to program it for a certain "on" period per day.
If you want one that just runs the fan for 4-5 hours after you set it, you may
to spend longer than the 2-3 minutes that I did searching.

 

[RustyShackleford]

Ok, I spent another few seconds searching (sorry to be a smart-ass) and
found this one:

http://www.1000bulbs.com/product/3310/ELEC-FD12HC.html

 

[wingarcher]

I'm appreciative of your seconds.

1000bulbs is a pretty fun site!

N

 

[RustyShackleford]

I'm appreciative of your seconds.

De nada.

1000bulbs is a pretty fun site!

Indeed ! I get all my CFLs from them.

 

[WES999]

Instead of a timer how about a temp activated snap switch. The stove gets hot the fan turns on,
stove cools down the fan turns off. You can find them on Ebay for about $7.00. I have one on a fan on one of my stoves. I think it would work better than a timer.

 

[wingarcher]

I thought about that- because of the fan location and wire routing issues the control box for the fan is located halfway between the cold-air intake and the stove...... I'd need the fan to run to get the switch hot enough to....... um.... yeah.



N

 

[fishingpol]

Check out the Intermatic website. They have digital auto off timers. Battery back up for 3 years. Look for the EI 400 and see if it fits the bill. Spring switches can be noisy if the house is quiet, and they have only so much time on the dial.

There are also motion sensors that stay active as long as there is movement in the room, and then they have multiple on duration times that can be set once activity has ceased. I'd look at the digital first. I assume this box is near the fan and away from the stove? Good forward thinking on your part. I tried to convince my neighbor to install something similar, but he would not listen. He had his room gutted too. I can lead the horse or ass in this case to water, but I can't make him drink. Let us know what you select and how it turns out.

Jon

 

[wingarcher]

Thanks for the advice on the digital- that's really what I was looking for. You're right- the spring wound things are noisy, hadn't thought about that.

In our situation there is a hallway leading off the stove room directly in line with the stove. The intake is in the full width bedroom at the end of that hallway and the duct (insulated) runs under the floor in the crawlspace/basement and pops back up in back of the stove. The fan is inline roughly in the middle, so that puts the switching riser in the middle too.

I'm hopeful that this works. The ceiling fan in the stove room in "suck" mode already puts some air down that hall, hope to increase the flow just a little bit more.

Nat

 

[fishingpol]

One other thing I just thought of. Make sure your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are functioning properly and located in the best spot. Drafts from air vents can keep smoke and CO from the detectors if things go bad. A duct fan could move Smoke and CO into another area bypassing a detector. They are silent killers. Be safe.

Jon

 

[fossil]

During the massive gut/rebuild process in our home, we put a Fantec duct fan to pull cold air from the end of the house away from the stove and deposit it near the stove. Theory is move cold air into the stove room, thus pressurizing it a little and hot air will make it's way down the hall...

We did a very similar thing during a massive remodel. Dedicated fan/duct system beneath the floor that will move air from floor registers in the most remote corners of three rooms (though we leave the registers normally closed in two of them), and deliver that air up through the brick hearth directly behind our freestanding Liberty woodstove in the great room. We call it the "secret fan". It's not a miracle, but I'm sure it does something. We have a simple variable speed fan control in a single-gang wall box. No timer. Adjust the fan speed as desired, or turn it off. Works for us. Rick

 

[wingarcher]

I just ordered up a EI400 timer from Global Industrial (now I'll get that catalog too...... it's fun) and will post an update when the timer gets installed. Won't know for another month or more how the system really works! I suspect our very good insulating as part of the project is going to have the greatest effect.

If you're in the market for timers, intermatic is the company to look at. Very broad range of options.

Thanks all

N

 

[rustynut]

dont forget those whole house fan timers
rn