Moving hot air in a ranch by opening windows/doors?

[rkofler]

Just wondering if anyone has tried this with any proven success. Seemed to work for me last night, but it was pretty warm outside. I have pretty typical ranch layout. Living room in the middle with the insert, open to kitchen and dining room. Hallway off living room leads to 4 bedrooms. I usually have a fan on the floor in the hallway pointing toward the stove room, definitely helps. Last night it got pretty hot in living room so I decided to crack open sliding glass door which is right next to stove. Then I thought, what if I open one of the bedroom windows, would it create some cross breeze and pull more hot air towards bedrooms. I opened a window in the bedroom at the end of the hallway. It seemed to help, but again, was pretty warm yesterday so it's hard to tell.
Just wondering if anyone has experimented with opening multiple windows/doors to help move air?

 

[Fsappo]

It would help move air, because your moving air, but your pulling cool air into the home. If it weighs the same as a duck....

 

[Wood Duck]

I am sure you can move some air by opening windows, and probably that means you'll move some warm air into the rooms farther from the stove. I think you'd have to be very careful to close the windows at the right time or else you'll start moving cold outside air into the rooms you want to warm up. Of course opening windows is not efficient in terms of total BTUs inside the house, but you may be like a lot of people in that you have plenty of BTUs in the house, but they aren't distributed around the house the way you'd like them to be.

 

[rkofler]

Yes, was just thinking I would open for an hour, maybe less. Especially when I have some extra heat in the stove room. I didn't feel any cool air coming in bedroom window, so it did seem like my "draft" was moving in the right direction. Guess I will probably have to take some temps to really see if this helps. Thanks for the comments

 

[BrotherBart]

I actually did that some this season. In a two story. Cracking a window in the room with the stove and one in each of two upstairs bedrooms did a fantastic job of distributing heat to the upstairs while maintaining comfortable temps in the room with the stove downstairs. The fresh air was a bonus.

 

[zzr7ky]

Hi -

I have a large ranch type home - 2000+ square feet. Burning 24/7 It's pretty easy to keep it reasonable when it's not super cold/windy.

I use a column fan at the opening to the hallway poionted toward the stove which is located in a large livingroom/dining room.

Move the cold air out, warm will replace it.

ATB,
Mike