Moving the heat? (advice from HVAC guys welcome :)

[RobMoyer]

First post here, but I have been reading the boards for a little while now

I finally decided to make the move and buy a lopi revere to fill the worthless hole that our heatilator has become.
Unfortunately I believe the only problem we will have, will be having our living room in the very back of the house
in a sunken living room with a tall transom, but somewhat open to the kitchen. I think moving the heat to the main
part of the house is going to be a problem, but fortunately I have a 10" 790 cfm vortex in lline blower with a speed controller,
a line voltage therostatic spst switch and 75 foot of 10" r-8 flex duct.

My plan is to pump the heat out to the other half of the house but what I am unsure of is whether I should just put
one drop in the dining room or if I should split it 10-8-8 and send a run to the corner of the front living room and
another to either the hallway on the opposite side or kids room. We have normal doorways in the rest of the
house and the dining room and living room are open to each other. We also have good ceilieng fans everywhere

I was thinking of using a 16x24 or so for an intake and it would be on the ceiling 4 foot to the left of the insert.
I took a crappy pic showing where air has to travel to get to the larger part of the house from the larger living room, and
sketched an even crappier diagram of the house Our house is around 1400 square foot.

How many drops do I need and what would be the most effective. I will be able to vary the speed of the blower and control it
by either switch or thermostat. Moving the heat out will also be important because the (curently cold) sunken living room will
cook us out and it is the most used room

Help please
Rob Moyer

 

[fdegree]

Many folks on here have suggested placing a box fan on the floor, near the area you are trying to heat, blowing toward the stove room. I have never had to try this, but they claim this works quite well.

Here is a link to another thread, it is not exactly like your situation, but it may have some helpful information:
In-Line Fan

Before going through the installation of the fan, maybe experiment with ceiling fan settings, and box fan placements, to see if you can move the heat adequately with those.

A concern I have is how much noise will this fan generate. If it does generate noise, will it become objectionable? Something to think about.

If you really want to go through installing the fan and duct, here are a few of my thoughts:
I think 10" duct is a little small for 790 CFM. Typically, duct work is transitioned larger immediately after the fan connection. I would recommend transitioning the discharge duct work to 12", and the suction ductwork to 14"...it is harder for a fan to pull air than push air, so making the suction duct larger will help the fans performance.

The 16 x 24 intake grille will likely be OK. But, maybe relocate it more in front of the insert instead of off to the side.

I would also suggest splitting the 12" discharge duct into two 10" ducts. Run one of the 10" ducts to be central to the front living - dining - master bed - stair area. Run the other 10" duct to the center of the hall, outside the kids room. Make each of these supply air grilles something like 12 x 12.

 

[ironpony]

what has worked for me is a programmable thermostat
capable of being set to run the fan 20 minutes per hour
roughly 3-7 minute runs. this circulates the the cool air from the floor
and mixes with the warm air, it has made a huge difference in the
constant temperature throughout the house

 

[firefighterjake]

Normally I say skip all the fancy planning and just position a regular ol' fan a little ways from the stove and point it towards the stove to set up an air current . . . this works well in my house . . . however I'm not sure how well this would work here since this house is really "chopped" up vs. a "standard" square or rectangle shaped house. Good luck.

 

[RobMoyer]

Floor fans are not an option here, and I already have the blower which is rated at 57 decibels. If I place it in the right spot and mount it correctly noise shoulld be an issue. I will be up in the attic anyway. I plan on trying the insert out without anything first.
The side of the house the dining room is on is regular as far as ranch layout is concerned.
So, if I dump the heat into the dining room on the far wall above the French doors, the house return system and ceiling fans should do the rest of the work?

 

[fdegree]

Perhaps others have more experience with this and could correct what I'm about to say if I'm off-base.

Some folks claim that this method of trying to move heat does not work very well. Mainly due to the temperature of the air you are trying to move and the potential to lose heat as the air is moving through the duct work in the attic.

My guess is...and this is purely a guess...if the air trapped at the ceiling of your sunken living room is warm enough, this approach should work. By warm enough, I'm guessing not less than 95*, and no lose of heat through the attic...which you are bound to have at least a little lose. This brings up the question...how warm will the sunken living room be if the air at the ceiling is 95* or higher? Maybe too warm.

My guessing could be wrong, and I would like to hear from others with more experience on this issue.