Sorry guys, this is going to be a long one.
I’ve read several threads about this and the common answer is to move the cold air. I’ve tried a few different ways without success.
So my stove makes the kitchen and dining room, living area 90+ degrees and the bedrooms are in the 60’s.
Here’s a layout of the house and I’ll explain the problem below.
The air movement through the house sucks and I have limited options. The house has a basement and all the HVAC is in the basement. All duct work is ran through the slab and is in ground.
Basement ceiling is 2" steel plate with I beam supports with 36" concrete poured on top. So no way to modify vents, ductwork, or add anything.
No return air ducts in the house. Air just flows down open stairwell down into the basement where it's pushed out from the floor vents. Air travels from back bedrooms down hallway straight down basement stairwell and what I feel like doesn't really circulate with the rest of the house. The living room kitchen are too hot and the bedrooms are cold. I run the main Central HVAC fan (fan only, no heat) on constant on, to try to help circulate the air and filter it. All ceiling fans are on and reversed.
The add-on room does not have any vents, or return air but remains comfortable due to the large open wall design. Main issue is the bedrooms.
What I would like to do is circulate air in front of the stove back into the bedrooms to help evenly heat the house. I see this is frowned upon because the heat isn’t retained in the ductwork. I even read that ducts too close to the stove can cause draft issues.
The house used to have a fireplace and it looks like someone had vents off of the fireplace and ran metal ducting back to the bedrooms with overhead vents. Pics #2 is where I think the old chimney came up in the middle, and then the two ducks came up on each side of the chimney blowing hot air back in the bedrooms with pic #3
Pic #3
The stove I installed, is fairly close to the original fireplace that was removed.
Through my hours of research in forums other people have asked this question about moving hot air through ductwork. Everyone suggest to move cold air because it's denser, and the heat will fill the cold air voids but I do not see an option for me to move cold air since the only option (that I see) for me is to use the overhead vents. I feel like if I ran the air backwards, it would be taking hot air out of the bedroom since the vents are overhead and it would be putting more hot air into the living room/kitchen area, and then the air would be fighting the HVAC fan trying to push the air back down the hallway as the central hvac is pulling air down the hall.
Will it be effective for me to run a return in the ceiling in front of the stove and use new insulated flex ducts with an in line duct blower and run it to the cut out overhead vents in the bedrooms? Will the air coming out of the vents 45 foot still be warm? Will this help with the circulation throughout the house?
Do I have any other options that I’m missing?
I've tried placing six box fans around the house to help circulate the cold air on the floor, but it still does not help heat the back bedrooms. This would make sense because hot air is not going to travel down the stairwell into the basement to be circulated by the central heat and air back into the bedrooms.
Sorry for the long winded post, but any advice would be appreciated
I’ve read several threads about this and the common answer is to move the cold air. I’ve tried a few different ways without success.
So my stove makes the kitchen and dining room, living area 90+ degrees and the bedrooms are in the 60’s.
Here’s a layout of the house and I’ll explain the problem below.
The air movement through the house sucks and I have limited options. The house has a basement and all the HVAC is in the basement. All duct work is ran through the slab and is in ground.
Basement ceiling is 2" steel plate with I beam supports with 36" concrete poured on top. So no way to modify vents, ductwork, or add anything.
No return air ducts in the house. Air just flows down open stairwell down into the basement where it's pushed out from the floor vents. Air travels from back bedrooms down hallway straight down basement stairwell and what I feel like doesn't really circulate with the rest of the house. The living room kitchen are too hot and the bedrooms are cold. I run the main Central HVAC fan (fan only, no heat) on constant on, to try to help circulate the air and filter it. All ceiling fans are on and reversed.
The add-on room does not have any vents, or return air but remains comfortable due to the large open wall design. Main issue is the bedrooms.
What I would like to do is circulate air in front of the stove back into the bedrooms to help evenly heat the house. I see this is frowned upon because the heat isn’t retained in the ductwork. I even read that ducts too close to the stove can cause draft issues.
The house used to have a fireplace and it looks like someone had vents off of the fireplace and ran metal ducting back to the bedrooms with overhead vents. Pics #2 is where I think the old chimney came up in the middle, and then the two ducks came up on each side of the chimney blowing hot air back in the bedrooms with pic #3
Pic #3
The stove I installed, is fairly close to the original fireplace that was removed.
Through my hours of research in forums other people have asked this question about moving hot air through ductwork. Everyone suggest to move cold air because it's denser, and the heat will fill the cold air voids but I do not see an option for me to move cold air since the only option (that I see) for me is to use the overhead vents. I feel like if I ran the air backwards, it would be taking hot air out of the bedroom since the vents are overhead and it would be putting more hot air into the living room/kitchen area, and then the air would be fighting the HVAC fan trying to push the air back down the hallway as the central hvac is pulling air down the hall.
Will it be effective for me to run a return in the ceiling in front of the stove and use new insulated flex ducts with an in line duct blower and run it to the cut out overhead vents in the bedrooms? Will the air coming out of the vents 45 foot still be warm? Will this help with the circulation throughout the house?
Do I have any other options that I’m missing?
I've tried placing six box fans around the house to help circulate the cold air on the floor, but it still does not help heat the back bedrooms. This would make sense because hot air is not going to travel down the stairwell into the basement to be circulated by the central heat and air back into the bedrooms.
Sorry for the long winded post, but any advice would be appreciated
