Stove Went Cold for the Day...what a bad feeling

[agartner]

Nah, I don't live in a 1 room house. Actually, the layout of my house is kind of a wood stove nightmare. My stove is in a finished basement, where we spend a majority of our time. We have zone fhw for heat and the zone in the storeroom never, ever kicks on. However no matter how much I try to move the air, using box fans, etc, I can't prevent the upper level zones from not running. It irks me to no end, but the only solution would be a second stove. Right on about an insert too, as there is a lot less radiant surface exposed to the room. That's why inserts have blowers.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I'm going to have to play devils advocate here... I hear alot how much more even wood heat is and how using a furnace leaves cold pockets. I'd have to say you have a poorly designed forced air furnace and a miracle of a wood stove then. How could heating from 1 point possible be more 'even' with less cold spots than running a forced air setup into every room with an air return? On a really cold day with the wood stove ripping our stove room is easily in the 80-85 degree range while the kitchen is lucky to be at 65 and the bedroom right above the wood stove is barely 60. And we heat with 2 wood stoves...

I preffer wood obviosuly since I am here, and I enjoy the warmth and sitting in the stove room with shorts on! But I'd never say its more even or make fun of folks with furnaces saying they have cold spots. I get picked on here at work when I say the bedroom was at 60 or sometimes in the 50's...

Well, we have a draft old house that is heated with only one stove. I agree that it is cooler in the furthest room (our bedroom) but not much cooler! We certainly have not nor have ever had one room in the 80-85 degree range and another one in the 60 degree range! Or worse, in the 50's! And we've lived in several houses with different wood stoves, so this is not new to us.

Some of it depends upon what you do to circulate the air and I agree that some homes are worse than others but still, that is a big range of temperatures! I would not want to live with that. In our house, if it does get cool in the far bedroom, all it takes is a very small fan set on the floor and set on low speed blowing towards the stove and the back of the house warms up quite fast.

So I'd say you have a unique situation there or are not doing something right to distribute that heat. Do some experimenting to see if you can take care of the problem.

 

[OhioBurner©]

Well, we have a draft old house that is heated with only one stove. I agree that it is cooler in the furthest room (our bedroom) but not much cooler! We certainly have not nor have ever had one room in the 80-85 degree range and another one in the 60 degree range! Or worse, in the 50's! And we've lived in several houses with different wood stoves, so this is not new to us.

Some of it depends upon what you do to circulate the air and I agree that some homes are worse than others but still, that is a big range of temperatures! I would not want to live with that. In our house, if it does get cool in the far bedroom, all it takes is a very small fan set on the floor and set on low speed blowing towards the stove and the back of the house warms up quite fast.

So I'd say you have a unique situation there or are not doing something right to distribute that heat. Do some experimenting to see if you can take care of the problem.

Yeah our house is a bit unique. but the same was true in my folks house growing up, on the bad days of winter where the temp would dip down -20s or worse I remember the upstairs bedroom being into the 50's and those are above the stove with a stairway right infront of the stove and registers in each bedroom. But I think my folks were not cranking the old vigilant to its potential (just a guess), and I dont remember thier fan configuration. Our house is much larger (2400+ I think???) and the 50* room I mentioned is in a finished attic where the heat must go around a 180* bend through a doorway to the stairway, then through a pass through bedroom to get to the further bedroom. I have tried fans in there they help a little but we are down a fan right now. I plan on putting a register in the floor but havent checked with local codes yet. Also the kitchen dining room will get into the low 60's. That side of the house (addittion) is heated with the Rockland insert, but the problem is its in a greatroom so the heat mostly goes to upstairs. We have a fan blowing from the kitchen into the great room but it makes little difference, the blowing cold air on the floor trick works best when the air near the cieling is warmer. In that case the warm air is about 20' up, and at the top of the entrance to kitchen isnt a whole lot warmer than the floor. Again I'd like to put a register at the far end, just have to check with codes first.