Heating up more of the house

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Nikovevo

Nikovevo

New Member
Dec 28, 2017
20
Connecticut
I have my pellet stove in my basement. Before everyone jumps on me for that my basement is partially finished and I have my gym downstairs. This was literally the only spot I could put the stove in my house. I have a 1400sq foot cape. With the possible weather outages coming tomorrow and the day after with temps near or below 0 here in eastern CT I’m a little on edge. I have my generator all ready and i have hooked up my stove to it before no problem. With the weather being so cold what are some tips people have for heating up more of my house. Last night I put a small 2 x 12 vent in my living room which is not directly over the stove but pretty close to it. I woke up with morning and my basement was fairly warm about 75-80 with the stove running from around 4pm yesterday to 6am this morning. My first floor was 59 degrees when I woke up at 6am. I have my basement door open with a fan blowing up. I heard you can blow it downward to force more air out of the vent but that didn’t seem to work so I switched it back to blowing up before I went to bed last night.

Does anyone have an ideas for heating up more of the house. I had my Englander PDV at 8 heat range (out of 9) and 8 blower speed (out of 9)
 
Nikovevo said:
I have my pellet stove in my basement. Before everyone jumps on me for that my basement is partially finished and I have my gym downstairs. This was literally the only spot I could put the stove in my house. I have a 1400sq foot cape. With the possible weather outages coming tomorrow and the day after with temps near or below 0 here in eastern CT I’m a little on edge. I have my generator all ready and i have hooked up my stove to it before no problem. With the weather being so cold what are some tips people have for heating up more of my house. Last night I put a small 2 x 12 vent in my living room which is not directly over the stove but pretty close to it. I woke up with morning and my basement was fairly warm about 75-80 with the stove running from around 4pm yesterday to 6am this morning. My first floor was 59 degrees when I woke up at 6am. I have my basement door open with a fan blowing up. I heard you can blow it downward to force more air out of the vent but that didn’t seem to work so I switched it back to blowing up before I went to bed last night.

Does anyone have an ideas for heating up more of the house. I had my Englander PDV at 8 heat range (out of 9) and 8 blower speed (out of 9)
Click to expand...
I actually did that set up for a few years and can tell you from experience that your working it backwards. Open the cellar door because cold air will fall down the steps and place a small fan directly under your floor vent to pull hot air and push it thru the vent. I was heating about 1500 sq ft with a unfinished basement . I actually had 3 floor vents . By basement temp would run about 75 on 8-9 to keep the upstairs about 63-65 deg but that’s where we like it. I’m running a pdv 25 also . I will also tell you that I moved the stove upstairs for efficiency and am much more happy
 
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Awesome. I haven’t tried the fan under the floor vent
Pellet rick said:
I actually did that set up for a few years and can tell you from experience that your working it backwards. Open the cellar door because cold air will fall down the steps and place a small fan directly under your floor vent to pull hot air and push it thru the vent. I was heating about 1500 sq ft with a unfinished basement . I actually had 3 floor vents . By basement temp would run about 75 on 8-9 to keep the upstairs about 63-65 deg but that’s where we like it. I’m running a pdv 25 also . I will also tell you that I moved the stove upstairs for efficiency and am much more happy
Click to expand...
Awesome, I haven’t tried the floor vent fan seeing as I jut put the vent in last night. How big of vents did you have? I feel like mine is so small. I beleive it is only 2x12.
 
Pellet rick said:
Yea way to small. Mine are I believe 6x12
Click to expand...
Alright I’ll grab some bigger ones today. And do you have duct work going to the vents (probably not seeing that you have a fan under it). Isn’t it technically illegal to just have vents in floors with not duct work going to it?
 
Nikovevo said:
Alright I’ll grab some bigger ones today. And do you have duct work going to the vents (probably not seeing that you have a fan under it). Isn’t it technically illegal to just have vents in floors with not duct work going to it?
Click to expand...
Depends on who you talk to. I’m in construction and have talked to a few code officers and they all said that they would consider them return grills. They would be more worried about the stove itself being installed properly and inspected. I am sure I will get crucified on here that statement.
 
My stove is not a cellar dweller but I move the air around my house with a couple of small muffin fans.

In the same doorway I have them mounted high and low.
The high one blows warm(er) air into the main part of the house from the stove.
The Low one blows cold (return) air back to the stove.

Both fans are the 4" muffin types ~120 CFM and run nearly silently.

It is more efficient to move cold air using a fan than warm air.

You could use the same principle to move the warmer air from your basement. Force the cold air down and the warm(er) air has to go somewhere. Usually up.

As far a vents in the floor......that is a fire code issue in some areas. Same as laundry chutes.
In a mulit-floor fire situation it becomes a chimney.

Good Luck,
---Nailer---
 
nailed_nailer said:
As far a vents in the floor......that is a fire code issue in some areas.
Click to expand...

It's not just some areas, it's National Code. Local codes can be made more restrictive but not relax the national code. Local inspectors will tell you what they think in a lot of cases. Where as your insurance company will tell you "no payout" if you have a fire and find such a violation.
 
nailed_nailer said:
My stove is not a cellar dweller but I move the air around my house with a couple of small muffin fans.

In the same doorway I have them mounted high and low.
The high one blows warm(er) air into the main part of the house from the stove.
The Low one blows cold (return) air back to the stove.

Both fans are the 4" muffin types ~120 CFM and run nearly silently.

It is more efficient to move cold air using a fan than warm air.

You could use the same principle to move the warmer air from your basement. Force the cold air down and the warm(er) air has to go somewhere. Usually up.

As far a vents in the floor......that is a fire code issue in some areas. Same as laundry chutes.
In a mulit-floor fire situation it becomes a chimney.

Good Luck,
---Nailer---
Click to expand...
Hey nailer. Can you post a pic of your set up and a couple close ups of the fans
 
jp99 said:
How so?
Click to expand...

Cold air is more dense, heavier. If you put a small fan on the floor in a room across from your stove and point it at the stove, it will move the cold air towards the stove and create a natural draft that will draw the warm air into the room. Since the cold air is more dense it takes more warm air to fill the void left from the cold air moving out.

You want a nice easy air flow, not the fan blowing on high and mixing the air.
 
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FirepotPete said:
Cold air is more dense, heavier. If you put a small fan on the floor in a room across from your stove and point it at the stove, it will move the cold air towards the stove and create a natural draft that will draw the warm air into the room. Since the cold air is more dense it takes more warm air to fill the void left from the cold air moving out.

You want a nice easy air flow, not the fan blowing on high and mixing the air.
Click to expand...
I agree with not mixing the air, but the density issue is not significant. The difference for air density from 70 to 60F is less than 0.2% and you can't measure the effect it has in your setup because it's too small.

I've been involved in packaging electronics as a thermal engineer for some 35 years and we don't choose the fan location based on density because it's insignificant. Other factors have larger impacts. In the case of a home, choose where it moves air best for the layout. It can be cold or warm air.
 
nailed_nailer said:
As far a vents in the floor......that is a fire code issue in some areas. Same as laundry chutes.
In a mulit-floor fire situation it becomes a chimney.
Click to expand...

That's a shame. I've heated a couple houses with airtight wood stoves on a lower floor, and multiple floor vents feeding the upper floor. In one case the vents were simply leftovers from a central forced-air furnace that had been removed.

I recall reading an article in Mother Earth News decades ago featuring a guy's plans for heating his entire two story cabin with one centrally located wood stove. The basic idea was floor vents near inside walls allowed warm air to rise, while floor vents near the cooler outside walls encouraged the air to drop back to the main floor. The heat circulated without a fan.
 
Nikovevo said:
Alright I’ll grab some bigger ones today. And do you have duct work going to the vents
Click to expand...
I have a cellar dweller as well...
I have my stove blowing into a hood, that is ducted to the upstairs, center of the house..
Basement door is open, for return air...

Dan
 
tinhorn said:
That's a shame. I've heated a couple houses with airtight wood stoves on a lower floor, and multiple floor vents feeding the upper floor. In one case the vents were simply leftovers from a central forced-air furnace that had been removed.

I recall reading an article in Mother Earth News decades ago featuring a guy's plans for heating his entire two story cabin with one centrally located wood stove. The basic idea was floor vents near inside walls allowed warm air to rise, while floor vents near the cooler outside walls encouraged the air to drop back to the main floor. The heat circulated without a fan.
Click to expand...
Stack effect.

Also if you were around when your house was originally built I bet there was no a central forced-air furnace. With the stack effect the open grates for air flow was sometimes called gravity fed. When forced-air furnaces were installed later they used some of those open vents and left others as they were.

Even the story about the cabin shows an older thought on the gravity fed type of using the stack effect as today the cold air is usually drawn towards the center of the house and the warm vents to the outer walls. The thinking there is that the re-circulated air going back to the furnace is warmer and it takes less to heat, while the warmer air is put were the house is the coldest, on the outer walls.
 
So I’ve been struggling to get the 1st floor heat up over 62 with the pellet stove on in the basement. This is what I tried today and had some success. I put my baseboard oil heat on to let my house get up to 65. I then shut it off and let the pellet stove go to work. I now have one 2x12 vent in the floor of the first floor (I know it’s small but it’s as big as my gf would let me go) with a small fan in the basement directly under the vent. I put one stand up fan that circulates left to right almost directly in front of the stove and one more box fan blowing down the basement stairs. The house has been at a steady 68 today which I like. It got up to about 28* out today which is one of the warmer days in about 2 weeks here in CT. Tomorrow will be a better test with highs only being around 12*. I’ll let you guys know how it pans out tomorrow. Thanks for all the tips and info. Greatly appreciated.
 
Nikovevo said:
Any way you could show me a picture of the hood and ducting?
Click to expand...
Sure.
the reason it seems big, is because I built it about 35 years go for an Ashley
wood stove... Then, it was converted (modified) for a Harman coal stove..
Now, it has been turned 90° and modified again for the Pellet stove..
So it's been hacked a few times!
The new part, is the "scoop" I had to fab, for taking the blown heat from the front
and pushing it up the hood... I "should" modify it again to fit the stove,
but it would only be for aesthetics... and it's in the basement, and nobody really
ever sees it but us...
hood.jpg


Dan
 
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I have a basement install with an Englander 25PDV. I'm having great luck heating my 1800 sf raised ranch. Downstairs(finished) temp is around 78-80, upstairs 72-74 in living space, 68 in the bedrooms. I also cut a couple holes in the floor and installed two booster fans that really seem to move the heat around. http://www.atrendyhome.com/durebofan.html I turn the stove down to 1 or 2 during the day when everyone's at work and school, then turn it up for a couple hours to get the chill off. Going through about 1 bag of pellets a day doing this. More with this cold temp of course. I'm saving so much money and soooo much warmer then I was with the electric baseboard heat.
 
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Pete Zahria said:
I have a cellar dweller as well...
I have my stove blowing into a hood, that is ducted to the upstairs, center of the house..
Basement door is open, for return air...

Dan
Click to expand...
Same here I copied you LOL 6'' duck to the stairway. I also hung an old fan from the rafter there pointed it up the stairway.
 
Just an update:

It’s been really cold the last couple days with highs around 12 and lows around -8 (super cold for CT). I have been continuing with heating the house up with the oil baseboard for about and hour or so in the morning getting the house up to about 65-68 then shutting it off for the day. The house has been pretty steadily at about 66-67. I’ve been using the fans the same way I’ve been for last few days.

One under my floor vent blowing up.
One blowing down into the basement from upstairs.
And one blowing left to right directly in front of stove.

I have my stove at 6 out of 9 heat range and room blower maxed out at 9.

I’m pretty happy with the results.
Can anyone throw anymore ideas to heat up even better. I’m always looking to improve.

The duct idea seems a little too complex and I’m not really handy enough to execute that.

Thanks a lot for everyone input.

Nik
 
Stihl029 said:
I have a basement install with an Englander 25PDV. I'm having great luck heating my 1800 sf raised ranch. Downstairs(finished) temp is around 78-80, upstairs 72-74 in living space, 68 in the bedrooms. I also cut a couple holes in the floor and installed two booster fans that really seem to move the heat around. http://www.atrendyhome.com/durebofan.html I turn the stove down to 1 or 2 during the day when everyone's at work and school, then turn it up for a couple hours to get the chill off. Going through about 1 bag of pellets a day doing this. More with this cold temp of course. I'm saving so much money and soooo much warmer then I was with the electric baseboard heat.
Click to expand...


I’ll look into getting one of these my GF has been talking about them. How big of a hole in the floor did you need to cut?
 
There are spring loaded thermal registers available.
 
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