adding a blower or fan

[Yota1]

long time lurker here, but finally registered.

I have a Jotul 400 which I burn about 5 cord a year in. I am trying to make things a little better as far as heat circulation goes. I would like to add some sort of fan, or adapt a blower to this stove to get the heat out of the fireplace.

My stove sits in front of an open fireplace, I have a 6" SS liner in my curre3ct chimney. I closed off the damper, but found it not to be to air tight, so i am redoing it as well.

I want to make sure what ever it is can hanfdle the heat, i tend to run around 500-600* for a good clean burn

 

[begreen]

Greetings yota. Improving the block-off plate should help and running it at 500-600 is a good temp. Tell us a bit more about the room(area) where the stove is located. Does the area warm up well, but other areas are too cool? How large a house and where is the stove located?

 

[Yota1]

1800 sf house built in 1920. central chimney, zero insulation. can walk from room to room in a circle on first floor. hall way fan helps move air upstairs where bedrooms are. I can get the living room to just shy of 80* or so, and have about 65 in the bedroom.

stove is basically the max i can fit for code reasons

I also plan to change from the usa air plate to the eruo plate, as some seem to get more air from that one

 

[begreen]

I don't think changing to the Eur plate is going to help much. The best investment of time and energy is going to come from tightening up, sealing and insulating the place. The stove sounds like it's doing fine, but the house is leaking heat faster than it can be replaced. Fix that problem and it's a win-win situation. Less wood consumed, more comfort.

One thing that will help is changing the current fan orientation. This winter try blowing cold air towards the warm stove room. That will create a natural convection current. Set the fan on the floor, blowing towards the stove from the hallway and see how that works.

 

[Skier76]

Paging cycloxer! He's got a Castine and did some experimenting with a blower. Here's the thread: https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/48373/

 

[Fsappo]

Add a fan you will, Yota. The force is strong within you.

 

[Yota1]

thats exactly what i was looking for.

thanks

 

[summit]

add on the rear heatshield, as well... alot of the radiant heat from the back will be reflected forward instead of being sucked up by the fireplace brickwork.

 

[summit]

1800 sf house built in 1920. central chimney, zero insulation. can walk from room to room in a circle on first floor. hall way fan helps move air upstairs where bedrooms are. I can get the living room to just shy of 80* or so, and have about 65 in the bedroom.

stove is basically the max i can fit for code reasons

I also plan to change from the usa air plate to the eruo plate, as some seem to get more air from that one

EUR plate adds more air, helps to get it going, but can also dilute the heated stove body with excess air, in effect cooling it, when left wide open trying to crank it. Many Jotuls like to be wide open to start, but prefer to be run @ 1/2 way during normal ops.

 

[begreen]

Good suggestion on the rear heat shield. I was thinking if this was an exterior chimney of a sheetmetal, full fireplace face block-off.

FWIW, our Castine liked to run at 1/4 to 1/8 way for ideal burn, USA plate, but that was with soft-maple burning. YMMV.

 

[Skier76]

You know, I have the rear sheild just sitting in a closet. I should probably attach that and reflect more of the heat into the room...instead of into the stone behind the stove.

BeGreen...I'm with you on that. I do find that the stove is happy around 1/4 to 1/8th on the air control using the US plate. With the Euro plate, I could back it down even more...but then again, that plate let it more air. In both cases, that's burning hardwood.

 

[ControlFreak]

I'll second the comment to figure out how to add insulation, and to be moving the cold air at the floor rather than the warm air.

Probably should grab an infrared thermometer in the winter and prioritize the coldest places to start.

 

[Yota1]

My heat shield is on. I have been trying to make my house more air tight, but with all the other needed house improvements, the insulation has to wait. After all the house is from 1920 and has gotten by this far..........

I have found with this stove, and really need to be at WOT or a little between 3/4 and WOT for good efficient burn, good secondary burn, and enough heat output to keep things warm.

I still manage good burn times too

 

[begreen]

My heat shield is on. I have been trying to make my house more air tight, but with all the other needed house improvements, the insulation has to wait. After all the house is from 1920 and has gotten by this far..........

Just think how much fuel and money has been wasted in 90 years. Insulation and sealing leaks pays back immediately for the life of the house. Not too many other improvements offer that kind of gain.

I have found with this stove, and really need to be at WOT or a little between 3/4 and WOT for good efficient burn, good secondary burn, and enough heat output to keep things warm.

Sounds like either the wood is not completely dry or the draft is weak.

I still manage good burn times too

 

[Yota1]

I seem to have a real good draft, central located chimney with 6" SS liner. Never has it smoked back at all.

All wood has minimum dry time of 6-8 months, this years majority has 2 years on. All hard wood, mostly oak and maple.

House is being sold this coming spring, like I said all the other project we did were more important that insulation. It is needed, I will not argue that, especially in the summer, outside temp will be the same as the inside temp. The 35 windows I have adds to that as well.

The new roof I just put on will hopefully help repel some of the suns rays. Will try and add some insulation to the attic as well this year.

 

[soupy1957]

If you have a forced-hot air system in your house for your furnace, you can also turn on the fan on your furnace system (without turning on your furnace, obviously) to circulate the heat in the house. I do that, as well as put some small space heaters in strategic locations where cold spots can develop.

-Soupy1957

 

[Yota1]

Just to give an update with my changes in case anyone else might be looking for ways to improve.

Switching to the euro air plate made a huge difference. Before, at WOT, i would only touch 500*. Now I can hit 500* and half throttle. It will take a little bit of playing to get some longer burn times, but I am just using scrap pieces that wouldn't stack in the wood pile. I was able to close off the old damper better this year, so that should help with any heat loss I may have been experiencing.

I added a small room fan in the fire place about 14" behind the wood stove. When set at low, it moves the heat away away from the stove, but doesn't force it, it is hardly noticeable, other than the fan not being the quietest one, but i had it laying around.

SO i am getting the downstairs to around 77-80 degrees and the upstairs is around 65-70 depending on if i remember to open the doors to the bedrooms or not. Warm, but it hasnt been too cold outside yet, but cool enough for me to get a fire going rather than burn oil.

 

[cycloxer]

EUR air plate gives you about 2X more air at max setting. When fully closed USA & EUR are the same. EUR gives you more top end because you can let more air into the stove and thus achieve a hotter burn. Just be careful because you can really get that stove cooking quickly with EUR and over-shoot 600°F. I've been using the EUR plate pretty much since day 1.

 

[Fake coal burner]

Nothing works like good homemade things. That is how I made mine for wood stove in fire place. I change the set up for the gas stove had to come out the bottom. Draft hood vent on back of stove top to bottom. No fan option. I used one $13.00 bath fan 50 cfm. for front room same for the back of the house running threw 3 inch aluminum flex dryer vent 50 feet. Run vent in un finished basement to a T at the front fan. Works real good. Front or rear fan or both on. Auto or manual mode. cost about $ 50 for set up and parts. Had it for 18 years that way. See Avitar. for gas stove. Temp. Outside 40 deg. stove temp. top. 125deg. air at bottom duct. 80 drg. 400 sq.feet room 80 deg floor and ceiling temp now about 5 deg. difference in the winter.

 

[jotulguy]

2 points from this peanut gallery. #1 the euro plate will reduce both your burn time and your air wash. #2 a fan on the stove isnt the best idea. The Jotuls are radiant stoves so a direct blower will reduce the heating value. I have heard many on this site having great luck with a fan pointed at the stove from a distance though. In theory this makes sense because you are bringing in cold air to be warmed by the stove and natural convection takes over then. How are your burn times on the stove?

 

[cycloxer]

The EUR plate helps those with a weak draft. If your stove has a really strong draft, the EUR plate is not necessary. I didn't notice any difference in air wash between the two. I notice more of a difference depending on how full I load the stove. Burn time is totally dependent on how the stove is adjusted. In the fully closed position, both plates seal off the air completely. You can run a blower on this stove. Jotul just doesn't offer an oem option for the Castine. However, they do offer this on other stoves in their lineup such as the Oslo which is of an almost identical design. The blower allows you to transfer more heat to the room quicker simply because you are moving more air across the hot stove surfaces. I use my blower on the colder days to boost output. The downside is that you have to feed the stove more wood.