I bought a new construction house in July, so this is obviously my first burning season.
general layout of the house: 2 story, 2400 sq ft; master on main level; 2 bedrooms plus large bonus room on 2nd level; main level has great room with 2-story ceiling; there is a balcony overlooking great room from second level hallway. There are 2 HVAC units (heat pump) - one serving each level.
We installed a Jotul F50 Rangley in the great room on the main level. I knew that it would not be super efficient with the high ceiling - I'm not worried about that. The main issue that I am trying to solve is the fact that the upstairs hallway (with the balcony overlooking great room) gets very warm when the stove is running, but little or none of this heat makes it into the bedrooms or bonus room (b/c of the transoms probably). The thermostat for the 2nd level is located in the hallway, so it reads a warm temp and therefore the 2nd level heat pump never kicks in. The result is that the bedrooms and bonus room stay frigid.
I presume the easiest solution would be to just move the thermostat from the hallway into one of the bedrooms. Or replace the thermostat with a smart thermostat with a remote temp sensor (like the EcoBee3) which could be placed in a cold bedroom. I may consider that in the end, but that solution doesn't help my heating efficiency (still not moving warm air that in the hallway/ceiling of great room into the cold rooms).
I thought that running the HVAC fan upstairs would help circulate the warm air into the cold bedrooms, but it turns out that their is a cold air return on the ceiling of each bedroom and the bonus room, but none in the hallway. So when the fan is on, it just recirculates cold air from the cold rooms.
So, my question is: Would putting an air return duct in the ceiling of the balcony/hallway or even in the great room ceiling (I understand that code requires it to be 10 ft away from the chimney) attached to the upstairs HVAC unit make a noticeable difference in the temp of the bedrooms/bonus room?
Thanks for any advice. If anybody thinks that a few pics of the layout would help, I am more than happy to attach.
general layout of the house: 2 story, 2400 sq ft; master on main level; 2 bedrooms plus large bonus room on 2nd level; main level has great room with 2-story ceiling; there is a balcony overlooking great room from second level hallway. There are 2 HVAC units (heat pump) - one serving each level.
We installed a Jotul F50 Rangley in the great room on the main level. I knew that it would not be super efficient with the high ceiling - I'm not worried about that. The main issue that I am trying to solve is the fact that the upstairs hallway (with the balcony overlooking great room) gets very warm when the stove is running, but little or none of this heat makes it into the bedrooms or bonus room (b/c of the transoms probably). The thermostat for the 2nd level is located in the hallway, so it reads a warm temp and therefore the 2nd level heat pump never kicks in. The result is that the bedrooms and bonus room stay frigid.
I presume the easiest solution would be to just move the thermostat from the hallway into one of the bedrooms. Or replace the thermostat with a smart thermostat with a remote temp sensor (like the EcoBee3) which could be placed in a cold bedroom. I may consider that in the end, but that solution doesn't help my heating efficiency (still not moving warm air that in the hallway/ceiling of great room into the cold rooms).
I thought that running the HVAC fan upstairs would help circulate the warm air into the cold bedrooms, but it turns out that their is a cold air return on the ceiling of each bedroom and the bonus room, but none in the hallway. So when the fan is on, it just recirculates cold air from the cold rooms.
So, my question is: Would putting an air return duct in the ceiling of the balcony/hallway or even in the great room ceiling (I understand that code requires it to be 10 ft away from the chimney) attached to the upstairs HVAC unit make a noticeable difference in the temp of the bedrooms/bonus room?
Thanks for any advice. If anybody thinks that a few pics of the layout would help, I am more than happy to attach.
