Any way to heat closed bedrooms at night?

[Proulx06]

So we get our Accentra Insert installed on Weds. Cannot wait. We have a split-level, which means our insert will go in the living room, which abuts the kitchen, and is a short hallway away from the bathroom and our kids' two bedrooms.

Our older son (7) has a dutch door...we cut the top half off so we can keep an eye on him when he plays, and it keeps his twin 2yo siblings out. But the twins have a full door, and we need to shut it at night to keep it pitch black so we don't wake them up with the TV or lights.

My only worry with the new insert is how we'll heat the twins room at night. I'd love to stay off oil as much as we can, but I need a way for the insert heat to get into their room. I feel like this is kind of a silly question, but are there fans we could build into the door? Or maybe above the frame of the door in the wall? Or perhaps a vent up near the ceiling? Or am I SOL for this scenario? Worst case, I guess, is we keep the door open before bedtime, shut it while we're awake but they're sleeping, then open it back up before we go to bed. But curious if there are other solutions.

If they slept better I wouldn't worry...but they are bad sleepers and so any noise or light wakes them up. It's tough.

 

[PELLETCONVERT]

congrats i have a new install as well, split level, and by running our forced ait tstat fan "on_" seems to regulate through the house (after an hour)

 

[Proulx06]

Unfortunately, we have forced hot water baseboard heat. No air systems in our home.

I'm wondering if something like this would work without being a fire hazard. Just something to allow the air to circulate into the otherwise closed bedroom.

(broken image removed)

 

[Proulx06]

In reading a bit more, it sounds like I might need two vents...one near the top of the door (or over the door), the other down near the bottom for the colder air to move out. Is that correct?

 

[PELLETCONVERT]

Do you maybe have a ceiling fan back there ? most are reversable , would pull the air in

 

[Proulx06]

Nope, older house and does not have any overhead electric. We have lamps in the kids' rooms, and certain receptacles are tied in to the light switch. Appreciate the help. As of right now, the twins' room gets colder even with the baseboard heat on in their room. The rest of the heating zone (pre-Insert) stays around 68, twins room is down in the 63-65 range.

 

[Pellet-King]

Without a door open it will get really cold, kids sleep in pitch darkness?, when i was a kid noway!!
My older kids sleep upsatirs, have a cape have to keep the doors open otherwise it can really cold in there i'd say 50's
Vents are worthless without a fan in them

 

[Proulx06]

Yeah, twins sleep in the dark. Have since birth, they don't mind (plus if we left the door open every flicker from the TV would wake them up). Small lights on the baby monitor and humidifier give it SOME light. Completely agree that the closed door (and oil heat turned off) will freeze them...which is what I'm trying to solve. I know the pellet insert heat will be up near the ceiling...if I just put a vent atop the door, will that allow the heat to enter? Is a gap under the door sufficient to let the colder air back out? Do I need that circulation?

 

[john193]

With the doors closed and the pictured tiny wall vent, it is very likely that the heat loss from that room will outweigh what the vent can bring in. To give you an idea, I have 2 unused bedrooms that we sometimes keep ajar (about 3 inch open) and even with my open floor plan those rooms are discernibly cooler, sometimes as much as 10 degrees.

Air is a terrible heat conductor and unless it is being moved around with some force, don't count on heat "flowing."

Edit - is an electric space heater or adding a new circuit just to feed that room plausible?

 

[PELLETCONVERT]

once you get it installed, let it run a few hours, you might be pleasantly suprised ,I tried this without the forced air return, and i was! natural order of things (heat rises , displacing cool upper air ) again congrats and good luck, maybe others will have some thoughts

 

[Proulx06]

With the doors closed and the pictured tiny wall vent, it is very likely that the heat loss from that room will outweigh what the vent can bring in. To give you an idea, I have 2 unused bedrooms that we sometimes keep ajar (about 3 inch open) and even with my open floor plan those rooms are discernibly cooler, sometimes as much as 10 degrees.

Air is a terrible heat conductor and unless it is being moved around with some force, don't count on heat "flowing."

What about all the rooms that come off my living room that don't have closed doors...the kitchen, dining room, bathroom, bedroom with the half door...will those get the insert heat? I have no fans on my whole main floor.

 

[Jack Morrissey]

What about all the rooms that come off my living room that don't have closed doors...the kitchen, dining room, bathroom, bedroom with the half door...will those get the insert heat? I have no fans on my whole main floor.

Yes, those will get heat, but any room w/ closed doors is going to be chilly to say the least.

 

[john193]

What about all the rooms that come off my living room that don't have closed doors...the kitchen, dining room, bathroom, bedroom with the half door...will those get the insert heat? I have no fans on my whole main floor.

Yes those will be ok. My kitchen, dining room (room behind stove) all are generally a degree or 2 off where the stove is.

I should have clarified, in the sense that if you want heat to naturally move around, you need large open spaces.

 

[Justin M]

We installed a ductless mini split system for this exact situation. Before we put the system in we used oil filled spaced heaters in the winter(only at night), and window A/C units in the summer.

 

[moey]

I don't think you would get enough air through a small vent like you proposed. We used a LUX100 programmable thermostat and a oil filled radiator running on 600w it would easily keep a 12 * 12 room at 70. Our electric bill went up probably $10-$15 a month in the coldest months.

 

[ChandlerR]

We have the same problem. Our house is only 1200 square feet but it's all on one floor. The bathroom and my granddaughters room is all the way at the end and her door is shut at night. An oil filled heater works well to keep her room at 65 where she likes it. I prefer to keep my room cold and it stays around 60 all winter.

 

[Ashful]

We installed a ductless mini split system for this exact situation. Before we put the system in we used oil filled spaced heaters in the winter(only at night), and window A/C units in the summer.

Same here. One room at the far end of the house, where the stove heat cannot possibly reach, just installed a mini-split. However, that's not what I'd do in this case. I would just keep their door open, excepting the hour or three in the evening, when the twins are asleep and the rest of the family is still up. Assuming no major heat loss problem in their room, it should hold a decent temperature for that period of time, with the door closed. Re-open when you go to bed.

 

[P38X2]

I'd suggest the electric heater route. IMO, it's extremely unlikely a vent above the door and the door gap return is gonna give you anything worthwhile for heat. Maybe if you put one of those small black stove fans in between the grates it would help a bit more, but I think you'd still be far away from where you'd like the temp to be.

How bout a black (and gold) curtain on a shower rod across the door with a sizable gap at the top and bottom? I'd imagine as your kids get older, they'll be less sensitive to the TV light and noise, and you can take it down. A hokey idea, for sure, but it might work. I think the oil heater will be the most convenient solution.

 

[St_Earl]

i skimmed the thread. i think the only way vents would work is if you did what you mentioned and put one low and one high.
but then imo you'd have to add an exhaust fan on the lower vent.(or use an in wall fan purpose made for this application) as it sucks air out, the warm air up high would enter the upper vent.
but then you have the noise of the fan to bother the kids.
unless the white noise is something they'd tolerate.
if fan noise would be ok, you could even use two in wall fans and have the low one drawing out and the high one feeding in.

just one example of this type of fan -

http://www.amazon.com/Room-Room-Fan-Circulate-Cold/dp/B0015RZW0K

*research which brand is quietest on low.

 

[Ashful]

In addition to the blower noise, you'll have the noise of people talking / TV coming thru those vents. Also, it'll be one more thing to remove / patch, when you want to sell the house. KISS.

 

[maineah1214]

We have a similar situation, baby in a closed room at night. We use a Lasko space heater I got on amazon.com for 45-50 bucks and it works amazingly. almost no noise and it runs on its own t-stat.

 

[dmmoss51]

I think there are a few threads on here that discuss moving the cold air back tot he stove room with fans rather than trying to pull the hot air in.

I've experimented with this over the past week or so and it seems to work. With that in mind how about a box fan pushing cool floor level air out of the bedroom towards the stove room for a couple hours before bedtime. It *should* help bring the temperature up in that room and then it's all about insulation as far as how long it stays there. Worth a try and does not require any construction / deconstruction.In

The other thing to remembers is the old for every reaction there is an equal and opposite reaction... the stove is only producing so much heat. If you get it into the bedroom it's going to come from somewhere else.

I have a split level with the stove in the family room on the same level as our master bath. Half a flight up is the living room, dining room and kitchen. Before using the fan to push cold air out of the master bath, my stove heat would naturally rise up the open stair way and heat the main level to within about 3 degrees of the family room. With the fan in the bedroom doorway it raises the bedroom to a degree or two of the adjacent family room but the warm air getting sucked in the top of the door way causes less to go up the staircase so my living room ends up about 8 degrees cooler.

So during the daytime I leave the fan off and let the living spaces warm up. Couple hours before bed I turn the fan on, living spaces cool and bedroom warms up.

On a side note, we shut the bedroom door at night to keep cats out as our infant is in his cradle in the room with us. Once we've warmed it up it takes a while to cool back off and we are comfortable.

Second side note, prior to wood burning our thermostat was set at 55 for night time so this is a lot nicer!

 

[briansol]

Put a tv in your bedroom and close your door at night? when you're done, open your door and let heat in?

Do more productive things instead of watching tv after the kids go to bed, like using a laptop in bed, reading a book, etc that is quiet and not bright (and a half-closed door would be enough to block it out)

Feed the kids sugar so they can stay up to 10pm?

There's options :D

 

[mass_burner]

We have the same problem. Our house is only 1200 square feet but it's all on one floor. The bathroom and my granddaughters room is all the way at the end and her door is shut at night. An oil filled heater works well to keep her room at 65 where she likes it. I prefer to keep my room cold and it stays around 60 all winter.

+2 on the oil space heater. we have one with 600/1500 watts setting and built-in thermostat to only come on as necessary. you probably have safety issues with this with 2yr olds.

 

[moey]

+2 on the oil space heater. we have one with 600/1500 watts setting and built-in thermostat to only come on as necessary. you probably have safety issues with this with 2yr olds.

You can touch them on the 600w setting. Of course who knows what a 2 year old will do.