House: 1978 Ranch ~ 2500 square feet
Attic (Under-Insulated) Planning on more this summer
Crawlspace (Just Completed Spray It Green Foam on Band Board) Will finish under joist with foil insulation (Stays about 60 as it is now under there)
We've been cranking the Clydesdale (btw anyone with a factory mantle heatshield?) and living in a ranch it's the nature of the beast to have the heat in one room. The floor plan isn't exactly open. House originally had electric baseboard heat with option of fireplace heating the water in the baseboard but system never worked right. Electric bills would top $500 back in 80's. We put in a geothermal in 99 and bills are around $200 a month (all electric/well) Last fall we put in the Clydesdale and had cold draft issues making the room freeze. As per advise of the forum to install a block off plate I had to wrangle the installers to come out and do it right (still had to pay for removal-I'm still not happy...as they said they never have /or do them and it was a crazy idea. Funny how that crazy idea stopped my cold air and the room is once tolerable again
When the Clydesdale gets cranking the room is pushing 125 degrees.
After about 3 hours of run time, I can get the kitchen/foyer area to 72 or so. The hallway is still cold (which I also contribute to cold sink from cold air return in cold attic). We really don't care about getting the air back to the bedrooms, but if we could do it that would be a +! Really more concerned with the living room area getting some heat. I've read all 1 million post about pointing a fan at the heat but I don't really believe that that works in every situation. I am getting my current heat temps with a small fan blowing towards the kitchen. I've tried fans at the hallway area but get no results. I'm hoping that people with similar floor plans can pipe in here. I have put together a very crude floorplan..but you will get the idea.
Improvements that I would like to do with heat flow are:
1. Cut hole/pass through in Living Room Wall
2. Install Fan in Header of Stove Room (Blowing heat to Kitchen)
3. Cut vents in Stove room wall to allow more heat out (do I need just vents or does pass through need a duct/wrapped with sheet metal?)
4. Between the stove room and 1/2 bath is the utilty area. The 1/2 bath is gutted. I'm trying to design either combo utility/bath or larger utility...I know that you are not supposed to put vents through bath areas. There is currently no toilet there. I have conceived the idea of running trunk duct with a 90 to mate with a wall register in Living room. I could run a duct fan but thought about trying just natural flow first? I have a small cold air return in stove room which we put in to try with heat distribution and it doesn't work (and we get cold air out of it when furnace is off) I could run flex with no problem in attic but I am worried about causing more problems in Living room. I figured it would be easier to run trunk or flex and "box" it. I would just need to read up on how to do it right.
5. I could add vents to closet area in foyer (connects with bedrooms) if that would help?
If anyone has ideas or has had good results please let me know.
Sorry to be long winded, I've just come to respect the opinions of the experts here.
Attic (Under-Insulated) Planning on more this summer
Crawlspace (Just Completed Spray It Green Foam on Band Board) Will finish under joist with foil insulation (Stays about 60 as it is now under there)
We've been cranking the Clydesdale (btw anyone with a factory mantle heatshield?) and living in a ranch it's the nature of the beast to have the heat in one room. The floor plan isn't exactly open. House originally had electric baseboard heat with option of fireplace heating the water in the baseboard but system never worked right. Electric bills would top $500 back in 80's. We put in a geothermal in 99 and bills are around $200 a month (all electric/well) Last fall we put in the Clydesdale and had cold draft issues making the room freeze. As per advise of the forum to install a block off plate I had to wrangle the installers to come out and do it right (still had to pay for removal-I'm still not happy...as they said they never have /or do them and it was a crazy idea. Funny how that crazy idea stopped my cold air and the room is once tolerable again
When the Clydesdale gets cranking the room is pushing 125 degrees.After about 3 hours of run time, I can get the kitchen/foyer area to 72 or so. The hallway is still cold (which I also contribute to cold sink from cold air return in cold attic). We really don't care about getting the air back to the bedrooms, but if we could do it that would be a +! Really more concerned with the living room area getting some heat. I've read all 1 million post about pointing a fan at the heat but I don't really believe that that works in every situation. I am getting my current heat temps with a small fan blowing towards the kitchen. I've tried fans at the hallway area but get no results. I'm hoping that people with similar floor plans can pipe in here. I have put together a very crude floorplan..but you will get the idea.
Improvements that I would like to do with heat flow are:
1. Cut hole/pass through in Living Room Wall
2. Install Fan in Header of Stove Room (Blowing heat to Kitchen)
3. Cut vents in Stove room wall to allow more heat out (do I need just vents or does pass through need a duct/wrapped with sheet metal?)
4. Between the stove room and 1/2 bath is the utilty area. The 1/2 bath is gutted. I'm trying to design either combo utility/bath or larger utility...I know that you are not supposed to put vents through bath areas. There is currently no toilet there. I have conceived the idea of running trunk duct with a 90 to mate with a wall register in Living room. I could run a duct fan but thought about trying just natural flow first? I have a small cold air return in stove room which we put in to try with heat distribution and it doesn't work (and we get cold air out of it when furnace is off) I could run flex with no problem in attic but I am worried about causing more problems in Living room. I figured it would be easier to run trunk or flex and "box" it. I would just need to read up on how to do it right.
5. I could add vents to closet area in foyer (connects with bedrooms) if that would help?
If anyone has ideas or has had good results please let me know.
Sorry to be long winded, I've just come to respect the opinions of the experts here.
