Anyone use forced air unit to circulate heat from stove

[They Call Me Pete]

I have forced hot air system and was thinking of using fan only to get heat all around the house. I'd have to rewire t-stat and move return air vent on other side of the wall. The best part is mt humidifier built into the system. Wouldn't need my console unit anymore. I may put the blower itself on a t-stat so I wouldn't need to run it all the time. Only when house was cooling off or a few hours before bed to get bedrooms warmer.

 

[carpniels]

Hi Pete,

This has been discussed at length on this forum many times. It will not work. THe heat losses in the basement and all the runs are so great you will not get any appreciable heat anywhere in the house.

Plus, it is illegal to have any 'hood' or similar setup near a solid fuel burning appliance.

SOrry

Carpniels

 

[nshif]

see more reasons it usually doest work here
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/14601/

 

[crazy_dan]

My question is can you have the air blowing on the stove?
Put the clod air return in the rooms you want heat and put the out duct near the wood stove?
Seams like it would work and any heat loss you had would not be noticed, or does this look better on paper?

 

[They Call Me Pete]

No hood would be involved. I would be using the return duct that would be located in the room where the stove is. I don't think much heat loss in ducts because they are insulated. I had uninsulated before and a huge difference with new ones. I had a friend of mine that was told this by a stove shop. Never hurts to ask though

 

[stoncold]

I tried it, did nothing but cool everything down.

 

[SlyFerret]

Keep in mind that there are codes about how far your cold air returns can be from a wood burning stove. 7 feet pops into my head, but I'm not sure why. I don't know where I read that.

-SF

 

[nshif]

I beleive its 10'

 

[swestall]

I have central air and sometimes turn it on fan only to even off all the rooms. It does work.

 

[daleeper]

Hi Pete,

This has been discussed at length on this forum many times. It will not work. THe heat losses in the basement and all the runs are so great you will not get any appreciable heat anywhere in the house.


SOrry

Carpniels

You are making too many assumptions Carpniels. It will work in certain circumstances. Pete did not give enough information. If the stove is in the basement sharing space with the ductwork, what heat losses are you talking about?

Pete, the only way you will know if it works in your house is to try it. It does not work in most situations, but does work in a few. The only cost to try it is the cost of running the fan. Many people complain that it cools the house, and I share that complaint if the fan is running full speed. If you have a variable speed fan on the air handler, having it run at a slower speed helps significantly, moving the air without causing a "breeze" in the house. I do not like running the fan all the time. Our newest thermostat has a circulation setting that runs about 1/3 of the time, and I can program it to be on/off at different times of the day.

Carpniels is correct about the code issue of cold air return close to stove, check that out before installing any new vents.

Another issue you mentioned is humidity. I'm not sure what type of humidifier you have on the furnace fan system, but I couldn't see that the humidifier in our fan system added enough humidity into the house to use it. If you have someone in the house that really needs that humidity, unless you have a better system than we do, it will not replace the console. Again, not much cost to try out and see what happens if you already have the humidifier installed at the air handler.

 

[burntime]

Stove in the middle of the house. I run my furnace fan and it does make a difference. Sometimes it takes a while to blend but it keeps a 1/2 exposed basement at 58 to 60 degrees when the outside temp is 10 below. Otherwise it drops...I have let it drop to 54 and decided to turn it back on.

 

[They Call Me Pete]

I'll try to give more info. First the return would be about 18 ft from wood stove. My humidifier on my forced hot air system is AWESOME. Some time the furnace will turn on if I don't give the stove a 2 AM snack and the humidity will be in the 40's when it was in the 30's when I went to bed. Unfortunately the blower is a one speed(as far as I know) and I think it'll pull more warm air than available. I may give it a try and I'll let ya know how I make out.

 

[burntime]

I had my april air set to run with the furnace fan...did not do much. If you wanted to do that you would need to use hot water...of course it would cost more to keep the water hot than a table top unit. Mine is one speed as well. If I did not run my furnace fan I would cook myself out of my house

 

[Jimbob]

I have forced hot air system and was thinking of using fan only to get heat all around the house. I'd have to rewire t-stat and move return air vent on other side of the wall. The best part is mt humidifier built into the system. Wouldn't need my console unit anymore. I may put the blower itself on a t-stat so I wouldn't need to run it all the time. Only when house was cooling off or a few hours before bed to get bedrooms warmer.

Father -in law does that, and it works for him. You'll just have to try it and see.
Does your furnace have a "FAN ONLY" switch? Some have it right on the unit itself.

If it seems to work for your setup, and wanted to have it come on automatically when the stove is warm, you ca install a Therm-o-disc switch like this: