Bedroom Heating(With Drawing)

[Matt93eg]

Hello guys,

I know this subject has been beaten to death but I guess everyone's situation is a little different.

I have a drawing(if you can call it that) attached. It is not to scale or anything, the Master bedroom is the biggest of the 3 bedrooms but I drew it the smallest for whatever reason.

My issue is I cannot get much heat to the bedrooms, the master bedroom fares better than the other two and I assume its because its a straight shot down the hall way.

The 4 red dots you see on the drawing are doorway fans mounted in the top of the doorway. I have read here to put fans on floor blowing towards the stove, put ceiling fan on, etc. I have been dealing with this for 2 winters now and this is the best setup I have found in this house to get the max heat to that end of the house.

I can heat the Living Room, Den, Dining Room, Kitchen like its no bodies business but the bedrooms are the problem.

I recently checked my attic insulation and it is less than ideal on the bedroom end of the house, the insulation on the other half of the house is MUCH better.

I am under the impression that I can't heat those rooms hardly at all because the heat that does make it there escapes through the ceiling and into the attic almost instantly so I was going to spray in some insulation up there.

I guess my question is does anyone think it will make that much difference to add insulation or is it just the layout of the house on the bedroom end?

What I have been having to do here lately is I load the stove before bed which is roughly 9pm. Usually around 4am I will wake up and go feed the stove. By then its not cranking a whole lot of heat but usually the living room is still nice and toasty.

Example: Last night it got down to 25 F. At 4am the living room was 76. Master bedroom was 63, I didn't check the other bedrooms cause my daughters were sleeping but they always run colder than the master bedroom so I figure they were probably between 60-61. So what I do is I turn off the circulating fans after the 4am reload and close the hallway door, wood stove heats everything else rest of night and I let the heat pump bring the bedroom end back up to temp.

Typically through the day if its in the 30 or 40s, the Living room will be cruising at 80 degrees or so which I love, I sit around in shorts and a tank top. But the bedrooms will still be 69 or so. I feel I have plenty of heat to heat those rooms if I can just get it there and somewhat keep it there.

Sorry for the long winded post.

 

[bsruther]

My layout is similar with 3 bedrooms at the end of the hallway. The bedroom temps stay between 68 and 70, but I can make them 73-74 with a fan at the end of the hallway. My attic is fairly well insulated and I have newer windows.
In my opinion, insulation would make a big difference, but you may want to try a fan blowing into the stove room first.

 

[Matt93eg]

My layout is similar with 3 bedrooms at the end of the hallway. The bedroom temps stay between 68 and 70, but I can make them 73-74 with a fan at the end of the hallway. My attic is fairly well insulated and I have newer windows.
In my opinion, insulation would make a big difference, but you may want to try a fan blowing into the stove room first.

Thanks for the reply bsruther, Yeah I just went around with my IR thermometer and the ceilings in the bedrooms is cold, I think the insulation will help a great deal. I have tried a fan on floor blowing towards the stove but I will give it another go and see if I get different results. Windows are old as the house is, 82 I think is when it was built, they are double pane at least and I re-caulked them before this winter but there not like new windows I am sure.

Current temps:

Outside Temp- 40
Woodstove Room- 81
Master Bedroom- 68.7
Other Bedrooms- One is 65.4 and other is 65.8

 

[Sconnie Burner]

A box fan on the floor by the bedroom doorways and another at the other end of the hallway pointed directly at the woodstove would be my reccomendation. They are unsightly but it works!

 

[Matt93eg]

Thanks for the insight Sconnie, I just put one kinda between both the bedrooms and its on LOW. Is that better than high, I have read that on here before to use LOW. I will put another at the end of the hall blowing directly at the stove.

 

[bsruther]

Thanks for the reply bsruther, Yeah I just went around with my IR thermometer and the ceilings in the bedrooms is cold, I think the insulation will help a great deal. I have tried a fan on floor blowing towards the stove but I will give it another go and see if I get different results. Windows are old as the house is, 82 I think is when it was built, they are double pane at least and I re-caulked them before this winter but there not like new windows I am sure.

Current temps:

Outside Temp- 40
Woodstove Room- 81
Master Bedroom- 68.7
Other Bedrooms- One is 65.4 and other is 65.8

Right now I have-
Outside-35
stove room-84
hallway-78
bedroom-70
kitchen next to stove room-75
Only ceiling fan in stove room is on.

I try to not let the bedrooms get above 70.

Your stove appears to be slightly smaller than mine and where your kitchen and dining room are would be my garage, so it seems that you're heating a bigger area.
At any rate I think it would serve you well to insulate as much as possible. Don't know if you have a basement, but another heat robber is at the end of the floor joists, where they meet the foundation.

 

[Matt93eg]

Right now I have-
Outside-35
stove room-84
hallway-78
bedroom-70
kitchen next to stove room-75
Only ceiling fan in stove room is on.

I try to not let the bedrooms get above 70.

Your stove appears to be slightly smaller than mine and where your kitchen and dining room are would be my garage, so it seems that you're heating a bigger area.
At any rate I think it would serve you well to insulate as much as possible. Don't know if you have a basement, but another heat robber is at the end of the floor joists, where they meet the foundation.

70 in the bedrooms would be fine for me, so if you were to turn your fans on that 70 would go up more though correct? Nice to know you can get it warmer if need be. My Wife would have the bedrooms at 80 if she had it HER way.

I am going to spray the insulation as soon as I can, I have already talked to the Wife about it and took her up in the attic and showed her what I was talking about. We don't have a basement but do have a crawlspace.

I didn't put the garage in my drawing but if you look at the picture my garage would be butted up against the kitchen and dining room, kind of centered at both of those.

The laundry room which I also didn't picture is after the kitchen, so on the total direct opposite end of the house than the bedrooms, right now I am at 73 in there and that's with an exterior door in there to. I am happy with the heat except for those stinkin bedrooms. I do have the fans going though that you guys suggested, one centered between both my Daughters bedroom doors and another at the end of the hallway pointing directly at the stove, both fans on LOW.

 

[bsruther]

70 in the bedrooms would be fine for me, so if you were to turn your fans on that 70 would go up more though correct?

Correct, I can raise the bedroom temps by 2-3 degrees with a fan blowing into the stove room.
We have a down comforter and don't like to sweat while we sleep, 68 is perfect for the bedroom at night.
Looking at your floor plan again, I see there is a convective loop traveling through the den, dining room and kitchen. It's possible that the loop is keeping air from moving down the hallway. It may be worth it to experiment and close off the den doorway at night to see if it makes a difference.

 

[Matt93eg]

Correct, I can raise the bedroom temps by 2-3 degrees with a fan blowing into the stove room.
We have a down comforter and don't like to sweat while we sleep, 68 is perfect for the bedroom at night.
Looking at your floor plan again, I see there is a convective loop traveling through the den, dining room and kitchen. It's possible that the loop is keeping air from moving down the hallway. It may be worth it to experiment and close off the den doorway at night to see if it makes a difference.

Funny you mention the convective loop, I have thought about this as well but thought I sounded crazy, now that you have mentioned it as well I think I will close off that doorway, kicker is the door has been removed before we got the house, I should be able to get a thick blanket and put up there to block that doorway at night, just to see if it would help.

I am open to any suggestions that's for sure.

 

[TheRambler]

I bet if you experiment with a makeshift something to block off that den doorway, and have a box fan on low in the hallway blowing into the stove room you will see very good results. Sometimes box fans create too much turbulence and can hamper the efforts. If you find the box fans dont really help, either try smaller fans or no fans at all. I think having that den doorway sealed off at night will yield very good results, fan or not.

 

[Matt93eg]

I bet if you experiment with a makeshift something to block off that den doorway, and have a box fan on low in the hallway blowing into the stove room you will see very good results. Sometimes box fans create too much turbulence and can hamper the efforts. If you find the box fans dont really help, either try smaller fans or no fans at all. I think having that den doorway sealed off at night will yield very good results, fan or not.

Thanks for the insight rambler. The fans I am using are round. The one by the bedroom doors blowing down the hallway towards the stove is like a 21" fan, the one at the end of the hallway blowing at the stove is like a 10". both on low, even on low the big ones moves a lot of air. We will block the Den doorway tonight with a heavy blanket and see what happens. Suppose to be 28 or so tonight so it will be a good night to test it.

I really do appreciate all the help and insight from you guys. There is a wealth of knowledgeable folks on here and its nice to see a community that is so helpful to others.

 

[Sconnie Burner]

Thanks for the insight Sconnie, I just put one kinda between both the bedrooms and its on LOW. Is that better than high, I have read that on here before to use LOW. I will put another at the end of the hall blowing directly at the stove.

Yes low is better. Too fast and the air doesn't warm up enough. Read your last post at the bottom and it sounds like you get the idea!

 

[mass_burner]

My layout is similar with 3 bedrooms at the end of the hallway. The bedroom temps stay between 68 and 70, but I can make them 73-74 with a fan at the end of the hallway. My attic is fairly well insulated and I have newer windows.
In my opinion, insulation would make a big difference, but you may want to try a fan blowing into the stove room first.

i don't know...OP has almost exactly my setup, except I have no walls between den, LR, DR. My attic insulation is the same the whole length/width of the house and my basement is also one big area with no walls or partitions. Same vintage windows, same floors. When I use the floor fans, it does work, but it takes forever. The heat transfer rate is simply not high enough to heat all the rooms. One experiment I want to try is to close all the bedroom/bath doors, leaving only the hallway open to the stove room and see how long it takes to warm the hall to say, 70 from 62.

 

[Matt93eg]

i don't know...OP has almost exactly my setup, except I have no walls between den, LR, DR. My attic insulation is the same the whole length/width of the house and my basement is also one big area with no walls or partitions. Same vintage windows, same floors. When I use the floor fans, it does work, but it takes forever. The heat transfer rate is simply not high enough to heat all the rooms. One experiment I want to try is to close all the bedroom/bath doors, leaving only the hallway open to the stove room and see how long it takes to warm the hall to say, 70 from 62.

It does seem to be a hard layout to heat as far how the bedrooms are situated. We usually keep our T-Stat for the heat pump(which is located in the hallway) on 73. Through the night the heat will creep down the hall enough to keep the T-Stat satisfied so the heat never comes on, in the mean time the bedrooms are getting colder, and colder. That's why here lately when I get up to reload I just shut the hallway door, temp then drops and heat pump starts up. Nice to have the backup, of course when its in the 20s the heat pump itself is useless, its the heat strips that are actually warming the house back up.

 

[Huntindog1]

Make sure your kids keep their doors open. My kids want to close their doors and then complain its cold in their rooms.

Keep the fire burning 24/7. As if you keep the mass of the house heated up its helps out immensely but if the mass of the house gets cold when its 5 degrees out its like heck getting it reversed.

As soon as your coals cool down the outer ends of your house starts cooling down. Just an hour or two of not having that constant heat will work against you.

I would keep the blower on a low setting on the insert as what I have found mixing the air up with the stove on high creates alot of turbulence in the room the stove is in, that room gets warm but with all the turbulence of the air swirling around in that room stops the natural flows to the other rooms as the house will balance out naturally .

If any thing sit short 6- 9" fans on the floor at the outer ends of the house on the floor where the cool air settles and blow the denser cool air towards the room with the stove. That works much better than trying to blow warm air to the cold rooms. You will feel the warm air flow back towards the cool rooms up towards the top of the ceiling level. Tape a small piece of toilet paper at the top of the door frame and watch which direction it blows.

 

[mass_burner]

If any thing sit short 6- 9" fans on the floor at the outer ends of the house on the floor where the cool air settles and blow the denser cool air towards the room with the stove. That works much better than trying to blow warm air to the cold rooms. You will feel the warm air flow back towards the cool rooms up towards the top of the ceiling level. Tape a small piece of toilet paper at the top of the door frame and watch which direction it blows.

the problem with that is the huge amount of ceiling area in the stove room where warm air moves into is a way easier path than moving under the threshold of the doorway to the hallway. sure 70d air congregates around the entry way, but i don't think it moves with any significant velocity, at least not enough to heat the rooms in a feasible manner.

 

[Matt93eg]

Huntindog1, Thanks for the reminder about keeping the bedroom doors open. They know that whenever the stove is lit to keep the doors open unless in there changing clothes or something. I will also try the insert blower on low and see what happens. I usually always have it on high because the fan on this insert doesn't seem to be very strong anyhow.

I think if we ever get to the point of building a house we are going to keep a more open floor plan. There are advantages to a more open plan as well as disadvantages. Open floor plan would be a lot better with a woodstove for sure.

 

[Matt93eg]

Also,

I never mentioned but just in case anyone was wondering. I had a smoke dragon that had been in the house for years. Last year I got rid of it and got and EPA stove. I installed it with a SS 6" liner fully insulated. I never did a block off plate but have Roxul stuffed all up in on fireplace damper throat as well as quite a bit packed in above the throat damper.

 

[rideau]

Easy way to close off the den: get a pressure adjustable closet rod and an insulated curtain. Hang the curtain in the doorway, and tie it open to the side during the day, pull it closed at night.

 

[TooColdHere]

Hello guys,

I know this subject has been beaten to death but I guess everyone's situation is a little different.

I have a drawing(if you can call it that) attached. It is not to scale or anything, the Master bedroom is the biggest of the 3 bedrooms but I drew it the smallest for whatever reason.

My issue is I cannot get much heat to the bedrooms, the master bedroom fares better than the other two and I assume its because its a straight shot down the hall way.

The 4 red dots you see on the drawing are doorway fans mounted in the top of the doorway. I have read here to put fans on floor blowing towards the stove, put ceiling fan on, etc. I have been dealing with this for 2 winters now and this is the best setup I have found in this house to get the max heat to that end of the house.

I can heat the Living Room, Den, Dining Room, Kitchen like its no bodies business but the bedrooms are the problem.

I recently checked my attic insulation and it is less than ideal on the bedroom end of the house, the insulation on the other half of the house is MUCH better.

I am under the impression that I can't heat those rooms hardly at all because the heat that does make it there escapes through the ceiling and into the attic almost instantly so I was going to spray in some insulation up there.

I guess my question is does anyone think it will make that much difference to add insulation or is it just the layout of the house on the bedroom end?

What I have been having to do here lately is I load the stove before bed which is roughly 9pm. Usually around 4am I will wake up and go feed the stove. By then its not cranking a whole lot of heat but usually the living room is still nice and toasty.

Example: Last night it got down to 25 F. At 4am the living room was 76. Master bedroom was 63, I didn't check the other bedrooms cause my daughters were sleeping but they always run colder than the master bedroom so I figure they were probably between 60-61. So what I do is I turn off the circulating fans after the 4am reload and close the hallway door, wood stove heats everything else rest of night and I let the heat pump bring the bedroom end back up to temp.

Typically through the day if its in the 30 or 40s, the Living room will be cruising at 80 degrees or so which I love, I sit around in shorts and a tank top. But the bedrooms will still be 69 or so. I feel I have plenty of heat to heat those rooms if I can just get it there and somewhat keep it there.

Sorry for the long winded post.

 

[Matt93eg]

Easy way to close off the den: get a pressure adjustable closet rod and an insulated curtain. Hang the curtain in the doorway, and tie it open to the side during the day, pull it closed at night.

I am sorry to say that I had not thought of that, EXCELLENT idea. Thank you very much!

 

[TooColdHere]

100% on insulation! I got the unfaced bats (30' length I believe) and added over my whole attic a couple years ago. You could feel a difference within hours! In Maryland here and most days I can let the stove die off and just get solar gain. Around 4:00 is when you feel the need to start lighting it again. It'll make the same difference in summer for your AC, too. (I do still have about 10 rolls to lay out but they are over the attic. I need to do that before the hot weather comes back...this is the time to install it and not cook in the attic!) YES on insulation.

 

[Matt93eg]

100% on insulation! I got the unfaced bats (30' length I believe) and added over my whole attic a couple years ago. You could feel a difference within hours! In Maryland here and most days I can let the stove die off and just get solar gain. Around 4:00 is when you feel the need to start lighting it again. It'll make the same difference in summer for your AC, too. (I do still have about 10 rolls to lay out but they are over the attic. I need to do that before the hot weather comes back...this is the time to install it and not cook in the attic!) YES on insulation.

That is very encouraging. I am for sure doing the insulation. Might try and get it this weekend. Lowes will let you rent the spray machine for free when you buy the insulation. I think I am going to with the cellulose loose fill. I need to get the soffit vent spacers and install them first.

 

[TooColdHere]

That is very encouraging. I am for sure doing the insulation. Might try and get it this weekend. Lowes will let you rent the spray machine for free when you buy the insulation. I think I am going to with the cellulose loose fill. I need to get the soffit vent spacers and install them first.

I was going to go that route, but Lowes wouldn't reserve the machine...so you may get there and the one or two they have be gone. Ask to reserve? My other kicker was scheduling my two sons to be available to break bags, feed hose while I was in the attic. At LEAST a 2 person job and messy (I did my Mom's old house years ago...covered the Christmas stuff...WHOOPS!) I opted for the http://www.lowes.com/pd_177781-1722...1&currentURL=?Ntt=insulation+rolls&facetInfo= rolls. I got two (maybe less) pallets in two trips over two weeks, but that was for my whole attic. Just over the bedrooms would be less. Unrolled as I had time but the job goes quick with no time limit pressure. Just an idea. Stay warm! You WILL feel an immediate difference. (Also, soffit spacers are a royal pain! Most of mine broke and have fallen down, won't hold a staple. You really can eliminate them with the rolls as long as you keep daylight showing from the soffits.)

 

[brad wilton]

Hi to cold I don't know how handy you are , but you could put transfers over doors