Ceiling and other types of Fans - The Great Debate

[abrucerd]

It's the age old question... what's the best way to setup my fans to heat my house?

This question comes up from time to time, most recently in jeanjo's fan question.

I've seen people say that you should reverse them (blowing up), and others that say the direction doesn't matter.

I've got 3 ceiling fans and a fairly open layout on my 1st floor (which houses the stove, obviously). I run them all at their lowest setting, in reverse mode. BUT... I haven't really experimented with running the fans on forward.

Has anyone done extensive testing? I know there are a lot of variables, but I think it would be good to hear from many of you and take from your experiences.

 

[smoke show]

2000 sq ft 2 story home-no fans
ceiling fans forward or reverse made no difference

 

[trafick]

My experience is that when I ran the fan blowing down all was well until the stove shut off (gas). Then it kind of cooled you off. When I run the fan in the reverse direction, it wasn't as warm but there was no cooling effect when the stove shut off. These findings are true only if we were in the same room as the stove. If we were not in the same room then it really doesn't make a difference.

BTW Blowing cool air to the stove works very well for me to heat up a cool room.

 

[bungalobob]

Two-story home, about 2000 sq ft. I have one small centrifugal blower type fan at top of stairs on low speed blowing down toward the pellet stove. Definitely helps, without fan on the temp upstairs slowly gets colder and colder. Have ceiling fans in every room, but do not, and have not tried using them. Don't need them or need to try them for this, the one fan at one location works for me. Wouldn't want more drafts or winds created then are necessary and why use the extra electricity?

 

[tinkabranc]

I have a basement install, so I do not have a ceiling fan in the same room.
However, I do have a ceiling fan on the first floor right above the open stairwell
so as the heat rises up, the fan shuffles the warm air around the rest of the house.
I run it in reverse and on low speed mode all winter.

I do not bother running the other ceiling fans or the furnace fan as it does not
seem to do anything but make the house feel cooler rather than warmer.

 

[imacman]

The main reason to run a ceiling fan is to just "break-up" the thermal layers that develop. That way, the ceiling isn't the hottest, and the floor isn't the coldest.....the ceiling fan mixes it all up and helps to make it more even.

I run mine on reverse and on low, and it seems to work fine.

 

[www_godzilla]

A ceiling fan in reverse actually pushes the air up and around and back down again. A ceiling fan forward is pushing the air downward and it has a cooling effect on the skin. That's great for the summer,not the winter. It's a scientific fact. SO....if you want to heat,then reverse. If you want to cool,then forward.

 

[jaybyer]

I posted on this earlier today asking the same question. I have tried both up and down. I find when blowing down I have to slow the fan speed so much it doesn't really do much. So in the room with the stove I have it blowing up on low. I just today tried turning the fan in the next room blowing down, but the same effect happened, the room was cooler. I was hoping maybe it I had it blowing down it would move air into the stove room and move the heated air around the house.

This is my first year using a pellet stove and so far I find my stove just barely heats my first floor, about 1,100 sq. ft. The room the stove is in is warm, but at the other end of the house, where my thermostat is for my oil heating system it's only at whatever temperature I set it at if it's below 20 outside. When it's warmer than that then the pellet stove keeps that area slightly above my thermostat setting. For example, today it was only about 15 outside, and my far end of my home was 64.

I have tried using the ceiling fans to move the heat around, but so far I find they really only move the air off the ceiling in the room the stove is in. They don't do much anywhere else. I had hoped I could run the fans upstairs in reverse to pull the heat up from the first floor, but since I don't get enough heat to cover the whole first floor they are ineffective and I leave them off.

I have a different brand of pellets being delivered tomorrow so maybe with better pellets I can get a better idea on how to move the heat around if I get more heat! Currently using Warm Front, getting Lignetics tomorrow.

JB

 

[woodsman23]

I use a ceiling fan in reverse on med (15ft ceilings) and i have a thermostat control on the fan itself, when temp goes below 70 at the ceiling the fan shuts off and when it goes above 70 it turns back on. Works very well.

 

[lessoil]

Well, in our case fans made things worse.
We have a small Cape with the stove in the living room.
I tried running ceiling fans (Both ways), I installed fans to push the
warm air up the stairs and installed fans in the upstairs bedroom doorway.

For some reason, the fans prevented the natural flow of heat to the 2nd floor.
I used some smoke from a burned out match upstairs to see what was happening
after all of the fans were shut off. The warm air was moving just fine
into the bedrooms. A ranch style house would work different.

Everybody has a different setup. In our case the fans did not work.
When it was -24 we kept the upstairs between 65 and 70.(No fans)
Downstairs was around 78.

 

[jtakeman]

Stove in basement. Fan pointed at my heat source. I also have 2 6" duct fans pushing the heat upstairs. Duct is connected to a 2x3x1 hood in ceiling above my stove to catch the heat. Semi finished basement with louvered basement door. No floor insulation. So far so good. Don't need the wood stove till it get below 0.

 

[doghouse]

No heat upstairs, I too had this problem. Had. About 8 feet distance from the top of the stairs, I cut a 8x12 inch hole in my floor. The hole goes through to the roof in the kitchen area. I put a heavy register on the floor side, a simple vent on the roof side and blue boarded the floor joists. So now, warm air goes up the stairs, displaces the cold air on the second floor and pushes it down through the 'hole in the floor.' There are no fans involved.

 

[KPWright]

I have a contemporary with high ceilings. I used fans there to push the warm air down in the winter. The stove is in the basement in an odd area. I use a small fan over the stove blowing down, but it's really there to help move the really warm area out of this alcove and into the main part of the room so it will head up the stairwell. The only time I've used celing fans drawing air up is in bedrooms to maintain circulation but limit the draft.

 

[jeanjo]

I posted on this earlier today asking the same question. I have tried both up and down. I find when blowing down I have to slow the fan speed so much it doesn't really do much. So in the room with the stove I have it blowing up on low. I just today tried turning the fan in the next room blowing down, but the same effect happened, the room was cooler. I was hoping maybe it I had it blowing down it would move air into the stove room and move the heated air around the house.

This is my first year using a pellet stove and so far I find my stove just barely heats my first floor, about 1,100 sq. ft. The room the stove is in is warm, but at the other end of the house, where my thermostat is for my oil heating system it's only at whatever temperature I set it at if it's below 20 outside. When it's warmer than that then the pellet stove keeps that area slightly above my thermostat setting. For example, today it was only about 15 outside, and my far end of my home was 64.

I have tried using the ceiling fans to move the heat around, but so far I find they really only move the air off the ceiling in the room the stove is in. They don't do much anywhere else. I had hoped I could run the fans upstairs in reverse to pull the heat up from the first floor, but since I don't get enough heat to cover the whole first floor they are ineffective and I leave them off.

I have a different brand of pellets being delivered tomorrow so maybe with better pellets I can get a better idea on how to move the heat around if I get more heat! Currently using Warm Front, getting Lignetics tomorrow.

JB

Your situation sounds very similar to ours and we just recently discovered that a box fan on the floor either at the doorway of the room the stove is in or the next doorway away (position facing the stove) heats our entire downstairs level very evenly and quickly. We tried using our ceiling fan with no positive results. We also tried a fan hanging in the doorway facing away from the stove blowing the warm air towards the rest of the house and it wasn't very effective either. We were really happy when we discovered that the floor fan works great for us! Our main floor level is approx. 1800 sq. ft.