Ceiling Vent Placement for Circulation

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Arithian

New Member
Hearth Supporter
Sep 24, 2008
11
NE PA
I have a Summers Heat 55-SHP10 (aka Englander 25-PVDC). It heats the first floor of my home fairly well, just some issues with getting the heat around a corner, but I haven't installed any fans yet either (2 year old running around). Each floor of my house is about 700sqft., each floor is very open, mainly one big room, but the two stories are very closed off from each other. The only opening is the stairwell, around the corner from the stove and closed off by a wall. I want to try and get some heat from the stove upstairs and was looking at installing vents into the drop ceiling into the upstairs floor, possibly even using the thru the wall fans I've seen. My question is, where would it be best to install the vents to get the best air flow? One above the stove blowing up and and around the corner blowing down? I attached a very rough sketch of the house. Thanks.
 

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I only installed one vent that forces cold air off the floor in the upstairs down over the top of the stove. If your house is pretty tight, the warm air will naturally be pulled up the stairs to replace the cold air you pull down. The only other thing I would add is that I used a pretty powerful fan. I used a 6" centrifugal fan capable of moving 450CFM and then attached it to a dimmer switch so I could control the amount of air being moved. The only down side I could see is the fan noise, I was fortunate that i could install the fan in the garage attic and use insulated duct from the inlet vent and over the the outlet vent. With the set up I have you can't even hear the fan when the stove is running.
 
I had the same problem with moving the heat in my home as well,we have three floors about 2880 square feet.
We finally cut a vent hole 36" by 18" at my second floor level and installed a cast iron floor vent with louvers, made in 1883...heavy as hell!
Now it dumps the cold air from the other two floors into the finished basement were the stove is installed, and the heat travels up the stairwell to the upper levels of the house.
Once you get the warm air moving your home will heat much better.
Basement temp is around 75-80* second floor around 70-73* and the third flood 60-65*
Burn about a bag to a bag an a half depending on the temp outside.
We did notice a big difference with heat circulation!!
 
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