Circulating Air - could use advice

[thebeatlesrgood]

first i want to thank everyone on hearth.com, this site is invaluable and a brilliant library of information. ok enough mushy crap, i can't centrally locate the stove in my house so i am putting it in the corner of my cathedral ceiling room. on the 6'x4' opening i plan on putting two corner doorway fans to help move air. on the wall next to the peak of the cathedral ceiling (blue box in diagram) i plan on installing a vent which will come out to the upstairs hall. i have two options:
1. i can use the vent to suck air and blow it into the upstairs hall. this way i can work with the natural convection. the heat will go up, through the vent, down the stairs and through the opening. it this scenario i will be working with natural convection but the i would prefer to keep the main living area warm as opposed to the upstairs. plus i dont think the warm air will drop to the lower level untill its significantly cooled.

2. i can blow the air from upstairs into the room, forcing the air (with the help from the 2 corner fans), through the opening, then up the stairs. in this scenario i will be working against natural convection but i will be warming the main area of the house. and when it gets to the stair case the heat will naturally rise to further help distribution.

i dont know, which way do you think will be better??

the 2 doorway fans dont push much air (at least i dont think so) and the vent will prob be in the 250-300 cfm range.

sorry about the picture it looks like a 4 year old drew it. please dont make fun of me im very sensitive about my hilariously incompetent ability to draw :red:

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Here you go- a little help with the drawing...


If you really want heat in the upstairs more than the rest of the downstairs- then a vent up there with a blower would work out well. If you want more even heat throughout the house- a ceiling fan in the cathedral ceiling, plus a small fan blowing air at floor level into the room with the stove may be the best option. You could get fancy and do both- 3 fans- one in the vent, one at floor level, one ceiling fan- it may be noisy that way.

 

[fossil]

...Here you go- a little help with the drawing...

If it's a modern stove, and the wood's dry, then you should lose the smoke. Rick

 

[thebeatlesrgood]

hhaha thats one happy sun. yeah i do have a ceiling fan in the room i guess i could always switch each fan around every couple of hours, sit in each room of my house for 5 minutes, and give each setup a little test drive till im as happy as that sun.
oh yeah one more question. i just realized as i was looking at my to-scale diagram, how close can the sun be to combustibles. is 5 feet away ok or should i back my house off a little bit???

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Take a clue from Icarus and stay a respectable distance from the sun! well... except at night when it's off, of course.

 

[fossil]

The Sun generally needs to remain 1 Astronomical Unit (149,597,870,691 ± 30 meters, or roughly 93 million miles) mean distance from combustibles on Earth. Fortunately, people like Newton, Brahe, Kepler, & many others took care of this for us a long time ago. If it ever gets much closer than that, we're gonna need one hell of a heat shield. Rick

 

[Jags]

I would really get an inspection of your system though, it appears that your stove pipe has a kink in it.

 

[cmonSTART]

Wow, must not be much insulation in those exterior walls.... awfully thin...

 

[Oregon Fire]

I am going with a furnace fan timer. I need to look around a little more - but here is one...

www.bearmountaindesign.com


This unit defaults to 5 minutes of fan runtime every half hour and is programmable in runtime and cycle time (in 15 minute increments).

Here is another one :

www.aircycler.com

jeff

 

[The Dali Lima]

When did your house get vandalized? I hope they catch the guys who spray-painted "Stairs" on your stairs. Stupid kids...

But seriously, I think the ceiling fan would work well, with a register in the ceiling for the heat to rise into the 2nd floor.

 

[thebeatlesrgood]

you guys are funny bastards. yeah you'll never believe it some neighborhood vandals broke in my house dented up my pipe, sprayed "stairs" on my stairs and even stole all of my insulation. ;-P

thanks for the help guys. i think im going to put the vent register in the wall and keep the ceiling fan on ill try the vent register fan both ways (intake and exhaust) to see which works best. Oregon fire, you're thinking ahead yeah my next step, once i figure out which way to direct the fan im going to get some sort of auto fan control possible on a thermostat. once again thanks for the help this site never lets me down.

 

[d.n.f.]

Stairs? I thought it was a ladder.

 

[ScottF]

I would really get an inspection of your system though, it appears that your stove pipe has a kink in it.

Actually Jags it looks like the pipe has been increased half way up the chimney from a 16" round to a 24" round. I thought this was against good practices for preventing creosote!! Large area and more condensation at the cooler area. Looks like he may have a bigger problem than moving heat. Better have that chimney addressed first.