Circulating Fans

[Marcus]

I am looking for small door way type fans to circulate heated air through the house. Does anyone have reccomendatios from experience of fans with good circulating power that are relatively quiet? I used my Vornado fan last year which did a great job, but sounds like a tornado.

Thanks!

 

[buildafire]

Here's a link to one I used to sell years ago... Just Google doorway fan. There are only about three types you come across, and this is the quietest I know of...

(broken link removed to http://www.lehmans.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=994&itemType=PRODUCT&iProductID=994)

It's just a computer cooling fan with a cord, but it does the job.

 

[BrotherBart]

I have run one of these for the last 21 years. I keep thinking every year it is going to quit and it just keep on running. Pretty quiet for the amount of air it moves.

(broken link removed to http://tinyurl.com/zjpve)

 

[elkimmeg]

There is a better way to move warm air. Move the cold air . The trick to getting heat move to an area or room away from a the stove. Not moving the warm air. Warm air is lighter and never gets to the lower part of the room. I even pushed by a small fan,it still stays around the ceiling. My head feels warm but my feet are cold. Instead of trying to move warm air why not place a small box fan on the floor with the door open directing the out flow towards the stove. IF the heavier clool air is moved out, more lighter warm air will replace it. The box fan does two jobs, it removes the cooler bottom air and draws down the warmer air from above.


The worst designed homes with HVAC systems has one central ceiling hall return for the entire up stairs. All it returns is the warmest air air that is already heated. What a waste of energy. All second floor bedrooms should have there own returns and not in the
celing locations. If I just described you setup no wonder you bought a stove trying to makeup for poorly designed and installed attic location second exchanger /furnace systems. But there is hope,IT can be re designed to distribute even heat. This setup waste up to 50% heat that never gets down to the living space

I got to run But will add to the entire dymanics of proper duct locations and how to make improvements

the entire key is returning cool air for effeciency

 

[Greg123]

Elk – I like your idea, last year I had a fan in our living room where the stove is and I had it sitting up high blowing the hot air from this area down the hall and into the bedrooms. This worked well for us and did spread the heat around the house.

My only complaint was the fan had to usually be on High or Medium which made it difficult to hear the TV at times, and just generally annoying.

However with your Idea I’m thinking of putting the fan down the hall away from the stove & TV area, and blowing the cooler air toward the stove area mixing with the warmer air. Does this sound logical?.

 

[PAJerry]

We only used the insert for a few weeks last spring and the heat did spread pretty much thoughout the house. I am installing a ceiling fan in the living room where the insert is located for this winter. Should I have it directing the air stream down to the floor or up to the ceiling? I have seen sites that say to reverse the fan direction in the winter but wonder if that applies when using a stove.

 

[velvetfoot]

We had a cathedral ceiling in the living room our last place. I had to do something or other on a large ladder: it was unbelievably warm up there. I just wonder if the electricity cost to run the fan makes it worthwhile.

Anyway, I think the way to do it is to set the fan to pull the air up so that moving air doesn't have a tendency to hit your bod, which makes you feel colder.

 

[brian_in_idaho]

We had a cathedral ceiling in the living room our last place. I had to do something or other on a large ladder: it was unbelievably warm up there. I just wonder if the electricity cost to run the fan makes it worthwhile.

Anyway, I think the way to do it is to set the fan to pull the air up so that moving air doesn't have a tendency to hit your bod, which makes you feel colder.

A ceiling fan works wonders with a vaulted ceiling, most are reversable so you can draw upwards in winter, the downward flow is along the outside walls and not that noticable. Flip it in summer it will blow downwards, you can feel more of the draft. I don't know the cost to run the fan, but generally motors are pretty low power users, compared to heating elements.

Bri

 

[mikedengineer]

Elk is so right those who don't blow the cold air from the floor towards the stove have no idea how much heat you can bring into a room. If you can blow the warm air into the room from the top part of a door and blow the cold air out from the bottom then you will get heat into that room.

Those little fans that are mentioned should work great for bringing the warm air in. I just use cheap fans called axial fans.

-Mike

Alos try doing a search on this forum on this subject.

 

[brian_in_idaho]

miked, I'm thinking about trying these axial fans, connected to floor mounted registers, in the more distant end hallways in my place.

http://www.nextag.com/register-booster-fan/search-html

The thought being to draw colder air out of the hallways into the basement, eventually followed by the warm air drawn from the central area. Not sure how it will work, but not too expensive to try.

 

[Marcus]

Thanks for the fan ideas. I run the ceiling fan in the room with the insert on reverse (cathedral ceiling) and that works great. I have used a floor fan to blow cool air to the stove and that works good, except we have a little one now, so I don't want a fan on the floor. I have found running the fan from the central air does absolutely nothing. I even tried blowing a space heater on high down the return and measured the air temperature coming out of a vent. It did not change at all.

 

[jabush]

Ya...flipping on the furnace return fan sounds like a good idea, but like you I never noticed a difference. Plus I hate the sound of that thing running whether I'm burning oil or not.
I am going to try the fan on the floor method this year...blowing cool air from my addition into the stove room.

 

[Todd]

I have both fans that Bill and Brian have talked about. The little doorway fans work well and are very quiet. The register booster fan moves more air but has more noise. My stove is in the basement and the heat seems to rise quite nicely for me, and I have good cold air return. I have a vent over the stove with the register booster fan, and a doorway fan next to the stairwell leading upstairs. I can keep a 5-8 degree difference from the basement and the main floor. Your house layout will determine the best way to move the heat, either blowing cold air towards the stove or blowing the heat away from the stove. You have to experiment with what works best for your situation.