Closing off the upstairs

[Dustin]

Folks,

I have a 2000 square foot 1955 house in western Oregon. (It's 32 degrees here right now!)

It's about 1000 square feet upstairs, and 1000 downstairs.

I have a small stairway with a door on it leading up.

With this door closed, I can feel ice cold air coming from below the door. The door to the upstairs is in the stove room.

With the door open, I don't notice much change in downstairs temp or wood consumption, but it obviously warms up a bit upstairs.

Oddly, with the door open, my downstairs seems to heat more evenly.. Strange right? Is it possible, having the upstairs closed off and freezing cold, that it would cause my downstairs to stay cooler? Instead of leaving the door open and allowing the upstairs space to heat up?

Second question... We don't really use the upstairs for anything except an office and storage. Anything wrong with leaving it closed off when it's cold? Any issues arise from that?


Dustin

 

[My Oslo heats my home]

Glad you said that, let me tell you what we do in our 1880's farmhouse with 2200 sq ft. We also have a door that leads to the front stairway and hallway. During the day we close that door and just heat the downstairs, we rarely return to the second floor during the day. We also have a gravity vent that keeps the 2nd flr fairly comfortable aside from heat that comes from the front stairway.

2-3 hours before bedtime we open the stairway door and increase the stove heat a bit. By the time we get upstairs we have 70+ on the second floor.

 

[begreen]

Folks,

I have a 2000 square foot 1955 house in western Oregon. (It's 32 degrees here right now!)

It's about 1000 square feet upstairs, and 1000 downstairs.

I have a small stairway with a door on it leading up.

With this door closed, I can feel ice cold air coming from below the door. The door to the upstairs is in the stove room.

With the door open, I don't notice much change in downstairs temp or wood consumption, but it obviously warms up a bit upstairs.

Oddly, with the door open, my downstairs seems to heat more evenly.. Strange right? Is it possible, having the upstairs closed off and freezing cold, that it would cause my downstairs to stay cooler? Instead of leaving the door open and allowing the upstairs space to heat up?

Second question... We don't really use the upstairs for anything except an office and storage. Anything wrong with leaving it closed off when it's cold? Any issues arise from that?


Dustin

If it helps even out the heat leave the door open. The benefit will be a drier, warmer upstairs. The opposite could lead to mold and mildew in our damp climate.

 

[Oregon aloha]

If you get cold air coming down from upstairs I would think The warm air from your down stairs is going up there. I would think there is not enough insulation in the ceiling to keep the warmth from the upstairs. Warm air takes up more room then cool air so as the warmth moves upstairs the cool air is pushed downstairs.
If you allow the upstairs to fully warm up then you will have warmer cool air returning to the downstairs.
Wood heats objects not the air. This circulation from floor to floor moves more air over the warmer surfaces and makes the rooms more evenly heated.

I hope this makes some sense. I know what i am trying to say, I just can't.