Do I need a cold air return

[02stangguy]

i made a post a few weeks back about putting a vent in the ceiling above my wood stove and running ducts to each one of my bed rooms and putting a blower fan inline to move the air. I got some good advice and I'm going to go for it but my plan has changed a little. I have a 3 bedroom rancher and the only reason I want to get more heat to the bedrooms is cause my 1 year old likes to be pretty warm at night or she isn't happy. Instead of running vents to all rooms I am just going to run 1 4" cent from the stove to her room with an I line blower. I imagine that the air above the stove has to be at the very least 110 degrees. It's about a 30 foot stretch to her room and I will be using insulated ducts. I hope that by the time the air reaches the room that it is at least 85 degrees still. I'm going to hook up the blower to a thermostat that will be in the room. So the big question is do I need a cold air return? The hot air vents will be on the ceiling but would it be beneficial to have cold air return from the bedroom to the stove room?

 

[Lake Girl]

We found a big advantage to using old heating ducts with in-line fans as cold air returns ... it encourages the convection loop of moving warm air out of the stove room into other parts of the house.

 

[bcrtops]

Be Safe please.
Make sure to follow local codes, etc. when doing any intake grill/duct near a free-standing stove.

The air will naturally flow back if doors are open (return air question). Personally, I favor pulling cold air into the stove room, & letting the heat naturally flow back to the bedrooms.

 

[Lake Girl]

If I didn't explain it well enough bcrtops, pretty much what we are doing with the old ducting. Pull cold air from bedrooms and push it into the LR where the stove is.

I wouldn't go the other way around ... leaving a fire and CO risk in the little one's room.

 

[bcrtops]

If I didn't explain it well enough bcrtops, pretty much what we are doing with the old ducting. Pull cold air from bedrooms and push it into the LR where the stove is.

I wouldn't go the other way around ... leaving a fire and CO risk in the little one's room.

And..........we haven't mentioned the other issue, that being robbing the air the stove may need for the fire. It could easily get a back-draft, no draw situation unless the stove is using outside air supply. That could result in a really bad scenario = negative pressure = smoking stove = smoke pulled right into that bedroom.

 

[begreen]

If I didn't explain it well enough bcrtops, pretty much what we are doing with the old ducting. Pull cold air from bedrooms and push it into the LR where the stove is.

I wouldn't go the other way around ... leaving a fire and CO risk in the little one's room.

This method is good. Putting a return above the stove to suck up the heat is against code if it is within 10 ft. of the stove or insert. The ductwork should be insulated to reduce heat loss.