duct work to get heat to back side of the house

[diesel06]

I have a Harmon invincible rs pellet stove, it heats our two story house well, the only downfall is there was a new addition added to the house years ago before we bought it, the original house is brick so there is only one door way to the new addition, the secondary heat is hot water baseboard heated from a propane boiler, we've been able to heat the up and downstairs with only the pellet stove, we heat the addition with the baseboard. my goal this winter is to get heat from the stove to the new addition and use less of the propane or none at all, the plan is to put a floor register in by the stove run the duct work through the basement into the crawl space under the new addition and branch off into floor registers. I will install booster fan in the duct work, the run would be about 30 ft from the stove to the new addition, i want to get some input on this to see if im in the right direction, i was thinking about using 5 or 6 inch round ducting.

 

[Bioburner]

Thats a long way to try and push a low heat differential IMO and trying to push enough in that small of pipe probably won't work. I tried similar project in a old house I had.
Welcome

 

[Cory S]

It's all about forced circulation. If you have enough CFM through your duct work, it can work. We have 1900sq ft (950 up, 950 down), the stove is downstairs. We have a free air register upstairs in the dining room. I install a 20" box fan laying down over the register during winter that draws upwards. Heat is drawn up through this register at decent rate. At the bottom of the stairs to the downstairs, you can actually feel cooler air coming down which shows there is circulation going on. Usually we only have a 1-1.5* difference in temperature between upstairs and down.

 

[DougA]

the plan is to put a floor register in by the stove run the duct work through the basement into the crawl space under the new addition and branch off into floor registers. I will install booster fan in the duct work, the run would be about 30 ft from the stove to the new addition, i want to get some input on this to

The air near the stove at floor level will be cool. There will always be a convection loop in your stove room with hot air rising from the stove and cool air falling down the far side of the room and returning at floor level. You are going to suck cooler air, move it through a duct in the basement, then 30' to the far bedrooms. Sorry, it's a waste of your time. The air that reaches the bedrooms will not be warm at all. If you can put an inlet for air on the ceiling and pipe it to the far bedrooms with a built-in fan in the duct, it will be OK but not great.
I don't know the law on pellet stoves but for a wood stove, you need a minimum distance from a stove to an air register. Hopefully someone here can give you an accurate answer on this.

 

[moey]

Youve got to move a lot of air to heat with 85-90F air. That is the air temp you would probably be moving if your lucky. To give you a idea our geothermal moves about 1600 CFM to heat about 2200 sq ft. Youd be lucky to get 200 CFM going through that pipe. If you do try it insulate heavy going through the crawl space. I personally think it would be a waste.

 

[diesel06]

Any suggestions on how to get the heat back there

 

[Bioburner]

Find another nice used stove. Can't tell if or what is available as you have not filled in your signature.

 

[DougA]

This winter propane is going to be cheap - at least by comparison to other years. That should give you a year to find a better solution. Is there any way to install this in the ceiling and grab the air where it is warm?
Everyone here has found that moving cold air into the warm room seems to work better than pushing warm air into cold rooms. The idea is to pull cool air out of a room and it has to be replaced by warmer air. This doesn't work if the rooms are not insulated and reasonably air tight since you'll get replacement air from outside. Remember that the simple act of moving the air will make it seem cooler as it hits your skin.

Is there any way to move the stove to the middle area?

 

[diesel06]

The only other place the stove could go would be on the back left side of the house in the mud room which is where the door way is for the new addition but that's on the other side of the house not sure how it would effect heating the upstairs, I've thought about moving it there before but I'd like to try and keep it where it is

 

[diesel06]

ok I came up with another option after looking into somethings, only the bottom side of the house is brick, the 2nd floor was added years later, then the addition, where the stair way is the other side of the wall is the attic to the new addition, my thoughts were to go above the brick through the wall in the stair well with a register/ booster, then ducting into the attic and distribute the heat into the two rooms. the regrister at the stair way would be well above the floor high on the wall.

 

[moey]

What air temp do you expect to be moving? Based on the picture it would probably be 70ish air if your lucky which means you need lots of air to make any noticeable difference. More then a little booster fan can deliver. Going through a unconditioned space (attic) also will result in noticeable loss. Insulating ducts is a losing cause well not quite but its not good.

 

[DougA]

It's a lot better than option #1 you posted earlier.

 

[diesel06]

it usually will get up to around 82 downstairs at the thermostat which is only a few feet away from the stair way , i figured it might be a little better than running through the basement and crawl space, and the run would only be a few feet long since the rooms are right on the other side of the wall

 

[diesel06]

I'd like to get some more opinions on this let me know what you think

 

[fishnfool777]

I'd like to get some more opinions on this let me know what you think

I did something similar in my house. I have a Harmon 52i in my living room which is connected to my kitchen and is all open about 1000 sq ft. I took a temp gun and found the warmest spot in my ceiling of the living room and put in a 24" X 24" return grill in. I ran 12" R8 duct about 25' over to the ceiling of our bedroom which is next door to our living room. I installed a 12" inline duct ran at the end of the duct not at the register. I then used a 12" X 8" X 8" Y after the fan and put 2 vents in my bedroom ceiling using R8 duct. I run the inline fan off a 24V thermostat located in my bedroom using a 110v to 24V transformer. When my thermostat calls for heat it turns the fan on and shuts it off when not needed. There's a about a 4 degree loss from my living room to my bedroom, meaning if I want my bedroom at 68 to 70, I have to keep my living room between 72 to 74. This works pretty well except when there is extreme cold with wind chill; it then really losses a lot of BTU's in the attic. I live on the Eastern Shore of MD and only have to deal with that kind of cold a few days a year.

 

[fishnfool777]

This is. what my floor plan looks like. My house is on a concrete pad so my only options was in the attic. I would think the BTU loss would be better if your running in the basement. Also I put the inline fan down stream because everything I've read on here says to pull heat not to push it. I talked with a HVAC friend and showed him the floor plan; he helped me with the return, inline fan and duct sizing to make sure I was moving enough CFM to my bedroom. Hope this helps. I use the 52i and a P38 in the back of the house to heat my 3000 sq ft home. I absolutely love these Harmon's and was able to cut out all propane except my hot water heater.

 

[maple1]

You would get better results if you went with the layout in the first diagram, but reversed the airflow. Send the cold air from the addition towards the stove. Then the warm air in the stove room should migrate towards the addition to replace the cold air that is being sent towards the stove. Since it is more dense, you can move more cold air than warm air all else being equal.

But you will need to move a lot of air (doubt a booster fan will do the trick over 30'), and you will need to insulate & seal the piping in between very well. You might still be disappointed in the results - but you can always burn LP if it doesn't end up working. Might be further ahead with that than pellets anyway for the whole house this winter.

 

[Bkins]

I believe there are some building codes that should be looked into in regards to cutting holes in ceilings and floors and adding ducts. It's can provide a fire pathway if you were to ever have one. I also seem to remember that special fireproof vents are made, but are pretty expensive. If you decide to not check this topic out make sure your very well protected with detectors both smoke/fire and carbon monoxide.

I am another one who doesn't think you will get much out of running ductwork.

 

[diesel06]

Fishnfool777, that is pretty much the same concept I want to do for my house, I live in Southern pa we get a
Few cold days here and there that get the stove really working, I can get the living room up to 82 on a normal day about mid 70s on a real cold windy day i think the 2nd option would work a lot better than the first, the crawl space would kill the btus on a cold day. I may get an opinion from a Hvac guy

 

[maple1]

Fishnfool777, that is pretty much the same concept I want to do for my house, I live in Southern pa we get a
Few cold days here and there that get the stove really working, I can get the living room up to 82 on a normal day about mid 70s on a real cold windy day i think the 2nd option would work a lot better than the first, the crawl space would kill the btus on a cold day. I may get an opinion from a Hvac guy

An attic can kill it worse than a crawl space depending on the situation.

Did you catch post#17?

 

[moey]

If you do run duct through a cold space (attic). I would suggest insulating more then the standard amount. If its a long run buy metal duct say 6" then buy a piece of flex 10" wrap the 6" metal duct with insulation then slide the 10" flex around it then seal both ends of the flex. Its a pain but will give you in the R-12ish range. If its a short run skip the flex and buy a sheet of insulation and wrap it all up several wraps.

 

[Jack Morrissey]

My opinion, a pellet stove is a space heater. Its not meant to be hooked up to duct work and forced to heat far reaches of the house. Im sure in some cases it can be done, and is.

 

[smwilliamson]

Simple, box fan on the floor of the cold rooms blowing the heat out and across the floor where it can be recirculated and the heat will come in and take its place.

Or install an airshare system on the dividing wall.

http://www.tjernlund.com/airshare_ventilation.htm

 

[diesel06]

An attic can kill it worse than a crawl space depending on the situation.

Did you catch post#17?

The only problem with that is the run is so long id have to be moving a lot of air for it to be efficient

 

[diesel06]

Simple, box fan on the floor of the cold rooms blowing the heat out and across the floor where it can be recirculated and the heat will come in and take its place.

Or install an airshare system on the dividing wall.

http://www.tjernlund.com/airshare_ventilation.htm

Can you hook those air shares to
Duct work?