Heat = Air Circulation

[ArsenalDon]

I am a new burner. I have been experimenting over the last couple of days. We have overhead fans in virtually every room. Outside temps dropped like a rock over the last few days to a low o 7 and a high of 31. I have been running my Quadrafire Isle Royale at a constant 400-500 and have not been able to get the living room that it is in over 71. I cranked up the ceiling fan to high and presto the room is up to 76 and rising in 20 min.

What I learned is that heat is all about air circulation......similar experiences??

 

[Crane Stoves]

Its a matter of getting the heated air dispersed from the immediate area of the stove (without cooling off the firebox with a blower, though a blower is good for certain situations such as inserts), ceiling fans are GREAT, doorway fans are GREAT, etc. Its good to see everything is working better for you... its all about testing a trying what works for YOU!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Don, do you have those ceiling fans set to blow up rather than down?

 

[ScotO]

In our house we have the woodstove in the kitchen on the first floor. With just the factory blower on the stove, we convect air throughout the whole house, and it works beautifully. We leave the bedroom doors open on the far end of the house (upstairs), and the heat variance from the far end of the house is around 1 to 4 degrees difference from the kitchen.

Now that we have the NZ3000 in the mix, I'm anxious to cut out the doorway to that remodeled room (it's not finished yet). It'll be interesting to see what that thing does in the grand scheme of things......it puts out some massive heat!

 

[MnDave]

What I learned is that heat is all about air circulation......similar experiences??

I agree. Heat transfer theory confirms it.

Still (motionless) air is an insulator. Birds puff up in the winter to still the air around them so that they stay warmer.

I run my stove fan at full speed.

MnDave

 

[ArsenalDon]

Don, do you have those ceiling fans set to blow up rather than down?

90% of the time we have them on blow up, but if we switch it up for a short while it circulates the air differently for us.

 

[RSNovi]

I have my stove in the basement and have been trying to get heat upstairs. When I had the stove installed 3 years ago I had a cold air return put in near the stove. I would always run the furnace fan and sometimes tried a fan blowing down the stairs. Ever since I had the stove I was always trying to use fans.

The other day I turned every fan off in the house and I think heat transferring up from the basement through natural convection is working better in my house.

 

[MnDave]

The other day I turned every fan off in the house and I think heat transferring up from the basement through natural convection is working better in my house.

What I have noticed is that when I keep a decent fire going in the stove all day, the objects in the house become the same temperature. That is when the need for fans is diminished. All of the objects will radiate/convect to keep the temps in the room more uniform.

I only run two fans, the one built into the stove, and a 6 inch duct fan which moves 90F air from above the stove into the master bedroom/bathroom on the floor above. Otherwise my floorplan is open. It is not a large house.

I walk around with the IR handheld on the upper level and all the objects including walls are within a few degrees of each other. Initially I was surprised by this because I have a lot of large windows without blinds.

What I have determined is that the stairwell to the lower level is acting like two large invisible ducts. I feel the cool air dropping along the steps and I feel the warm air rising along the ceiling. The two fans simply aid this large air exchange.

MnDave

 

[begreen]

Our heat pump is a multi-stage unit. At the low stage you can not hear the compressor or the variable speed house blower running. I let it even out the house temps when the thermostat says it needs to. As a result you can go from one end to the other of our first floor and the temp is usually within a couple degrees. That is, except for my office which stays colder because I often have the doors closed. I use a small electric heater in there when I need it.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

90% of the time we have them on blow up, but if we switch it up for a short while it circulates the air differently for us.

You are right Don. When my wife dries her laundry, she likes to do it by the stove. Then we reverse the fans to blowing down. When that is done we switch them back.