heat circulation

[chocolateporcupine]

My Quadra-Fire insert is at the far end of my house over forty feet from the two lower level and two upper level bedrooms; I'm thinking of running insulated four or six inch duct with blower as a cold air return from far lower rooms to insert area via the crawlspace. Is it wrong of me to expect the hot air in this far room to travel to the far reaches with this little negative pressure that I'm hoping to create? A box fan drawing cold air into this heated room does make a difference in the hall areas.

 

[JohnnyBravo]

yes move cold air. it should work. is the crawl space a warm or cold zone. it may not be nesisary to insulate it. i know that working in crawl spaces sucks but use rigid ducting none of that plastic spiral crap. it has so much resistance that you can't move any air. if posible use 6" it has more than twice the volume as 4" again less resistance and less power to move the air. i want to build a system that is charged by solar in the day and then use 12v cpu fans at night to move air.

 

[MrGriz]

The consensus does seem to be that moving cold air back to the stove is the way to go.

 

[begreen]

Unless the crawlspace is a conditioned, warm space, insulation is a necessity. The heat loss of uninsulated ducts in a crawlspace at outdoor temps will negate most any gains once the outside temps start to drop. FWIW, I don't think you would have any problem using 6" R8 flex ducts. But you will need an adequately sized blower. Adding a fusible link damper in the system is a good idea.

 

[Jimbob]

I've done something similar to that, I used an inline blower and 8" steel ducting.
The blower is the pvp-8 from this page:
http://www.solerpalaucanada.com/