Heat distribution to back rooms

[GrantC]

Please refer to the drawing below...it's not to scale, mind you (the kitchen isn't quite that small....!)

Our stove (a Lopi Endeavor w/fan kit) is located in the corner of our family room. It is positioned so that it blows into the room, and also down the hallway. A bit of "spill" gets into the kitchen, heating it nicely, and the master bedroom gets some as well.

The problem is with the second ("spare") bedroom, off the hallway. The heat travels down the hall, and just doesn't flow into that room. I'd like to solve that problem!

There are no ceiling fans in this house, and the ceilings themselves are quite low (just a shade over 7 feet - it's a very old farmhouse.) My thought is to put a ceiling fan into the spare bedroom; running in reverse, I'm surmising that it will pull the warmed air from the hall into the room.

Am I crazy? Is there a better way?

-=[ Grant ]=-

 

[Robbie]

I think the air would feel too cold by the time it was pulled up and then down into the room.......why don't you consider one of these fans to pull hot air from up high in the hall way and then into the room. I heard they work really well. Low speed would probably be all you need.

http://www.improvementscatalog.com/home/improvements/93890-room-room-fan.html


Robbie

 

[Jfk4th]

I have 2 of them, they work OK, a bit loud but HD and Lowes have them for about 25.00. Worth a shot, there is a also a whisper quiet door fan, stove stores should have this, maybe 30.oo each

 

[amitysanimal]

I have a similar problem. I live in a 76' mobile home and I'm having trouble getting heat down a hallway to the master B/R and bathroom. I have a fan in the top of the doorway trying to move the warm air down the hallway but it doesn't seem to work that great.

My Uncle told me to put the fan down on the floor and push the cold air into the room with the stove, and the warm air will flow down the hallway, replacing the cold air. He said its easier to move the cold air than it is to move the warm air. Does this make any sense? Should I try and put the fan down on the floor and move the cold air?

amitysanimal

 

[jadm]

I have a similar situation and I haven't been able to move the air into the back of the house with any success. Part of the reason is that while the air is warm in the room that my insert is in when it hits the cold air it isn't hot enough to warm up that mass of cold air. I used fans on the floor and I used a couple to navigate the corners. No luck.

I checked out the above web site fan for mounting a fan up near the ceiling but, while that can move hot air into another room, unless you have a ceiling fan to push that hot air down into the room - what you get is cold air in the room - hot air up at ceiling level....

My insert fan, if left on all the time, will move some air around the house and, if it is not too cold outside, it will slowly warm up those areas a bit. We basically stay in the front area of our house so I don't worry about trying to move the air anymore. We all just dress warm and sleep under down comforters at night. I wear a hat too.

Good luck finding your solution.

 

[fish]

how about a bathroom vent fan set up with 4 or 6 inch flex going to the bedroom. so as the air comes off the stove the vent fan in the ceiling sucks the hot air up and moves it directly to the bed room. i have been using this system for about 2 years and it seems to be doing a good job. i have about 60 feet of flex vent in my attic that goes from the stove to the bedroom via a heat vent in the ceiling. youll also need to cover the flex vent with insulation so no heat is lost. according to the thermometer my bed room is 5 deg colder than the room with the stove . i have a 1700 foot house and am able to heat the house with a quadrafire 2100. only rated for 1500 max. but the house is never cold.and i live in western ny were its always cold night temps about 10 deg or less most of the time. i draw my warm air 3 feet from the stack going through the ceiling.

 

[ATVriderINmass]

I had the same problem.I live in a double wide mobile home and tried those doorway fans and they didnt do a thing..I got a induct 8" fan and wired it to a plug and put a elbow on it..It works great..the room was 60 when the stove was on and now its 70..and the room on the other side of that room was 55 now that gets up to 70 too..i'll try to post some pics in a few minutes.. good luck..

 

[Jfk4th]

I had the same problem.I live in a double wide mobile home and tried those doorway fans and they didnt do a thing..I got a induct 8" fan and wired it to a plug and put a elbow on it..It works great..the room was 60 when the stove was on and now its 70..and the room on the other side of that room was 55 now that gets up to 70 too..i'll try to post some pics in a few minutes.. good luck..

Could you take a pic of what you did, sounds great!

 

[ATVriderINmass]

Its not pretty...but it works great!

 

[jadm]

How do you get the heat off of the ceiling down into the room? How loud is the fan? Looks like a simple solution.

I had the same problem.I live in a double wide mobile home and tried those doorway fans and they didnt do a thing..I got a induct 8" fan and wired it to a plug and put a elbow on it..It works great..the room was 60 when the stove was on and now its 70..and the room on the other side of that room was 55 now that gets up to 70 too..i'll try to post some pics in a few minutes.. good luck..

 

[quinn]

I have a 2700 square foot old home that I heat entirely with wood in a cold climate. The single most effective thing that I have done to move air throughout the house was to cut out an opening above the doorway into those rooms I want to move heat. This allows for passive movement of the hot air that naturally moves to ceiling height. It works brilliantly, uses no power and is quiet as can be.

If you were to cut out the space above your spare room it would get as warm as you need it to be.

 

[ozarkjeep]

makes alot of sense.

think about older schools, and other multiple roomed commercial buildings, they always had those glass windows that would open above the doors.

very interesting.

I have a 2700 square foot old home that I heat entirely with wood in a cold climate. The single most effective thing that I have done to move air throughout the house was to cut out an opening above the doorway into those rooms I want to move heat. This allows for passive movement of the hot air that naturally moves to ceiling height. It works brilliantly, uses no power and is quiet as can be.

If you were to cut out the space above your spare room it would get as warm as you need it to be.

 

[mayhem]

Same idea as expressed above, I would cut out a small hole in the wall between the spare bedroom and the family room. No sense in sucking the heat out of the hallway and risk cooling down the bath and master bedroom...take the heat from the warmest room for the spare.

I've been toying with doing this myself, except I would cut out a rectangular hole and install a squirrel cage fan (barrel type, not standard rotating blade type) and put in a small, louvered duct that directs the air downward. My issue is that I have a seriously high cathedral ceiling in my living room where the stove is and in order for any usable heat to wash into the master bedroom on the second floor, I have to first get the top 12' of the airspace hot enough that it starts bleeding downward till it gets to the doorway in the MBR. If I put a small fan right through the wall at or very near the peak and blow it downward into the MBR it ought to help fill that space nicely and give me a good use for that extra heat up there. Using an ir temp sensor I have measured surface temperatures approaching 100 degrees at the ceiling while surface temperatures the bottom of the room (26 feet below) hover around 70-72 degrees.

 

[bokehman]

Hello Grant,

I've got a similar lay-out to you except 3 bedrooms. The fire is the only source of heat. I've got 5 foot diameter ceiling fans in every room due to the summer heat so this gives me a chance to experiment.

First thing you need to realize is you are not trying to distribute the hot air around the house. The air in the house forms layers with different temperatures and there is little transfer of heat from one layer to another. The job of the ceiling fans is to mix the air so it is one uniform temperature. Any fans blowing horizontally do not have this ability. Also a fan in one room blowing into another room just doesn't work which you would see if you put some smoke in the airstream.

In the living room (where the fire is) there is a temperature sensor about 2'6" above the floor, (seat level). When I switch on the ceiling fan (up-draught mode) in that room the temperature rises by a least 5 degrees in less than 2 minutes. Similar rise is seen in the other rooms over a period of about half an hour but they never reach the same temp as the living room. If I want to speed up the process I switch on the fans in the other rooms but this time in down-draught mode so they are working in sympathy with the living room fan.

I think the only way to improve on this would be duct hot air to the far end of the house.

 

[bokehman]

I would cut out a small hole in the wall between the spare bedroom and the family room.

Think carefully before doing something like that as you are turning the house into a fire trap.

 

[loneeagle15]

We went to radio shack and bought a couple of cooling fans 20bucks a piece couple of vent covers and light switches from HD total of 30bucks for each fan cut holes in the wall and mounted them to suck the cold air out of the rooms what a diff we had tried to pull the hot air in but the warm air never seemed to make it pull the cold air out and the hot air will be pulled in

 

[GrantC]

I would cut out a small hole in the wall between the spare bedroom and the family room.

Think carefully before doing something like that as you are turning the house into a fire trap.

Could you explain why? That is exactly what I was thinking of doing...

-=[ Grant ]=-

 

[DriftWood]

Its not pretty...but it works great!

"it works"" BUT IS IT SAFE https://www.hearth.com/econtent/ind...=9708_Eql7lIVsnBuj5260clra&thumb=1&board_id=1

Do you know how dangerous your mechanical wonder is. Its moving heat, but you fail to see that combustion bi products and fire can also follow the expressway paths you created.

The last place I would want to compromise safety is in my home. Do you know that it is creating a negative pressure situation increasing the chance to back draft and will then transmit combustion bi-products? Have you considered the dangers of creating an expressway into our other rooms for carbon monoxide transmission?

"Are you using fire dampers or smoke dampers? Are the carbon monoxide detectors and smoke detectors wired in to close down the system upon detection?

Do the have any idea just how dangerous this practice is?"

I would to take it out.

 

[ATVriderINmass]

I put a 500 cfm duct fan in from H.D ..I think it was $40...i adjusted the elbow downwards. so that the heat would blow into both rooms ...just make sure you wire nut the wires and tape them good..We dont leave it on when we go to bed. although we could you cant even hear it unless your right next to it...good luck!

 

[billb3]

If he's got fire running through that fan, he's got a bigger problem than fire running through the fan.



Like why didn't the smoke alarm go off hours ago.

 

[bokehman]

Like why didn't the smoke alarm go off hours ago.

That might be true with a smoldering fire but not a fast flaming one. You need to realise that retarding the transport of fire or toxins by as little as 5 seconds might mean the difference between life and death. The difference between a solid wall and an open duct relates to minutes (or even hours) giving enough time after hearing the alarm to collect the kids and evacuate the building before someone is dead.

 

[Martin Strand III]

Boys with your dangerous toys:

Metal wood burning stoves are designed to be local area heaters. Key words: "local area". Sometimes, with specific more vertical (since heat rises) and open home designs, one may enjoy heat being supplied beyond the local area of the wood stove.

A furnace using fans to move heated air through ductwork is the time proven system to heat an entire house.

Base board electric and/or steam radiant heaters (in each room) can heat an entire house, albeit requiring multiple units.

Using fans to move heated air in open spaces usually results in more cooling than heating (aka "wind chill").

Cutting holes in floors, ceilings and/or walls attempting to improve heat flow is a limited attempt at creating an open floor plan resulting in probable code violation and increased risk.

Enthusiastic claims by some using combinations of the above may be taken cautiously to avoid disappointments.

Aye,
Marty

Grandma used to say, "Play with fire and you'll get burned."

 

[billb3]

I'll try not to have any more campfires in the middle of the living room floor.

 

[DriftWood]

I'll try not to have any more campfires in the middle of the living room floor.

That is the point, there is a lot more than camp fire in that wood stove in the middle of my living room!! I want ithe fire in the stove never out of it. Should it get out, as a log did once in the old fire place I want the smoke alarms going off in the living room first, not a adjacent room or my bed room.

I did not discover fire or invent ways to use it. It took a lot of trial and error. I don't need to learn from my own mistakes on using fire. I just need to not let mistakes happen.

 

[noodlestsc]

Its not pretty...but it works great!

"Are you using fire dampers or smoke dampers?

Not trying to bash you or anything, because adding safety equipment only helps not hurts, but how many homes with central air do you know that use a FD/SD? It would only make sense if you were penetrating a rated wall. I don't know many homes that have rated interior partitions. If you have fire coming through that tube, chances are your interior partitions are close to being toasted also.

To show I'm not trying to disprove you safety wise, I do want to say that my house fan is tied to my smoke detectors.