Heat Distribution

[BurningWood]

My landlord recently had a small stove (http://tinyurl.com/zl9av7r) installed in an existing fireplace and the chimney lined in my house. The stove is working well with seasoned oak (split/stacked over a year ago) but is heating me out of the house. The room the stove is in regularly gets up to 75, but the hallway stays around 65 and the kitchen between the two somewhere inbetween. I keep at least one bedroom closed (the one behind the kitchen), usually the bathroom and second bedroom as well. I suspect that although it's a small stove it's bigger than the space it's heating. I have no ceiling fans but am using two box fans to try to push/pull air around the house. Any thoughts on things I could be doing differently to create not such a wide temperature gradient? I do open the second bedroom a few hours before going to bed but it does not seem to create a measurable difference in the temperature in that room, or in the house overall. Thanks for any thoughts you might have.

(I made a diagram of the house, but it won't upload so if you have any suggestions on how to fix that please let me know)

 

[moresnow]

Welcome to the crowd here. General rule of thumb seems to be to place box fans where it is colder and push that air towards the stove. Cheap way to displace warm air with cold. Warm displaced air then circulates back to the cooler room. This method has worked very well in my house. On the flipside trying to push hot air at cold was useless for me. Cheap fix. Good luck.

 

[BurningWood]

Welcome to the crowd here. General rule of thumb seems to be to place box fans where it is colder and push that air towards the stove. Cheap way to displace warm air with cold. Warm displaced air then circulates back to the cooler room. This method has worked very well in my house. On the flipside trying to push hot air at cold was useless for me. Cheap fix. Good luck.

I wish I could figure out why my diagram won't upload for then you would see I am doing exactly that.

 

[CheapBassTurd]

That's normal for us on one level. The stoveroom can be 80, 70's in the hall, and mid 60's in the bedrooms.
Perfect for us with those massive comforters. One box fan at the far end flooring pushes towards the stove.

 

[moresnow]

Nature of the beast. Area heater at heart. Always going to be hotter in the stove room. Sounds like you are following standard procedure.

 

[CheapBassTurd]

BW,
I noticed the new member status and I'm wanting to know if you have stoving experience, and
is the landlord in charge of chimney cleaning and safety of the unit?
Either you or the landlord should have experience, or start educating yourself here.
I did and learned enough to save some lives while being warm.

You can do some smaller fires to bring down the stoveroom temps but there's a compromise there too with
the other rooms suffering.

CheapMark

 

[firefighterjake]

Wood stoves are technically space heaters . . . so the nature of the beast is that the room with the stove will tend to be the warmest.

That said, as noted, there are ways to manage the heat so it can be redirected to rooms further away . . . some ways work more effectively than others . . . and sometimes there will be rooms in a home (depending on the home layout and size) that just will not be very warm.

The main way of moving heat out of a room and into other parts of the home is by pointing a fan from adjoining rooms towards the room with the stove . . . which it sounds like you are doing. Other folks use ceiling fans (if a home has high ceilings), small doorway fans, etc. to move the air.

If the issue is not so much moving the heat to cooler rooms, but not having the room with the stove be unbearably warm the solution may be a smaller woodstove (probably not an option if you are renting), loading the stove with smaller loads of wood (especially right now as temps in many places are still on the milder side compared to typical January temps say) and fuel load management (i.e. not using the primo oak, but instead using lower BTU wood, not reloading so soon or starting a fire and then letting it die out and let the heated stove radiate heat for several hours to keep the home warm.)

 

[Oregon aloha]

How well insulated is this home? It could be heat lose before the air gets to the cooler areas of your home. Are you heating with wood full time or just in short time spans? Wood heat warms all the objects, walls, ceiling, etc. Then the air is warmed by moving over these warmed items.
That is why people get confused about which way to move the air. Ceiling fans need to move the air up towards the warmed ceiling to heat the room or toward the cooler floor to cool the room. In your case moving the cooler air toward the warmed stove room is correct .

 

[BurningWood]

Thanks all for the replies. I do have some experience with running a stove (although it was much bigger and older, and actually had air controls/dampers), which is why I made sure to acquire and burn seasoned oak. I'm wary of burning anything else especially since it's a new installation. I'd like to take the best care of it as I possibly can. Speaking of care, I was not provided with a stovetop thermometer. Do you have any recommendations? I saw one by Condar that looked decent.

And for the person who asked, yes, my landlord is in charge of chimney/stove maintenance as needed. They're pretty good about taking care of thigns so I'm not concerned.

Thanks for the thought about letting the fire die out - I had not thought of doing that. Having the living room be so hot is a real shock when you need to go into another area of the house. I've been loading it small, one to two logs at a time, and usually when it's down to a good bed of coals, so I'm not just adding to a roaring fire. I was thinking this would help keep the temperature down but maybe I just need to experiment some more. .

About the insulation - I'm not sure. The house was built in the 1950s and was renovated about five years ago. I know the windows were replaced and a lot of other interior work was done (new flooring, proper laundry plumbing, new kitchen, etc.). Last winter when we had snow the roof didn't appear to melt quickly.

About when the house is being heated - usually from the afternoon into the night. It's been warm enough the rest of the time that it hasn't been necessary. I expect that time frame to extend once the temperatures start getting colder. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get it to last overnight, but I intend to try once it gets colder.

 

[davisc1513]

I have that exact stove in my home. I took the baffle and blanket out and put a damper on the stove pipe and found it got much better draft and was easier to manage. That could be the issue. The baffle in mine had no adjustments and would pour smoke into the house while trying to light it, so it really messed with the function of the stove. Also I found that when I got a really good fire going, I could add one more log and close the damper and it would control the flame and keep it going just enough through most of the night.

 

[BurningWood]

Yes, I noticed there were no dampers or other adjustments. I'm pretty sure my landlord won't let me modify the stove permanently although it sounds like you came up with a really good solution. My air control solution is aluminum foil - in the holes on the front and a strip across the bottom of the door. I leave the foil in the holes all the time (except when my cats decide it's a good play toy ooops lol). When the fire is going well I set a strip of foil across the bottom of the door, which seems to help bank the fire down some.

 

[begreen]

Did someone mention that stove is not legal for residential installation as of this year? It is not the tightest or best made solution. As you have found the air control is a sloppy fit.

 

[BurningWood]

Did someone mention that stove is not legal for residential installation as of this year? It is not the tightest or best made solution. As you have found the air control is a sloppy fit.

Um, no, where did you find this information?

 

[Poindexter]

You might try turning one fan off. try it with the one fan that is running right in the doorway to the stove room, on the floor, blowing cold air along the floor towards the stove.

 

[begreen]

Sorry, my bad. I am wrong. I went back and see that this is US Stove's EPA mod of their logwood stove.

 

[BurningWood]

Sorry, my bad. I am wrong. I went back and see that this is US Stove's EPA mod of their logwood stove.

Phew, thanks.

 

[begreen]

Too much distraction in the house to do this on a cell phone. It was obvious after company left and I sat down at the computer.

 

[davisc1513]

Yes, I noticed there were no dampers or other adjustments. I'm pretty sure my landlord won't let me modify the stove permanently although it sounds like you came up with a really good solution. My air control solution is aluminum foil - in the holes on the front and a strip across the bottom of the door. I leave the foil in the holes all the time (except when my cats decide it's a good play toy ooops lol). When the fire is going well I set a strip of foil across the bottom of the door, which seems to help bank the fire down some.

Its not permanent. Only 4 bolts and you can take the plate and blanket out and put it back I. You could always bring up the issue to the land lord.

 

[begreen]

That's not a good idea. The OP's original concern is too much heat. There is a better solution. Burn smaller fires and use larger splits and let the fire go out if it's getting warm.

I haven't seen this latest incarnation of this stove but if it's like previous versions the air control is crude. I can see adding a pipe damper, but not removing the baffle.

 

[davisc1513]

That's not a good idea. The OP's original concern is too much heat. There is a better solution. Burn smaller fires and use larger splits and let the fire go out if it's getting warm.

I haven't seen this latest incarnation of this stove but if it's like previous versions the air control is crude. I can see adding a pipe damper, but not removing the baffle.

So what exactly would removing the baffle do? After hearing that I may try putting it back in and burning a fire or two to compare.

 

[davisc1513]

Phew, thanks.

I will say that my stove runs really hot as well. Its new for me so I'm still learning how it runs. I dowgraded to this smaller one because our house is smaller. It took too much wood to heat up our old one. (also didn't have a baffle in that one)

 

[begreen]

So what exactly would removing the baffle do? After hearing that I may try putting it back in and burning a fire or two to compare.

The baffle slows down the fire while mixing in secondary air for a more complete burn in the firebox. For less heat and a slower burn try burning less wood and larger pieces of wood until the weather gets cold. Let the fire go out if the house is warm.

 

[davisc1513]

Hmmm...yeah I may try putting it back in. I'll keep you updated.

 

[BurningWood]

The baffle slows down the fire while mixing in secondary air for a more complete burn in the firebox. For less heat and a slower burn try burning less wood and larger pieces of wood until the weather gets cold. Let the fire go out if the house is warm.

At this point letting it die out is the only solution because I'm getting 75+ with just one piece of wood. Last night it was 80 in the living room, 75 in the hallway three hours after putting one log on the fire (and it was mostly coals with a couple small chunks at that point). Outside temp was somewhere in the low 40s.

 

[begreen]

Sounds like they did a pretty good job of tightening up the house and insulating. Adding just one log to the coal bed may be a good method until temps drop below freezing.