Heat second Floor

[shadowtype09]

I have looked through old post and spoken to a few co-workers on trying to get heat on my to my second floor.

I recently (1year ago) purchased a home with an old Timberline wood stove, i had the chimney cleaned by the previous owner and use the stove no problems last year. But i also have an oil furnace. Last year i re-filled 4 times my old during the winter season along with using the stove 24/7. I spoke to a few people i know and who use woodstoves but all of them have it installed in their basement and have a 1 floor home so heating that is a normally "easy"

This year i purchased a Droplet 1800i and replaced my the Timberland woodstove. My home is 2100 SQFt, and i am having the most difficult time heating my second floor from the woodstove,

My upstairs thermostat is set to 60 just to keep the wife and prevent our pipes from freezing. I would really like to use my wood stove to heat my home comfortably without to constantly fill my oil tanks.

I have seasoned wood thats just under 2 years old. The main room can easily get it to 75 degrees before we have to leave the room for a short period of time.

The stove was installed with a block off place and fresh air intake from the outside. Nothing more frustrating than sitting in the living room where the stove is at 75 degrees and then hearing the whole house shake as the furnace turns on right below the wood stove, i know cutting holes in the living room where the stove is installed, is most likely a code violation (havent checked yet) but what is the advice from all of you veterans who have been heating their homes with wood stoves.

I have included a layout of the home (first floor) to better assist in some input. What i have done is, put a small floor vortex fan at the top of the steps pointing on the similar angle as the stairs to "push" cold air down the stairs and then i put a box fan on low speed just like he top of the stairs to move the cold air coming from the top of the stairs towards the room where the stove is. Any assistance would be appreciated on this

 

[jetsam]

Is the stove in the fireplace or in front of the fireplace? Inside a masonry fireplace on an exterior wall is a very difficult spot to heat from, though insulating the fireplace can help.

Pushing cold air towards the stove with floor fans is generally the thing that works best for those that use fans.

Is the upstairs really cold? Check the windows up there for leaks, and make sure the OAK on the stove is not obstructe.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

My bedrooms usually stay about 68-70 when the floor below is 75 . Never gets near 60 . I too have only the stairs feeding warm air up to the next floor. No fans on stairs. But from your diagram it looks like your stove is in a different room than your stairs on the far end of the house. A vent above the stove would really help if its possible and allowed. Plus 4 tanks of oil and a wood stove sounds excessive , i also have an oil backup but it never comes on. You may need an insulation upgrade.

 

[shadowtype09]

Is the stove in the fireplace or in front of the fireplace? Inside a masonry fireplace on an exterior wall is a very difficult spot to heat from, though insulating the fireplace can help.

Pushing cold air towards the stove with floor fans is generally the thing that works best for those that use fans.

Is the upstairs really cold? Check the windows up there for leaks, and make sure the OAK on the stove is not obstructe.

The wood stove is in the fireplace insert, the fireplace is on an exterior wall, the chimney protrudes outside the wall of the home in the outside.

I have all of the ceiling fans counter clockwise as you should.

Upstairs has no leak on any window (that i can tell by any match that i have moved around each of the upstairs windows.) They are old windows single pane (plan on changing them this summer but covid hit and took Home depot 6 weeks to get the windows i ordered in stock so timing was not well on that front

Upstairs is cold (for me) not for my wife and cold for the kids. Upstairs is usually 60 degrees while the main floor is around 70, and the stove room (living room) is around 75-80. The three bedrooms are Currently (Master is 57 - Farthest bedroom from the stairs is 55 closest bedroom in 58 Hall way is 60 degrees where thermostat.

Attic door is sealed had the door closed on me to see if i saw any light from the attic on to the hall way and none also had a flashlight point around the seam with hallway lights off to see if my wife could see the flash light and could not.

 

[shadowtype09]

My bedrooms usually stay about 68-70 when the floor below is 75 . Never gets near 60 . I too have only the stairs feeding warm air up to the next floor. No fans on stairs. But from your diagram it looks like your stove is in a different room than your stairs on the far end of the house. A vent above the stove would really help if its possible and allowed. Plus 4 tanks of oil and a wood stove sounds excessive , i also have an oil backup but it never comes on. You may need an insulation upgrade.

When i bought the house the sunroom or 4 seasons room depends who you speak had an insane leak but enough to pass inspection but not enough for NY winter, so my 1st winter i dealt with extreme leaky windows.

The stove is on the opposite side of the stairs.

 

[jetsam]

The wood stove is in the fireplace insert, the fireplace is on an exterior wall, the chimney protrudes outside the wall of the home in the outside.

I have all of the ceiling fans counter clockwise as you should.

Upstairs has no leak on any window (that i can tell by any match that i have moved around each of the upstairs windows.) They are old windows single pane (plan on changing them this summer but covid hit and took Home depot 6 weeks to get the windows i ordered in stock so timing was not well on that front

Upstairs is cold (for me) not for my wife and cold for the kids. Upstairs is usually 60 degrees while the main floor is around 70, and the stove room (living room) is around 75-80. The three bedrooms are Currently (Master is 57 - Farthest bedroom from the stairs is 55 closest bedroom in 58 Hall way is 60 degrees where thermostat.

Attack door is sealed had the door closed on me to see if i saw any light from the attic on to the hall way and none also had a flashlight point around the seam with hallway lights off to see if my wife could see the flash light and could not.

Inserts are actually designed to push heat out of an alcove, so that is way better than a freestanding stove in a fireplace. Most of them need you to use the blowers to get the most out of them.

One thing you have going against you is that you have a space heater at the far end of the house from the furthest bedroom... so you may be stuck using fans to push cold air down.

My bedrooms stay pretty warm at the opposite end (if the doors are left open), but I have a really large open area for a stairwell, and open is your friend for airflow.

 

[shadowtype09]

Inserts are actually designed to push heat out of an alcove, so that is way better than a freestanding stove in a fireplace. Most of them need you to use the blowers to get the most out of them.

One thing you have going against you is that you have a space heater at the far end of the house from the furthest bedroom... so you may be stuck using fans to push cold air down.

My bedrooms stay pretty warm at the opposite end (if the doors are left open), but I have a really large open area for a stairwell, and open is your friend for airflow.

Just having a hard time getting that accomplished, like the first floor is at 75 in the stove room the bathroom next to the stove room is 73 the kitchen is at 70 and upstairs is 60 all the bedrooms right now are at 58 -60 and the hallway is 60 degree.

Just almost like in asking too much of the stove and it's meant for this size square footage.

The whole first floor is. open floor concept the wall must protrude there isnt door way. I have also added a wood stove fan on the top corner of the stove room that leads to the rest of the open first floor. But I banging my head at getting this heat to do its job as in rise as it should since the air is less dense then the heated air

 

[shadowtype09]

I also have the blower on full blast and I have 2 kinetic fans on top of the stove that move air out from that stove

 

[JohnWW]

I also have the blower on full blast and I have 2 kinetic fans on top of the stove that move air out from that stove

So this could be the opposite problem that a friend of mine had. His open plan house had an insert on the main floor and the problem was that all the heat was going upstairs. We deduced that operating a ceiling fan on the main floor would homogenize the air temp and reduce the effect of the hot air from the stove rising through the relatively cold ambient air.
In short - try switching off your ceiling fans to allow the heated air to rise upstairs.
Also, keeping the oil heating upstairs switched off will help with the thermal exchange from downstairs to upstairs.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

The main room can easily get it to 75 degrees before we have to leave the room for a short period of time.
Nothing more frustrating than sitting in the living room where the stove is at 75 degrees and then hearing the whole house shake as the furnace turns on right below the wood stove, i know

75 is not all that warm in the stove room. Expect every other room to be colder. My stove room, about 300 Sq ft is usually between 80 and 85. I have fans blowing the heat out of that room but none around the staircase. Im heating 3 floors from a finished basement ,about 3000SF. But the 3rd floor doesnt get much below 70 with no other source of heat.

 

[jetsam]

I am a little surprised that OP is having so much trouble because it looks like a big open walkway between the stove and the stairs, not a narrow doorway.

May be something we can't see on the floor plan.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

I am a little surprised that OP is having so much trouble because it looks like a big open walkway between the stove and the stairs, not a narrow doorway.
May be something we can't see on the floor plan.

I think hes got 2 problems ,not enough heat and not enough airflow . Plus that staircase is on the far end of the house from the stove. My place is tighter yet. I can get my 3rd floor to 68-70 ,my second floor to 75 but my whole 1st floor is above 80 in the process. Its tricky trying to do it with 1 stove. I have 2 vents between my 1st and 2nd floor.

 

[whtl4856]

I have all of the ceiling fans counter clockwise as you should.

Ceiling fans should be clockwise in the winter. That’s what I’ve always done and been told.

 

[sadpanda]

I had a similar issue. You can cut vents to help air get to second story. NFPA is free to download and has prescribed offsets for solid wood burners. I ended up cutting two vents and adding small in-duct booster fans and was able to heat the whole house (1800sq ft) with a BK princess insert. You are NY so not sure how much additional BS you will have to go thru (if you pull permits ) Using joist cavities as ducts without lining them with sheet metal/duct material is generally frowned upon so consider that. Worst case they may require you install fire sensing grates like those used in multi family structures... Not a bad idea even if its not required.

Inserts dump a bunch of heat into the masonry itself. Anything you can do to mitigate this transfer will help get more heat in the room (rear/top reflector shield, air gapping or insulating the bottom of the stove from the hearth etc)

 

[john26]

I have a similar problem I can he at the first floor no problem 1730 sqft usually 75 degrees through out and stove room 78 to 80 but the upstairs bedrooms get very cold even though the top of the stairs and open hallway on the second floor are very warm. I tried fans on the floor blowing cold air out of the bedrooms it helps some the problem is 4 bedrooms and 2 baths on the second floor. Seems the heat gets trapped at the ceiling at the top of the stairs.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Heating an entire house from one room is a challenge if you dont have a complete open concept home. Requires a lot of air movement, as is usually done by a feed and return duct system. Theres always a trade off. Mine is an overly hot stove room. Or i can back down the wood stove slightly and use a couple plugin heaters in the far reaches of the house to add a few degrees. But no way im using 4 tanks of oil to make up that difference as the OP describes. Should be able to heat the whole house on the oil alone with 138 million Btus of oil use a season for 2000Sf. (avg is about 75Million). So im sure there is other factors involved here ,air leaks ,lack of insulation or a very poorly running oil furnace.

 

[john26]

I just heat the up stairs with my natural gas furnace and a remote thermostat

 

[jetsam]

I have an insert at one far end of the house heating the whole house without fans, but it's very open from one end to the other. You could probably roll a tennis ball from the furthest bathroom and hit the stove on the opposite end of the house with it if it bounced down the stairs right.

It's funny that clockwise or counterclockwise would always be the correct way to spin the fan in winter. That would only make sense if all manufacturers pitched their blade brackets in the same direction... but who knows, maybe they do. Hunter seems to think so.

That article has a solid piece of advice that bypasses the blade pitch question too... stand underneath the fan and run it on high in both directions. The direction you feel least breeze from is the right one in winter, because it's pushing air upward.