Heat Zone kit for the Heat N Glo Northstar?

[otisswan]

I am installing a Northstar fireplace into a room that is 22' x 27' with one wall of the room opened to kitchen with about 14' opening. However, I am concerned about getting heat up to the second floor as the stairs are three rooms away from the fireplace. My home is about 3000 sq ft with HVAC. I have thought about blocking off all the HVAC intakes in the house (there are 11 all together) and leaving the one that is in the large room with the stove opened and just running the fan on the HVAC unit to circulate the hot air. The 22 x 27 room with the new fireplace has 15' ceilings with two fans that hang down to 5' from the ceiling and has the HVAC intakes at 8' off the ground about 22' from where the fireplace will be.

The second option I have is to purchase two of the heat zone kits and run them to the base of the stairs where they could dump some of the heat that would then travel up stairs. However, after measuring the distance from the back of the fireplace and all the bends involved (each pipe would need to make five bends from the time it leaves the stove until it comes out of the wall on the other end.) is just about 40'. The manual says that they recommend nothing greater than 40' and I am just about at that length.

Am I wasting my time with these two Heat Zone Kits if I am travelling 40' with 5 bends? Would I be better off just trying to use my HVAC and seeing how that works?

Please help as I am new at this.

 

[jtp10181]

40' with 5 bends, the air coming out of the end would be a few degrees above room temp.

Why can't you run them straight up to the room above the fireplace?

 

[otisswan]

Thanks for the reply and based on my description it is a good question. The room that I am installing the fireplace into is a great room that sits alone, attached to the house at one end. There is a garage below, nothing above and no rooms on either side of it. Essentially the room is a penisula hanging off the end of the house with the fireplace being at the furthest point from the rest of the house. There is no way to run the ducts up because the ceilings are 15' with no house existing out side the walls of the room and no way to run the ducts sideways because, again, there is nothing on either side of the room.

Also forgot to mention that of the five bends I am counting in the 40' run for the heat zone kit. Three of them are to get the air moving around the fireplace. The I need to run the ducts straight out in front of the fireplace. So the first three bends will be within the first 7' of duct work essentially wrapping the duct around the fireplace to send it out straight in front of the fireplace. The last two bends are at the end to get the air out of the wall. One will bend up to bring the duct into the wall and the last one will bend 90 degrees to get the air out of the grill and into the hallway. Not if this matter or not?

 

[jtp10181]

Doesn't really matter 40' is 40', even without any bends. We have found the only time people don't complain about the heat zones is if they are a short distance run to the room directly above or directly behind the fireplace. If you go down or long distances its pretty much worthless.

I do have a feeling that using the 7100FP and running the AUX air to the same area as the heat zone would help to make a pressure difference making the air want to flow there but 40' is still a long way.

 

[otisswan]

Thank you! Based on this then the HVAC system would not work either, huh?

 

[jtp10181]

Typically it does not work very well, as I have read on here from other members.