Heating a Rancher House with a Quadra Fire 4300

[JA600L]

Hi all,
I am heating a rancher house with approximately 1800 sq ft of living area with basement and another 600 sq ft of garage. Unfortunately the bedrooms are above the garage (west side of house) . The woodstove is located on the east side of the house in the basement. There is a staircase right next to the stove which allows easy heat rise and cold air fall. The house was built in 1977.

My problem is the bedrooms are not getting the needed heat and the floor is cold even though the garage ceiling is dry-walled, sealed, and insulated. The garage has two brand new insulated garage doors. and is block construction. Should I leave the basement door open to the garage? Or is heat going to be wasted and push out since the ceiling is insulated? I could also install a wall fan at the top of the wall between the basement and garage.

Thanks for any ideas!

 

[wenger7446]

Try to install a fan pushing the cold air from the bedrooms into the heated space.

 

[setitonfire]

I have the same set up with bedrooms over the garage. I have fan pushing air into the stove room which does help but we still have a small space heater to pick up the slack when the fire dies down.

 

[Snotrocket]

Does the 1800 sq feet include the basement?

 

[JA600L]

Yes it does include the basement.

 

[begreen]

What you have described is a real challenge to heat evenly. It's sounds like you are doing the right thing with the supplemental electric heat.

 

[JA600L]

As far as the fans pushing air to the stove room theory goes, is that needed when the stove is at the bottom of the staircase? I would assume that cold air would naturally push down the stairs.

 

[PLAYS WITH FIRE]

It may not be needed but it will speed things up. Do the toilet paper test by putting a piece in the stairway door with and without the fan pushing the air down the stars.

 

[JA600L]

I put a piece of paper at the top of my bedroom door frame and at the bottom of the door frame. The top one pulled hard towards the room. The bottom one pulled hard towards the stairway. Temperatures got close to 40F today so I ran the heat pump up to 70F and stabilized everything. 4 hours later running the stove hot for a while and then coals for two hours it is reading 73F at the upstairs thermostat. The gauge in my bedroom is reading approximately 68F. It is currently 27F outside. I will try the fan idea as soon as I purchase one