HELP WITH CHEAP HEAT! Cold air intake

[clincoln007]

Hi,

We recently purchased a large old house, about 3300 sq ft. It has electric heat so to try and get through winter I bought a couple older stoves. A Glowboy FGB1 which I just repaired and installed and a Whitfield advantage II. Will adding a cold air intake pipe to the outside to the 2 of these (one upstairs and one downstairs) enhance their heating ability? The house is old and drafty so we don't have a lack of air but I haven't put plastic over the windows yet or anything. Any advice?

 

[TimfromMA]

33000 sqft? Your gonna need alot more stoves and an army of people keeping them all filled and cleaned.

 

[BrotherBart]

Yeah, supermarkets are hard to heat.

 

[clincoln007]

33000 sqft? Your gonna need alot more stoves and an army of people keeping them all filled and cleaned.

HAHHAHAHAH Yea I know but I'm just trying to keep the living room upstairs and the family room heated comfortably. The bedrooms are directly about the family room and the living room is opposite them so I'm thinking registers directly above the stove down stairs will make the bedrooms "liveable" and the rest of the other 2 rooms warm enough. Stop busting on me! Will the cold air intake help? I have 4 kids so I have the army to keep them cleaned and filled!

 

[clincoln007]

33000 sqft? Your gonna need alot more stoves and an army of people keeping them all filled and cleaned.

3300 CRAP I MEANT 3300

 

[BrotherBart]

It's that initiation thing.

Welcome to the forum.

 

[TimfromMA]

The air intake is commonly referred to as Outside Air Kit or OAK and yes, it will help since you wont be sucking in your warm house air for combustion then blowing it out the vent.

I would caution against cutting registers in the floor as it would probably violate fire codes.

 

[clincoln007]

The air intake is commonly referred to as Outside Air Kit or OAK and yes, it will help since you wont be sucking in your warm house air for combustion then blowing it out the vent.

I would caution against cutting registers in the floor as it would probably violate fire codes.

Really? I remember as a kid we had them in our rooms? It would violate codes even if they are the metal grates you can buy at home depot ? I saw some with a battery operated fan in them. So the cold air intake would make a big difference?

 

[moey]

You would have to call your town and see what they say about them. My town didn't care but some do.

They allow fire to spread more rapidly. So does your stairwell though..

 

[Wilbur Feral]

Really? I remember as a kid we had them in our rooms? It would violate codes even if they are the metal grates you can buy at home depot ? I saw some with a battery operated fan in them. So the cold air intake would make a big difference?

You have two options for the air used for combustion: 1) Air brought in from the outside, which you have not paid to heat, or 2) Air that you have already paid to heat. It's not a matter of whether your stove will burn well, as most buildings will have more than sufficient air for combustion. It's a matter of air exchanges. When you burn using that heated inside air it must be replaced or else your home would create a vacuum. That replacement occurs by having cold air pulled inside at an accelerated rate. Bottom line: Tim is right. PUT IN AN OAK!!

As for holes between floors: Yes, I remember seeing them as well as a kid. But in the event of a fire, they create an immediate path for smoke and flame to spread. Thus, they are almost never allowed and always a very bad idea. I can't comment on the types with louvers, etc., on them but I suspect they would not form nearly as complete a barrier as your floor.

 

[DMKNLD]

HAHHAHAHAH Yea I know but I'm just trying to keep the living room upstairs and the family room heated comfortably. The bedrooms are directly about the family room and the living room is opposite them so I'm thinking registers directly above the stove down stairs will make the bedrooms "liveable" and the rest of the other 2 rooms warm enough. Stop busting on me! Will the cold air intake help? I have 4 kids so I have the army to keep them cleaned and filled!

A safe and efficient way to move the heat around to colder rooms is to use a small floor fan to blow the colder more dense air near the floor towards the warm stove room, which replaces the cold air with warmer air. I put one at the top of the stairs, which is in the center of our old farmhouse, and blow the colder air down towards the first floor where the pellet stove is, and it creates an excellent convection loop of warm air moving towards the upstairs bedrooms.

X2 on the outside air kit - it will really cut down on the drafts / cold air infiltration in an old house.