How to heat whole home with 1 pellet stove?

[javpellet]

I have a 2100 sq ft house and a Comfortbilt HP50S that I'd like to use to heat the whole house.

I'm able to heat the downstairs fine, but the upstairs isn't really getting much heat. The upper half of the staircase is cold and the lower half is fairly warm. It's pretty steep staircase.

I tried putting a large box fan pointing down the stairs to push the cold air down, but that actually made it even colder.

I have a ceiling fan almost above the stove set to clockwise. That improved heat distribution on the 1st floor, but didnt help the 2nd floor.

I'd love to heat the bedroom, which is directly above the carpeted area in the first picture. I was considering putting a large floor vent in the ceiling directly above the ceiling fan, which might push the hot air through it? I'm not sure though.

I really want to be able to heat the whole house with the stove, but I don't know what to do. I've attached photos of the house.

The bedroom is above the carpeted area in this picture, the hallway is above the vinyl area. Perhaps 1 floor vent to the bedroom and 1 to the hallway? And the staircase could be the cold air return?

Heat starts to stall about half way up the steep staircase (tried using a box fan to blow cold air down, but it gets even colder upstairs)

This room is directly above the carpeted area in the first picture and is the room i'd love to heat up

This room has a very high ceiling - probably 10ft. PS - Sorry for the mess!

Would also love to heat these 2 rooms, perhaps a floor vent in the hallway would help?

 

[Dataman]

Pellet stove is Area Heater.

 

[javpellet]

Pellet stove is Area Heater.

Is there anything I could do for upstairs that doesn't use much electricity? The $700 electric bills are getting too much

I did notice that some people on the forum were able to heat their whole home with a single pellet stove, but the fan technique on top of the stairs didn't work for me.

 

[DAKSY]

You can try cutting floor vents thru to the ceiling, but they need to be near the outer walls.
Those walls are the coldest area of your home, even if they're well insulated.
Those vents will allow cooler air to drop into the bottom floor. That air will be replaced
by warmer air coming up your stairway.
Home Depot or Lowe's will have what you need, but you may want to check local fire codes.
Cutting thru the ceiling & installing those vents may not be approved.

 

[javpellet]

You can try cutting floor vents thru to the ceiling, but they need to be near the outer walls.
Those walls are the coldest area of your home, even if they're well insulated.
Those vents will allow cooler air to drop into the bottom floor. That air will be replaced
by warmer air coming up your stairway.
Home Depot or Lowe's will have what you need, but you may want to check local fire codes.
Cutting thru the ceiling & installing those vents may not be approved.

Okay sounds good. Any chance you could send me a link of what I might need? I havent had much luck looking for floor vents sadly! I can find HVAC style vents, but not the fire vents that go from ceiling to floor.

Also, the bigger the vent, the more heat that'll go through?

 

[johneh]

A pellet stove is not made to heat a whole house
unless it is an open concept. To heat a whole large
cut up home you need a furnace of some sort
I wish I could heat this house with one pellet stove
The downstairs is good upstairs is cold. So I have a
wood furnace to heat the main part of the house,
Cutting vents to the upstairs is not a good idea
If you ever have a fire they act as chimneys for the
smoke and flames to get upstairs faster

 

[DAKSY]

Something like these...

Search Results for FLOOR REGISTERS at The Home Depot

Search Results for FLOOR REGISTERS at The Home Depot

www.homedepot.com

You may have to bend up an aluminum box to make the install cleaner...

 

[zrock]

With the way your home is designed heat will never go around the corner and up the stairs. Even cutting in the floor vent you should have a small slow fan in the vent to help create the air flow and pull some heat into the upper levels. best location for a vent is the wall directly across from the stove it will have the most heat

 

[javpellet]

With the way your home is designed heat will never go around the corner and up the stairs. Even cutting in the floor vent you should have a small slow fan in the vent to help create the air flow and pull some heat into the upper levels. best location for a vent is the wall directly across from the stove it will have the most heat

Would you say this red area in the top left or closer to the stove? I think that would be in the front left corner of the bedroom (so directly to the left of the door to the bedroom). Slightly closer to the stove would be more towards the center of the bedroom.

 

[articcatbill]

We did a basement install to replace our wood stove.

When I first started using it I was a bit disappointed in the heat circulation. The family room lower level was great, but the kitchen, living room and dining room areas were cool (above the stove). There were 2 4x12 vents in the floor in the dining room, with the wood stove under there the heat was so intense it drove the heat up those vents on its own, not so with the pellet stove.

I bought 2 of these Tjerland RB12 fans register booster fans for the 4x12 registers. Wow what a difference, it certainly balanced everything out and now I am very happy with the set-up. The upstairs and family room are now consistent. The bedroom area is cool, but I like it that way, it is on another level.

Amazon product ASIN B005FNL0SS
My experience was I needed to move the heat with these vent fans, it wasn't moving on it's own. Every house of course is different and how the air flows. This worked well for me.

 

[redbill]

how's your attic/roof insulation? With good insulation the heat should eventually get stacked up from the top down.