How to move air through house

[Tim B]

I am looking to purchase a wood burning fireplace insert. My fireplace is set to one end of my home. I have attached a rough diagram of my home. The fireplace is in a den about 20 ft off from the main home. I have ceiling fans in most every room of the house. I have central air with the return at the top of the stairs. Will I be able to heat the entire house from the fireplace with an insert? Are wood or pellets better? Can you recommend an insert that is powerful enough that is reasonable in price?

 

[Grisu]

Hello Tim and welcome to the forum!

A bit of a challenging layout but a small fan placed on the floor at the opposite end of the house blowing air towards the den along the corridor could help getting the heat distributed. The question is how well is your home insulated? And the ceiling height of the den versus the main part of the house may also be important. Not sure how well the upstairs bedrooms would do.

To recommend an insert we would need the dimensions of your fireplace (see e. g. here: (broken link removed to http://www.woodheat.com/how-to-measure/) ). In addition, how many sqft do you want to heat? Will the insert be supplemental or primary heating source? What is your budget? How tall is your flue? What are its inside dimensions?

Wood or pellet is a question of preference mostly. Pellets are convenient: Buy them, fill the hopper and have a pretty steady, usually thermostat regulated heat output for hours. Less messy, too. Wood will be cheaper in the long run especially if you cut your own but more work and more of a mess. The view of the fire will certainly be nicer with wood. Even a wood insert can be run without electricity during a power outage, a pellet stove not. I am not too familiar with pellet inserts but I think the maximum heat output would be higher with a large wood insert. I suggest also taking a look at the pellet forum here for recommendations.

 

[Tim B]

Hello Tim and welcome to the forum!

A bit of a challenging layout but a small fan placed on the floor at the opposite end of the house blowing air towards the den along the corridor could help getting the heat distributed. The question is how well is your home insulated? And the ceiling height of the den versus the main part of the house may also be important. Not sure how well the upstairs bedrooms would do.

To recommend an insert we would need the dimensions of your fireplace (see e. g. here: (broken link removed to http://www.woodheat.com/how-to-measure/) ). In addition, how many sqft do you want to heat? Will the insert be supplemental or primary heating source? What is your budget? How tall is your flue? What are its inside dimensions?

Wood or pellet is a question of preference mostly. Pellets are convenient: Buy them, fill the hopper and have a pretty steady, usually thermostat regulated heat output for hours. Less messy, too. Wood will be cheaper in the long run especially if you cut your own but more work and more of a mess. The view of the fire will certainly be nicer with wood. Even a wood insert can be run without electricity during a power outage, a pellet stove not. I am not too familiar with pellet inserts but I think the maximum heat output would be higher with a large wood insert. I suggest also taking a look at the pellet forum here for recommendations.

Thanks Grisu,
The house is very well insulted. New insulation and new windows. The den ceiling is approximately 8.5 ft. the rest of the home has 8ft ceilings. I will measure the fireplace (thanks for the link) and report back later today. thanks again.

 

[begreen]

How many square feet would you be heating and how open is the stove room to the rest of the house. Also, is there a basement or crawlspace below the house?

 

[Tim B]

Thanks Grisu,
The house is very well insulted. New insulation and new windows. The den ceiling is approximately 8.5 ft. the rest of the home has 8ft ceilings. I will measure the fireplace (thanks for the link) and report back later today. thanks again.

Here are my fire place dimensions:

A Opening Height - 25 inches

B Opening Width - 36 inches

C Bottom Depth - 19 inches

D Raised Hearth Height - 8 inches

E Hearth Depth - 17 inches

F Rear Height - 36 inches

G Rear Width - 29 inches

H Height at 18" Depth - 36 inches

I Width at 18" Depth - 31 inches

I would Ike to heat 2000 or so sqft. I would like the insert to supplement as much of the heating as possible but I also have oil heat. Flue goes up 2 stories (20 Ft or so), not sure of inside dimensions. There is a storage space above this room and the adjacent garage. I would like to spend less than $3k but would also like a nice looking insert (I will settle forsook if cost is too much). There s approximately a 4gt wide and 7 Ft high opening from the stove rom to the rest of e house.

I hope this answered all questions. Please let me know if any additional information is needed.

Thanks,
Tim

 

[begreen]

Is the house on a slab?

 

[dafattkidd]

Hey Tim, welcome to the forum. Where in NY are you?

 

[Tim B]

Is the house on a slab?

The Den where the fireplace is on a slab. Their is a finished basement below the rest of the house. I am out on Long Island. Suffolk County.

 

[Jags]

The first floor looks possible. In my opinion, the second floor...all bets are off. The stairs are quite some distance from the source of heat with little possibility to get a meaningful circulation going without introducing floor vents (or some such thing). I hope that is not discouraging, cuz you can still make a big difference on the first floor.

 

[Tim B]

The first floor looks possible. In my opinion, the second floor...all bets are off. The stairs are quite some distance from the source of heat with little possibility to get a meaningful circulation going without introducing floor vents (or some such thing). I hope that is not discouraging, cuz you can still make a big difference on the first floor.

Thanks Jags. I am not discouraged. I also wanted to know if anyone can recommend a unit that could provide the max heat, look nice and cost around $3k?

 

[Jags]

There will be folks (Including some already in this post) that will come along with better stove suggestions than I can make. Stick around and the collective "we" will get you fixed up.

ETA: in the mean time you might want to take some time and look at the stove reviews or even the picture section to help prime your mind.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/ratings.php
https://www.hearth.com/gall/main.php

 

[Woody Stover]

If you're thinking of going the preferred route and installing a stainless liner to the top of the chimney, you'll need to factor in that cost. It could probably be done for less than $1000 if you're somewhat handy and can install it yourself.

 

[begreen]

The Den where the fireplace is on a slab. Their is a finished basement below the rest of the house. I am out on Long Island. Suffolk County.

That makes it a bit more challenging. I was thinking of routing a duct from the far end hallway to the stove room with a 150-200cfm quiet fan pulling cool air from the hallway and blowing it into the stove room. The cool air will be replaced by warm air pulled from the stove room. Perhaps it could be done via the upper storage area if the duct is very well insulated.

There are numerous moving the heat or moving the air threads on this topic. In winter we get at least a couple per week. A search should bring up lots of examples.

 

[Tim B]

If you're thinking of going the preferred route and installing a stainless liner to the top of the chimney, you'll need to factor in that cost. It could probably be done for less than $1000 if you're somewhat handy and can install it yourself.

Thanks Woody, I will keep that in mind. I assume the costs will be stove + chimney liner + installation + tax.

 

[Tim B]

That makes it a bit more challenging. I was thinking of routing a duct from the far end hallway to the stove room with a 150-200cfm quiet fan pulling cool air from the hallway and blowing it into the stove room. The cool air will be replaced by warm air pulled from the stove room. Perhaps it could be done via the upper storage area if the duct is very well insulated.

There are numerous moving the heat or moving the air threads on this topic. In winter we get at least a couple per week. A search should bring up lots of examples.

Thanks begreen, I will keep a lookout. In the meantime I will focus on heating the main level of the house and supplementing my heating costs.

 

[Tim B]

I wanted to pose another question in this thread. Instead of an insert in my fireplace, could I heat the main level and second floor if I purchase a free standing pellet stove and put it in the living room on the main level? I uploaded a diagram to show this.

 

[Jags]

You are still dealing with a single point of heat entry/exit. This is the same fight that people fight when trying to heat from the basement. Some are successful, some not so much.

The heat source being closer to the stair way will improve your chances, but there is still no guarantee.

 

[cwitham]

Tag for info

 

[area_man]

I have a related question to put to the Braintrust. I'm getting a Dutch door installed upstairs where the kids' bedrooms are. Right now the plan is to have the door cut into a top 1/3 and a bottom 2/3 height. In the bottom part, I want to cut out a piece that can hold a fan that I can angle down the stairs. For the top part, I want a hinge that will allow me to open the top, then slip the top off the hinge and store it elsewhere. The idea is to allow for the fan to push cold air down, and leave the top part open to return hot air.

What do you think?