I am one lucky guy when it comes to heat distribution.....

[Bassmantweed]

My stove is in my family room, which has two entrance ways. One of the entrance ways is at the base of the stairs that leads upstairs and the other opens to my kithchen. I punched a hole in the far wall and installed a fan to pull heat into the tv room and so far it just works. I also have one fan pointing into the stove room and one fan pulling heat out at the base of the stairs.

I know it has been a mild winter but i have a difference in temperature of about 2 degrees!

 

[Doug Doty]

The constant steadyness and even flowing of the heat from our stove just seems to naturally distribute more evenly that on and off sources of heat. We just choose a setting and let it run, it never cycles. You will see more difficulties as it get colder and the remote areas dissipate more heat out of the house. My experience with fans is the do absolutely nothing. I am convinced they cool the heat as much as they move it and the net result is no benefit from the electrical consumption. I have placed thermometers all over the house and experimented with every possible combination and nothing. Just let it find it's own way is best for us.

 

[xSpecBx]

I found something similar. Initially I was using ceiling fans to pull the air from the living room where the stoves is but was getting some pretty big temperature swings. After that I decided to turn the fans off and see what happens. Ever since I tried that the house is much more even. Granted it hasn't been that cold but even in the 20s the house is much warmer.

The only thing I do is run the air handler on circulate to push air out of the stove room

 

[Doug Doty]

Same here only I tried with column fans and small floor level fans and the central AC blower and it all just cooled the house. It is easy to see the advantage of the new Mini Split ductless systems. I had one day at lunch I got jacked up when I first pointed a fan into the stove room from the adjacent room but it turned out to be mid day sun radiating into the house as i had the same 3 degree rise the next day with no fans. I truly believe you loose ground with fans from a power consumption standpoint when trying to move air from one room to another. With all this said this is me and my house only, others have seemed to be successful in different situations. I have my stove in an all/mostly glass sun room added onto one end of a two story town house and the heat goes through the door that used to be the outside door onto the porch that is now inside the sunroom. My heat just radiates through that door through the living room kitchen area and up the stairs to the bedrooms. About 78 degrees in the sunroom gets me 68 degrees up in the bedrooms in 40 degree weather and we are used the more like 65 degree bedrooms prior to the stove so we are fine. the sunroom has to get hotter when the outside air temps drop in the teens and our differential turns into more like 80 and 65 upstairs but we are still in our comfort zone. i could do more with sealing out the cold upstairs as there is some sliding doors out of both upstairs bedrooms and they leak a bit but we are comfortable and I like the change out of air in the house now that we can make as much heat as we want. My electric bill dropped this month by 40% using pellets instead of electric. Pellets cost me more but the house was kept warmer, family is elated.

 

[OhioBurner©]

I know it has been a mild winter but i have a difference in temperature of about 2 degrees!

Pretty good! I think I have almost a 10 degree diffirential just across the living room the stove is in!

My electric bill dropped this month by 40% using pellets instead of electric. Pellets cost me more but the house was kept warmer, family is elated.

Pellets cost more than electric?!? Ouch.

I've had some results from fans in some spots, others don't seem to make a difference.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Guess I'm the odd man out. I just use my central furnace blower set to run 5 minutes in every 15 minutes to circulate heat throughout the house, works quite well and the furnace filter collects the dust of stove operation. Been doing that for years. No fans, nothing, just the furnace circulating heat.

 

[Doug Doty]

My central system is a bit oversized for the house and a heat pump so my all new high seer that set me back 5k is no more effieient that the old system I had took out, just cost a lot. Life Lessons learned on that deal but that is another story. The reason I mention it is because it has a variable speed blower and it comes on slow and ramps up to jet engine mode and I think it is just not suitable as a circulator. I have considered trying a small box fan in my return system and just let is slowly circulate. That whole Fiasco on the furnace change out and being ripped off at at my business for years by HVAC companies has caused me to get all my EPA licenses and hvac has become a hobby/obsession in the last couple of months and I have added some very nice test equipment recently, so I could go back to work on all this again. I was very analytical back when I first got It but I was at home doing some recovery and bored at the time. Now I just want to pour pellets in it and set it high enough to keep everybody warm.

 

[Dgopetactical]

I found something similar. Initially I was using ceiling fans to pull the air from the living room where the stoves is but was getting some pretty big temperature swings. After that I decided to turn the fans off and see what happens. Ever since I tried that the house is much more even. Granted it hasn't been that cold but even in the 20s the house is much warmer.

The only thing I do is run the air handler on circulate to push air out of the stove room

Agree, I have a 2 story cape cod "1930's " did not have ANY insulation at all. I blew insulation in the walls and attic but I'm sure there is voids. I have a slight temperature swing on first floor, the second floor - 10 deg swing easy. I tried the reverse ceiling fan thing and it did not work out to my expectations. I cut a hole in the floor and the swing went down as long as you keep all the upstairs doors open.

I have also ran the air handler and have not noticed much of a difference.
Denny

 

[TonyVideo]

I can't run my air handler as it is in the cellar which is 50 degrees. It cools the house down too quick. I do have a ceiling fan on low and it helps in making the 20x40 room more even which also helps in heat distribution in the adjoining rooms and upstairs. Last year I did not have the ceiling fan and this year noticed a big difference. I have 11 ft. Ceilings.

 

[xSpecBx]

Agree, I have a 2 story cape cod "1930's " did not have ANY insulation at all. I blew insulation in the walls and attic but I'm sure there is voids. I have a slight temperature swing on first floor, the second floor - 10 deg swing easy. I tried the reverse ceiling fan thing and it did not work out to my expectations. I cut a hole in the floor and the swing went down as long as you keep all the upstairs doors open.

I have also ran the air handler and have not noticed much of a difference.
Denny

The benefit of the air handler to me is that it is filtering the air. My air handler is in a finished basement which is usually I the 60s and I doubt it is pulling much of the warm out out, more like forcing the warm air to circulate

 

[Wilbur Feral]

The biggest problem with many air handlers is the duct work. Returns were commonly built until just a few years ago using joist bays as return paths, often adjoining unconditioned space, and they leaked like sieves (pulling in unconditioned air). Supplies were often leaky as well, and neither were commonly insulated, or insulated poorly. Even in newer construction, this is often an area that receives insufficient attention. Furnaces overcome this because the temperature starts out so high (although not very efficiently). Trying to move room temp air around with the air handler often results in a net loss of heat, as many have found. It's worth a try, but you will generally know whether or not it works within an hour or so.

 

[Bassmantweed]

Guess I'm the odd man out. I just use my central furnace blower set to run 5 minutes in every 15 minutes to circulate heat throughout the house, works quite well and the furnace filter collects the dust of stove operation. Been doing that for years. No fans, nothing, just the furnace circulating heat.

What thermostat do you have that allows you to do that?