Increasing stove / insert efficiency?

[GeeWizMan]

We have a wood stove in one part of the house and an insert on the other end and have been burning both 24/7 for about a month now. My wife and I have been experimenting with doing different things in an effort to increase efficiency of both appliances and to distribute the heat throughout our house more effectively. We have tried fans blowing toward the stoves and away. We have tried no fans. We have ceiling fans that we have turned on and off. I have played with the air controls on the stoves, giving lots of air and very little air. I have tried loading the wood in to firebox in a variety of ways. I have played with the coal and ash bed by removing different levels of ash. I bought a wood moisture meter and experimented with using wood of different moisture contents from 28% to 15%.

It is getting frustrating for us because it doesn't seem to make any difference what changes we make — we get the same results no matter what. One part of the house is hot at 75 degrees the other part is cold at 64 degrees.

My questions to all of you are these:
1. What single thing do you think should or does make the biggest difference in increasing the efficiency of your appliance? 2. What single thing should or does make the biggest difference in distributing your heat throughout your house?

Thanks for your assistance.

George

 

[coalkirk]

You don't have an efficiency problem, you have a distribution problem. The same one that most folks have when trying to heat a whole home with a stove, or in your case, two stoves.
Some things to consider. While burning two stoves, you are exhausting lots of air from your house in the form of flue gases. You can't live in a vacuum so that air has to be replaced from somewhere and that somewhere is from outside. It comes in through bath and kitchen exhaust fans, cracks around windows and doors, etc. One stategy is to acknowledge that you have to let air in and try to control how and where it enters. If you can pipe outside air to the area very near the stoves combustion air inlet, you can control and minimize cold air flowing through your house on the way to the stove.
Next, warm air moves easily so fans will generally help quite a bit. Every home is different though and some floor plans lend themselves better to distributing air in this way. It's always going to much warmer in the area with the stove than the area where you are trying to send warm air to. If you have a forced air heating system, run your circulator fan in the on position. Having a nice large air return high on the wall in the area of the stove is a big plus. It costs very little to run that furnace fan by the way.
Now the real answer to your question is to get rid of the stoves and use a coal fired boiler, regardless of what type of heating system you have now. Your home will be evenly warm throughout and you will probably use the same or less fuel than you are now burning two stoves. As a plus, it also provides domestic hot water in the process.

 

[TexasAgs]

So can you source outside air into your woodstove?

 

[kregars]

Not on all stoves, the 2 we were looking at and just about to purchase didnt have this and it was a deal breaker, so we are back to looking. The higher priced ones seem to be equiped, you just have to purchase the outside air ducting and ensure when you have it installed, they know you request outside combustion air intake. What's stinks one of the stoves we were looking at had an insert counterpart that DID have the outside air option, but the freestanding did not.

 

[GeeWizMan]

So can you source outside air into your woodstove?

No, the insert is in the interior of the room on a cement slab.

George

 

[restorer]

So can you source outside air into your woodstove?

No, the insert is in the interior of the room on a cement slab.

George

So call me stupid, but is the room on an outside wall? Can you cut a hole for a pressure vent. An opening 3 or 4 inches in diameter that has louvers to close it. When your stove demands air, it opens. Basically the reverse of the attic vent, meaning, when the stove creates a negative pressure it opens. In an attic vent, the fan turns on and the vent opens allowing exhausting of hot air. I have seen small ones as compensators for bath fans, and kitchen range hoods.

 

[wg_bent]

The ceiling fan in my stove room: On: good distribution of warmth. Off: 5 degrees cooler at other end of the house.

 

[elkimmeg]

Geewizman Is the cellar ceiling the floor that stove is located in insulated? If it is not no amount of heat destrobution can occure placing a fan on the floor it will suck up the cold cellar close to floor air mix it with heated air and feel cold

Wood or supplemental heating is one part of the picture keeping heat in and keeping the cold out is the other part. The stove can only doo so much if youare loosing a greater vollume to leaks cold drafts moving air is useless till you address the real problem thhghtening up your home..

Think of your home like a finger in a dyke insulate the ceilings not exposes the walls inadequacies address the walls then the emphasis becomes the floor cellar celing
als you eliminate one area or improve it the un inproved area play a bigger part in drafts and heat looss plug up one hole in the dyke oppens up another one.

We have a starway leading up to my familly room that has nebeen cold all winter long. Its insulated yesterday I discovered why with the wind blowing it seems My wife had opened a cellar window to air the place out in the summer she though she closed it. Well the wind exposed the fact it was never latched tight an hour later thar zone became 2 degrees warmer while the outside temp dropped from 14 to 9 . Older windows drafts can be improved as well

 

[seaken]

My questions to all of you are these:
1. What single thing do you think should or does make the biggest difference in increasing the efficiency of your appliance? 2. What single thing should or does make the biggest difference in distributing your heat throughout your house?

George

1. The fuel. Good fuel will give you the best chance of reaching maximum efficiency. Next is operation and draft configuration.

2. Home design. Air distribution is best when designed from scratch. Next is proper placement of fans in combination with natural draft. For instance, cracking open a window on an upper floor on on one side of the house may allow for more natural movement of air from one side of the house to the other or one level to another. Preveailing winds in the neighborhood also make a difference.

I think you need to invest in better insulation and in preserving the BTU content being added to the house envelope.