inside air movement thoughts

[sleepie]

been reading here for about 2 years now--i wonder if anyone has given this any thought----since cold air moves naturally to hot air and we need air for combustion for the stove then can this be done?---lets say we have a hot air furnace in the basement and on the first floor above the wood stove is located---why can't we close the return ducts,,,and run a duct to an area close to the wood stove or at least in the room the stove is in....-have this duct open---then have open the registers furthest away from the stove room,,would a natural flow of colder air flow from the duct in the stove room flow toward the stove? feeding it unheated air from the other rooms,,this would be using the duct work two ways---first supplying the room with combustion air that is cooler and at the same time pulling ever so slightly cooler air from other parts of the house therefore moving warmer air to these areas..now i realize we can't connect any duct to the stove to feed directly---but direct feed or otherwise the fire is still consuming the same amount of air---maybe the duct can have its outlet..{draw point} located in back or very close to the stove---just a thought?-the reason i ask this is that i observed this going on in my stove room,,,but it was drawing cold air thru my cold air returns in the same room as my stove,,,i closed them off and it seemed to make the stove room hotter,,,by the way the cold air returns were on the opposite side of the room,,but i do have heat registers on either side of my brick hearth--anyone have any other thoughts on this--you guys have been fantastic at kicking things around and coming up with solutions---thanks again for all your help-------pat

 

[jason1238]

Pat,

This topic gets touched on quite frequently here. The problem of getting the heat to other parts of the house is one that many people face, but the solution for each is almost completely unique. Your suggestion of using a duct to get cooler air into the stove room unassisted (by a fan) is one that I haven't heard. It would seem that there would have to be one helluva fire going to get that kind of natural air movement through duct work. I'm pretty sure that HVAC systems are designed to work with a certain amount of static pressure, (normally achieved at least partially with the filter and coils) so wouldn't you have to overcome this at the very least?

Now, what if you used an in-line fan to force cooler air into the stove room through a separate duct set up to "draw" from a cooler area :roll: ? It would be easy enough to do, and you wouldn't have to monkey around with your current HVAC ducting.

Many here use box fans to do the same thing, but again, unique solutions....(plus I don't like box fans!)

Just a thought!

-jason

 

[sleepie]

jason --i would not have to overcome the coils or the filter---my cold air return would be closed off---utilizing only the heat ducts that are in every room---closing the ones that are in the stove room and opening the ones in the furthest rooms of the house--you may be right about the duct booster fan---or maybe one of those doorway fans people use to try to push heat---i could just lay that on the heat register and pull air thur the duct system into the stove room--by the way the stove is center of the house-i can't believe that no one has expeirenced the cold air comming into their stove room through the ducts-i was loosing or should i say cooling alot of air before i closed them off---you can reallyfeel it comming out when the basement is cold--thanks for the thoughts guys--pat

 

[brooktrout]

i can't believe that no one has expeirenced the cold air comming into their stove room through the ducts-i was loosing or should i say cooling alot of air before i closed them off---you can reallyfeel it comming out when the basement is cold--thanks for the thoughts guys--pat

I constantly wonder about the heat loss- everytime I walk by one of the registers or returns I feel that cold air. I've closed the ones in the room with the stove. But because my furnace comes on once or twice in the wee hours and once or twice towards the end of the work day right before I get home, I can't monkey too much with them. I did install a vent with an inline fan (purchased online- 35.00) in the corner of the ceiling of the room with the insert to bring warm air up to the furthest bedroom. It has worked wonders- not only warming up that room tremendously, but also creating a convection which brings the cooler air down the stairs and seems to more evenly warms the house. The temp of the back bedroom on the first floor always used to be a good 4-6 degrees cooler than the livingroom (insert location), but since installing the vent, only a 1-2 degree differential.

 

[begreen]

Sleepie, the better solution would be to seal up cracks, gaps and leaks and maybe insulate the basement. The floors will be warmer and you'll use less fuel to heat. In lieu of that, at least insulate the ductwork.

Note, a return air grille must be at least 10 ft from the wood stove. And blocking off parts of the system unbalances it and can lead to premature blower motor failure.