Hello,
This is my first post. I have recently found this forum and find the information here to be excellent!
Most of my reading has been centered around moving heat from a basement installation upstairs. We are looking to install a small insert upstairs when we can afford it but for now we are living with the existing stove.
I did some smoke trail tests and there is clear convective air movement as one would expect, top of entry ways air rushes into the room and bottom of entry ways air leaves the room. We have an open stair way with the top half of our stairs being open treads which helps a lot.
We also live in a small home about 950 upstairs and 800 or so finished downstairs (I suppose this is a bungalow with a walk out basement.) The basement is fully finished and well insulated.
Both bedrooms upstairs typically suffer from not getting enough heat when the doors are closed. Leaving them open helps a lot (obviously) but then there is zero privacy and noise reduction! Since there is clearly air movement into and out of the rooms with the doors open I was thinking of installing louvered vents (3"x16" above the doors to allow warm air entry, we have coved ceilings so I would install them below the cove but as high as possible. Both rooms have the old style forced air supply wall grilles (open through wall) that could provide cold air exit. I know how to do this from a technical/tool capability as a home remodeller.
From a heating perspective, anyone think this would not work? Would a 3x16 opening be sufficient? Would I be better off cutting the grille opening in the door?
As an aside, we also have the entire houe ducted for our electric forced air furnace. Cold air returns in the living room, main foyer/hall, and our sons bedroom (far end of the house) upstairs, and returns in the office and workout room downstairs (none in the hearth room.) During my smoke trail tests air did not appear to travel through either the cold air returns or the hot air supplies when the wood stove was running, with the exception of the two through wall supply grilles in the bedrooms, cool air was leaving the bedrooms via these openings.
Thanks for your time and advice!
Michael
This is my first post. I have recently found this forum and find the information here to be excellent!
Most of my reading has been centered around moving heat from a basement installation upstairs. We are looking to install a small insert upstairs when we can afford it but for now we are living with the existing stove.
I did some smoke trail tests and there is clear convective air movement as one would expect, top of entry ways air rushes into the room and bottom of entry ways air leaves the room. We have an open stair way with the top half of our stairs being open treads which helps a lot.
We also live in a small home about 950 upstairs and 800 or so finished downstairs (I suppose this is a bungalow with a walk out basement.) The basement is fully finished and well insulated.
Both bedrooms upstairs typically suffer from not getting enough heat when the doors are closed. Leaving them open helps a lot (obviously) but then there is zero privacy and noise reduction! Since there is clearly air movement into and out of the rooms with the doors open I was thinking of installing louvered vents (3"x16" above the doors to allow warm air entry, we have coved ceilings so I would install them below the cove but as high as possible. Both rooms have the old style forced air supply wall grilles (open through wall) that could provide cold air exit. I know how to do this from a technical/tool capability as a home remodeller.
From a heating perspective, anyone think this would not work? Would a 3x16 opening be sufficient? Would I be better off cutting the grille opening in the door?
As an aside, we also have the entire houe ducted for our electric forced air furnace. Cold air returns in the living room, main foyer/hall, and our sons bedroom (far end of the house) upstairs, and returns in the office and workout room downstairs (none in the hearth room.) During my smoke trail tests air did not appear to travel through either the cold air returns or the hot air supplies when the wood stove was running, with the exception of the two through wall supply grilles in the bedrooms, cool air was leaving the bedrooms via these openings.
Thanks for your time and advice!
Michael
![[Hearth.com] Louvered vents above door to allow warm air entry](/talk/data/attachments/13/13775-ba50f47a8b1cf3962b16007bfe3acb03.jpg?hash=60xpOAqo-D)
