My problem is that my house is poorly laid out, as it was built in stages. First a cabin was built, and the rest of the house was just kind of tacked on to the side of it without much thought going into it.
My woodstove is in the original part of the house where the kitchen & family room are, along with two bedrooms, and the living room where we spend most of our time is at the other end of the house. In between is the master bedroom (such as it is).
As a result, the living room was always much colder than the hot end of the house.
There is a long corridor between the original end of the house and the living room. For years, I had a 10" fan mounted in the corner of the doorway leading into the corridor, blowing warm air down towards the living room. I used aluminum flashing to build a sort of duct on the suction side of the fan to get air from near the ceiling, so I'd be blowing the hottest air.
This did make a noticeable difference. There was no question it was helping. It was noisy, though, and not doing enough. The living room still remained uncomfortably cold in severe weather, and we always had to keep the hot end of the house too hot, in order to have the cold end tolerable.
Well, I had the crazy idea of running a duct through the attic between the two ends of the house and using a blower of some kind to move air from the woodstove area to the living room.
Not knowing much about HVAC issues, I suggested this on another forum, and sparked almost a firestorm of, "That's not gonna work! No way! You'll lose all your heat in the duct! Fuggedaboudit!" Some of the naysayers were HVAC business owners, and techs, too. I don't recall anybody thinking it would work. So, I didn't do it. Money is never flowing freely around here, and it was looking like a $500 project, with the ductwork and intake & exhaust registers and all.
Well, I needed to so something, so I finally did it anyway. I bought a 3-speed furnace blower for $65 on Craigslist, and some 14" & 10" insulated flexible duct, 2 10" elbows, a 14" elbow, and a 14" coupler. I also got some OSB and a bit of insulated wrap for the elbows.
I built an air box for the blower using the OSB. Someday I'll probably invest in a box & pan brake and build a proper metal box. I did cheap out on the intake and exhaust - I just cut holes in the ceiling and mounted the elbows in the holes. No grilles, no boxes. It's ugly, but cheap. I figured if it worked, I could add them later, and if it didn't, I would be out less money.
I have the two 10" runs sucking hot air from the ceiling in front of the woodstove, and feeding into the air box. The blower moves the air into the 14" duct, which runs about 50 feet more down to the living room, where it dumps out about 1/3 of the way from the back of the room. The doorway into the corridor is at the front of the room.
Well, folks, we're going into our third winter with the duct installed, and I'm happy to say that the naysayers were completely, totally, drastically wrong. This works great! Far better than I had hoped, in fact.
My living room is now usually about 1-2 degrees warmer than near the woodstove.
Yep. Warmer.
I am using about a cord of wood less per year, as I no longer need to keep the "hot" end of the house uncomfortably hot. So, we are more comfortable at both ends of the house, and spending less effort to do it.
The corridor fan with its obnoxious noise is gone. In fact, I took it out the next day after I completed the duct system. It was already very clear that it was working well, and the duct system is far quieter.
The winter before I did this, we went away for a couple of weeks in February during some bitter cold. When we came back, it took about 3 full days for the cold end of the house to get up to a comfortable temperature.
The following year we went away again for a couple of weeks in February during some bitter cold. When we came back, it took about 6 hours for the cold end of the house to get comfortable.
I wish I had ignored the naysayers a lot sooner!
The really interesting thing is, the air coming out in the living room isn't noticeably warm, but it sure is carrying plenty of heat.
Anyway, I just thought I'd share this for the sake of anyone else who is facing this kind of problem, and has been told that duct work won't help.
Your results may vary, of course. I'm sure the layout of your house will make a difference, but don't listen to the naysayers. Find a way to give it a try.
My woodstove is in the original part of the house where the kitchen & family room are, along with two bedrooms, and the living room where we spend most of our time is at the other end of the house. In between is the master bedroom (such as it is).
As a result, the living room was always much colder than the hot end of the house.
There is a long corridor between the original end of the house and the living room. For years, I had a 10" fan mounted in the corner of the doorway leading into the corridor, blowing warm air down towards the living room. I used aluminum flashing to build a sort of duct on the suction side of the fan to get air from near the ceiling, so I'd be blowing the hottest air.
This did make a noticeable difference. There was no question it was helping. It was noisy, though, and not doing enough. The living room still remained uncomfortably cold in severe weather, and we always had to keep the hot end of the house too hot, in order to have the cold end tolerable.
Well, I had the crazy idea of running a duct through the attic between the two ends of the house and using a blower of some kind to move air from the woodstove area to the living room.
Not knowing much about HVAC issues, I suggested this on another forum, and sparked almost a firestorm of, "That's not gonna work! No way! You'll lose all your heat in the duct! Fuggedaboudit!" Some of the naysayers were HVAC business owners, and techs, too. I don't recall anybody thinking it would work. So, I didn't do it. Money is never flowing freely around here, and it was looking like a $500 project, with the ductwork and intake & exhaust registers and all.
Well, I needed to so something, so I finally did it anyway. I bought a 3-speed furnace blower for $65 on Craigslist, and some 14" & 10" insulated flexible duct, 2 10" elbows, a 14" elbow, and a 14" coupler. I also got some OSB and a bit of insulated wrap for the elbows.
I built an air box for the blower using the OSB. Someday I'll probably invest in a box & pan brake and build a proper metal box. I did cheap out on the intake and exhaust - I just cut holes in the ceiling and mounted the elbows in the holes. No grilles, no boxes. It's ugly, but cheap. I figured if it worked, I could add them later, and if it didn't, I would be out less money.
I have the two 10" runs sucking hot air from the ceiling in front of the woodstove, and feeding into the air box. The blower moves the air into the 14" duct, which runs about 50 feet more down to the living room, where it dumps out about 1/3 of the way from the back of the room. The doorway into the corridor is at the front of the room.
Well, folks, we're going into our third winter with the duct installed, and I'm happy to say that the naysayers were completely, totally, drastically wrong. This works great! Far better than I had hoped, in fact.
My living room is now usually about 1-2 degrees warmer than near the woodstove.
Yep. Warmer.
I am using about a cord of wood less per year, as I no longer need to keep the "hot" end of the house uncomfortably hot. So, we are more comfortable at both ends of the house, and spending less effort to do it.
The corridor fan with its obnoxious noise is gone. In fact, I took it out the next day after I completed the duct system. It was already very clear that it was working well, and the duct system is far quieter.
The winter before I did this, we went away for a couple of weeks in February during some bitter cold. When we came back, it took about 3 full days for the cold end of the house to get up to a comfortable temperature.
The following year we went away again for a couple of weeks in February during some bitter cold. When we came back, it took about 6 hours for the cold end of the house to get comfortable.
I wish I had ignored the naysayers a lot sooner!
The really interesting thing is, the air coming out in the living room isn't noticeably warm, but it sure is carrying plenty of heat.
Anyway, I just thought I'd share this for the sake of anyone else who is facing this kind of problem, and has been told that duct work won't help.
Your results may vary, of course. I'm sure the layout of your house will make a difference, but don't listen to the naysayers. Find a way to give it a try.
