Moving air the "wrong" way?

[Flatbedford]

Just about every time it comes up here at hearth.com the general consensus is that the best way to circulate warm air around the house is to set a fan to blow the cool air into the stove room. For a few years we have set a fan on the floor to move the cooler air through the doorway from my kitchen / dining room into the living room where the stove is. I had always felt that it was effective, but Mrs. Flatbedford hated having the fan on the floor in the narrow doorway and it was kinda noisy, but we dealt with it because I said that it was the correct way to go. This fall my wife bought this little fan. (broken link removed to http://www.northlineexpress.com/wood-stoves/wood-stove-accessories/fans-blowers2/super-quiet-fan-4001.html)

I installed it in the top of the doorway and set it to blow the warm living room air into the cooler kitchen / dining room. Not only is it much quieter, and obviously not an obstacle on the floor, but it heats the other end of the house better too! So I am going to go against common hearth.com wisdom and recommend getting one of these little doorway fans and blowing the warm air into the cool area.
Of course blowing the cool air to the warm room on the floor is pretty much the same as blowing warm air the other way at ceiling height anyway isn't it? With this setup there is still a cool breeze on the floor from the cool room to the warm one. Either way, it is working well for us.

 

[begreen]

Doorway fans can work where convection just needs a little nudge. But it sounds like you weren't doing something right. A basic table fan running on low should be almost inaudible. That said, you are doing right by your wife now and that has some pretty high value by itself.

 

[Fake coal burner]

Just about every time it comes up here at hearth.com the general consensus is that the best way to circulate warm air around the house is to set a fan to blow the cool air into the stove room. For a few years we have set a fan on the floor to move the cooler air through the doorway from my kitchen / dining room into the living room where the stove is. I had always felt that it was effective, but Mrs. Flatbedford hated having the fan on the floor in the narrow doorway and it was kinda noisy, but we dealt with it because I said that it was the correct way to go. This fall my wife bought this little fan. (broken link removed to http://www.northlineexpress.com/wood-stoves/wood-stove-accessories/fans-blowers2/super-quiet-fan-4001.html)
View attachment 119655 View attachment 119659
I installed it in the top of the doorway and set it to blow the warm living room air into the cooler kitchen / dining room. Not only is it much quieter, and obviously not an obstacle on the floor, but it heats the other end of the house better too! So I am going to go against common hearth.com wisdom and recommend getting one of these little doorway fans and blowing the warm air into the cool area.
Of course blowing the cool air to the warm room on the floor is pretty much the same as blowing warm air the other way at ceiling height anyway isn't it? With this setup there is still a cool breeze on the floor from the cool room to the warm one. Either way, it is working well for us.

Can this fan be used with speed control?

 

[Flatbedford]

I don't know. It is an AC motor. I haven't even thought about it. On or off seems to be fine. On the colder nights I turn it off so more heat goes upstairs. Leaving t running on warmer nights keeps it from getting too hot upstairs. The flow is pretty gentle and there is very little sound. As said above, it is not much more than a nudge to get convection going. Its not like there's a window fan blowing.