moving heat upstairs! !

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carlan

New Member
Nov 4, 2018
12
Atlantic Canada
Hey all I was thinking of installing a fan thru the wall at the top of the wall. Directly on the other side of the wall is the stairs leading upstairs. The doorway is 6 feet away from where i will put the fan, so between the woodstove blower and the fan sucking warm air out of the room, will this help with heating my upstairs??? My woodstove is an osburn2000.
 
It might help, but without seeing your layout, it is difficult to say. An easier and maybe more effective approach might be to try moving the cooler air from upstairs downstairs. The warmer air will replace the cooler air through convection.
To test this , just place a fan on the floor at the top of the stairs aimed down and see if it helps.
 
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Depends a lot on your home's lay out . . . in my home heat naturally rises through the stairwell and heats the second floor quite well.
 
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A few questions now that we know this is a basement installation . . .

1) Do you keep the basement door open to allow the heat to rise naturally?

2) Is the basement insulated?
 
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The stove will.actually be installed in a few days so i havnt even got a taste of whats to come yet haha. Yes my basement is insulated. Im just trying to get all my ducks in a row before install. Im not able to cut floor registers because codes wont allow me to. When i get home from work in a few hours ill try and draw up my best sketch i can and post here.
 
Attached is a rough sketch of my basement floor plan
[Hearth.com] moving heat upstairs! !
 
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I think you're going to have a tough time forcing air through a doorway, around a corner and up the stairwell. You'll likely have to cook yourself out of that room to get any noticeable heat upstairs.
 
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Like they said, easier to move cool air than warm air. Before cutting any holes, try a fan on the floor outside the stove room at the bottom left of the stairs, blowing cool air at an angle into the stove room doorway.
 
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I was actually thinking about that. Even knocking out the wall separating the rec room from the game room aswell

The biggest issue as mentioned would be getting the heated air to turn a corner and rise . . . I mean some of that heat will do so naturally, but opening things up in front of the stairway/stove so it is more of a direct shot upstairs will most definitely improve things.
 
You can cut a hole in the floor if you install a fire damper, that's what I did to get more heat on the upper level. The cold air seeps down the stairway and gets pushed up through the grate with the fire damper.
 
Open up the basement, take down the wall between the stove and the game room and remove the hallway wall along the stairs so the heat has the most room possible to make it upstairs.
 
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ost: 2298000 said:
You can cut a hole in the floor if you install a fire damper, that's what I did to get more heat on the upper level. The cold air seeps down the stairway and gets pushed up through the grate with the fire damper.

From my understanding i couldn't cut any holes in the floors where its an easy access for flames to come up through incase there was a fire.
 
You can cut a hole in the floor if you install a fire damper, that's what I did to get more heat on the upper level. The cold air seeps down the stairway and gets pushed up through the grate with the fire damper.
From my understanding i couldn't cut any holes in the floors where its an easy access for flames to come up through incase there was a fire.
That's what the fire damper is for. It has a fusible link that will close the vent hole if it's subjected to excessive heat. Code may be different in Canada, though.
Another thing we did at my MIL's house was to close off areas that we didn't want to keep as warm, using a curtain-type "door" that could still be walked through fairly easily. You could do that across the doorway accessing the laundry and spare room. If the side of the staircase was open on the hallway side, warm air would contained in a smaller area and move up the stairs more readily. But I'm guessing that's not open so Plan G could be to put two vents in the stove room wall at the bottom of the stairs, one down low to let cool air in, and one up high to let warm air out. You could even experiment with a sheet above the top vent that would funnel hot air into the stairwell. OK, that last one might be a stretch and it's kinda manly/hillbilly in nature so it may not fly with the wife. ;)
 
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That's what the fire damper is for. It has a fusible link that will close the vent hole if it's subjected to excessive heat. Code may be different in Canada, though.
Another thing we did at my MIL's house was to close off areas that we didn't want to keadvice rm, using a curtain-type "or" that could still be walked through fairly easily. You could do that across the doorway accessing the laundry and spare room. If the side of the staircase was open on the hallway side, warm air would contained in a smaller area and move up the stairs more readily. But I'm guessing that's not open so Plan G could be to put two vents in the stove room wall at the bottom of the stairs, one down low to let cool air in, and one up high to let warm air out. You could even experiment with a sheet above the top vent that would funnel hot air into the stairwell. OK, that last one might be a stretch and it's kinda manly/hillbilly in nature so it may not fly with the wife. ;)

Ya the wife would love that one lol.
I've wanted a woodstove for quite awhile now and i know that i dont have the best basement layout for one but im going to try my best to get the best out of my stove and to distribute heat around the house. Im aware that ill probally overheat that room but thats why im here on this forum to get the best advive from the pros
 
Update on woodstove install..

Woodstove performs very well. My basement reaches around 31C and the upstairs hovers around 22.5 - 23.5C on a cold day/night, a degree or two warmer on more milder days. The fan on my stove does the majority of the work getting the heat upstairs quickly. I wont be tearing down any walls in thr future. Thr stove is fairly efficient aswell burning roughly a level wheel barrow full from morning to morning for a 2500sqft home basement install. Overall im very satisfied with the my stove.
 
I kind of expected this with the stove blower pointed directly at the door opening. Glad it's working out.
 
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