Moving the warm air to adjoining rooms

[gyrfalcon]

I tried for the first time tonight the advice occasionally recommended here of putting a small fan on the floor of the doorway to blow the colder air out of my office back into the warm front room where the woodstove is, and man, does that ever work! Only took about 10 minutes for a real difference in air temp around my chilly feet. Trying to blow warm air into the colder room had little effect, but pushing the cold air out really does work to bring the warm air in.

 

[fossil]

And you thought we were all just makin' that stuff up. Warm talons are happy talons! Rick

 

[gyrfalcon]

Confess I was a teeny bit skeptical, especially that it would make any difference for my office, which is off the far end of the long front room the stove is at the other end of. I'm self-employed, so have to spend a lot of time in there and hate the thought of having to maybe move all my work gear out to the front room to be near the stove this winter, especially because I have such a nice view of the yummy-looking dickey birds hanging out on the feeders out the office window. But I think this fan with sometimes an assist from an electric space heater when we really get into the deep freeze may do the trick. Fantastic when the tootsies are stuck under the desk for hours at a time.

Mainly, I just wanted to put this post out where people new to all this might find it. I think most people see those doorway fans that are advertised, and like me, think they're supposed to put them in an upper corner blowing warm air towards the cold and figure they've been taken in when it doesn't do any good.

 

[fossil]

Well folks, there you have it...a spontaneous, unsolicited testamonial straight from the heart of a former skeptic. Now step right up, we've got plenty of fans here, and the price is right. Yes, Maam, no need to shove, how many would you like?... :lol: Rick

 

[begreen]

I have a corner fan or two that need a home. They are suffering from disuse.

 

[gyrfalcon]

I have a corner fan or two that need a home. They are suffering from disuse.

How come? Although my tiny Tribute does a good job on most of my open-plan small house, it sure doesn't send the warm air around corners and into the side rooms.

 

[Cluttermagnet]

Yeah, man- I'm a believer. I have 3 new fans still in their boxes. Small but powerful Honeywell units. They will push a river of cold air along the floor towards the stove in my living room. I also have a larger box fan, about 20 inches, that will blow in cold air from the other side and across the back of the stove. (The stove is free standing in front of a 2-sided fireplace) I get a big 'lake' of heated air hugging the living room ceiling, and it spills over the bulkheads and out to the ceilings in the hall and other upstairs rooms. It flows away from the stove to replace the cold air that is flowing towards the stove. So I get two rivers of cold and heated air going in opposite directions in a sort of loop. Works in principle. And already we have a satisfied customer! :lol:


BTW I am working slowly and steadily at beefing up the attic insulation overhead. I will give special attention to the part directly over these spaces. I don't want my hard won heat 'sinking into the mud' of a poorly insulated ceiling overhead and getting away. ;-)

 

[gyrfalcon]

Yeah, man- I'm a believer. I have 3 new fans still in their boxes. Small but powerful Honeywell units. They will push a river of cold air along the floor towards the stove in my living room. I also have a larger box fan, about 20 inches, that will blow in cold air from the other side and across the back of the stove. (The stove is free standing in front of a 2-sided fireplace) I get a big 'lake' of heated air hugging the living room ceiling, and it spills over the bulkheads and out to the ceilings in the hall and other upstairs rooms. It flows away from the stove to replace the cold air that is flowing towards the stove. So I get two rivers of cold and heated air going in opposite directions in a sort of loop. Works in principle. And already we have a satisfied customer! :lol:


BTW I am working slowly and steadily at beefing up the attic insulation overhead. I will give special attention to the part directly over these spaces. I don't want my hard won heat 'sinking into the mud' of a poorly insulated ceiling overhead and getting away. ;-)

Heh. Well, I'm a brand-new convert and about to rush out and get a couple more fans to try to bring some heat into my ice-cold (first-floor) bathroom which is back around two corners from the stove, and also to bring warmth from my south-facing enclosed but unheated porch into the kitchen on those sunny mid-winter days.

Attic insulation is huge. Like most old Vermont farmhouses, mine has no heat on the 2nd floor, but very good "attic" (really just a glorified crawlspace) insulation, and even in -15 midwinter nighttime temps, it's been fine for sleeping-- though not necessarily for lounging around in a neglige eathing bon-bons. I was really happy to discover last winter, too, that the 2nd floor bedrooms are a good 5 to 7 degrees warmer using the woodstove than they were with the baseboard heat on first floor from the boiler.

Wood stoves rule!! Man, have I ever gotten religion. This is all the way around a far, far better way of keeping warm in winter, really good for the soul as well as gentler and cheaper and more effective, not even to mention how much better for the body for most of us in sedentary professions to have to wrangle the wood supply.

How did I live this long before discovering this??

 

[gspro]

a nice view of the yummy-looking dickey birds

huh?

 

[billb3]

a nice view of the yummy-looking dickey birds

huh?

nursery rhyme for wee ones.

The OP may be on a rather stringent diet.

 

[gyrfalcon]

a nice view of the yummy-looking dickey birds

huh?

"Dickey birds," otherwise known as "lunch" from the perspective of a gyrfalcon or other raptor.

 

[fossil]

Raptors, in fact, violate the rule that Alan Watts articulated in his book "The Book", which states that tubes don't eat tubes of their own kind. Raptors prey even on other raptors. Viz: The only significant natural predator of the Barred Owl is the Great Horned Owl. Rick

 

[Adios Pantalones]

I had a barred owl looking at me whilst I was in a treestand one time. It kept getting closer- seeing to "hop" great distances silently. Then I realized that I had only moved my head in the past hour and it probably thought that my goatee was a critter- so I started moving my arms to tell it "Hey- I'm a guy!". A friend was attacked under similar circumstances a few years ago.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

I had a barred owl looking at me whilst I was in a treestand one time. It kept getting closer- seeming to "hop" great distances silently. Then I realized that I had only moved my head in the past hour and it probably thought that my goatee was a critter- so I started moving my arms to tell it "Hey- I'm a guy!". A friend was attacked under similar circumstances a few years ago.

 

[gyrfalcon]

Raptors, in fact, violate the rule that Alan Watts articulated in his book "The Book", which states that tubes don't eat tubes of their own kind. Raptors prey even on other raptors. Viz: The only significant natural predator of the Barred Owl is the Great Horned Owl. Rick

I don't know Alan Watts, but he's, um, er, wrong. Predators prey on whatever is smaller than they are, of whatever species happens to be around. It's in the nature of predators to eat whatever they can catch, and they don't stop to wonder whether they're third cousins twice removed on the evolutionary tree or not. There would be zero survival value to passing up lunch because it looks a wee bit too much like Aunt Ellen. Bobcats prey on housecats. Coyotes prey on small dogs. Human beings in many parts of the world hunt, kill and eat monkeys and other primates. Large hawks prey on smaller ones. Large owls prey on smaller ones. Most of the time, predators won't take members of their own species under ordinary circumstances because there's always a chance they might be carrying the same genes. But in a real pinch, all bets are off even on that.

And btw, that's not even true about Barred owls. A major predator of Barrowed owls, primarily chicks and nesting females trapped in the nest cavity, are fishers.

 

[gyrfalcon]

I had a barred owl looking at me whilst I was in a treestand one time. It kept getting closer- seeming to "hop" great distances silently. Then I realized that I had only moved my head in the past hour and it probably thought that my goatee was a critter- so I started moving my arms to tell it "Hey- I'm a guy!". A friend was attacked under similar circumstances a few years ago.

That's a funny story! Although probably not for the guy under the beard. The bird to watch out for in the woods is a nesting Goshawk, which will attack anything that moves in the vicinity. Friend of mine got slammed to the ground by a hard blow to the back of the head. When he came to, he thought he'd been mugged, until he saw the huge femal Goshawk screaming at him from a nearby tree. He grabbed a dead branch on the ground and waved it wildly around his head to confuse her as he beat a very hasty retreat back the way he'd come.

Did you guys know, btw, that in all raptor species, hawks and owls both, the females are bigger than the males?

 

[sapratt]

I love watching birds attack things. Especially when the small birds go after the large ones.

 

[fossil]

...I don't know Alan Watts, but he's, um, er, wrong...

Well, he's dead. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Watts

I was being mildly fascetious, anyway...just as he was known to be a time or two.

...And btw, that's not even true about Barred owls. A major predator of Barrowed owls, primarily chicks and nesting females trapped in the nest cavity, are fishers.

I'm not about to argue with the Bird Lady of Hearth.com about anything having to do with raptors. In Virginia, we observed a mating pair of Barred owls across the street from our driveway and followed the adventures of them raising two owlets in the early spring of 2006. We named the pair Ozzie & Harriet (the owlets, of course, were then David & Ricky). It was totally fascinating. Did a bit of amateur research. I know a Barred owlet on the ground is very vulnerable to all kinds of predators, thus their instinct to climb before fledging. That's also why I used the word "significant"...of course it's regionally dependent. I wrote up a story about it filled with photos I shot of the birds. Perhaps I could send you a copy one day. Here's Harriet. Rick

 

[gyrfalcon]

...I don't know Alan Watts, but he's, um, er, wrong...

Well, he's dead. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Watts

I was being mildly fascetious, anyway...just as he was known to be a time or two.

...And btw, that's not even true about Barred owls. A major predator of Barrowed owls, primarily chicks and nesting females trapped in the nest cavity, are fishers.

I'm not about to argue with the Bird Lady of Hearth.com about anything having to do with raptors. In Virginia, we observed a mating pair of Barred owls across the street from our driveway and followed the adventures of them raising two owlets in the early spring of 2006. We named the pair Ozzie & Harriet (the owlets, of course, were then David & Ricky). It was totally fascinating. Did a bit of amateur research. I know a Barred owlet on the ground is very vulnerable to all kinds of predators, thus their instinct to climb before fledging. That's also why I used the word "significant"...of course it's regionally dependent. I wrote up a story about it filled with photos I shot of the birds. Perhaps I could send you a copy one day. Here's Harriet. Rick

Oh, man, I'm GREEN with envy! I would love to see a copy. Can we PM this somehow? I'm not sure how that works.

Also you might enjoy checking out a site called www.owlcam.com. It's similar to your story, a guy who followed the adventures over several breeding seasons of a pair of Barreds (He called his Ward and June, heh) in his woods, with a camera and sound recorder in the nestbox. He's put out a really fantastic DVD with all the highlights, very professionally done. Might make a good Christmas gift for the spousal unit.

 

[fossil]

Been all over that guy's site...that was up during our encounter. Very nicely done. If you PM me with your e-mail address, I can send you all kinds of photos and the whole story I wrote, but the way I've given it out to folks is all printed out & stuck in a portfolio...hard copy. Here's Ozzie & a shot of David & Ricky. Rick

 

[begreen]

I love birds, really. But some folks might not give a hoot about this. Way off topic, though I do like the Nelson family pics.

 

[fossil]

Yes, sir. We moved our bird discussion off the board into PM & other forms of interpersonal communication. I apologize for the diversion. But the owls are in trees. (I know that's way too far of a stretch.) :red: Rick

 

[begreen]

Maybe Craig needs to open a Hooters forum. Should fit right in.