Moving warm air from basement...crazy?

[FiyahBurnah]

So first, thanks for the help with my jotul F3 CB! Got it figured out and is humming along nicely now!



It gets the finished basement to about 75 which is more than warm enough.

In one corner of the room there is a drop ceiling tile that has no insulation in the floor board/joist above it. in the living room upstairs there is a large metal vent in the floor directly above the tile with no insulation.

I'm assuming that was to help airflow in the house but I'm wondering...what if I installed a bathroom exhaust fan into the ceiling near the woodstove and then used flexible vent pipe to snake it across (above) the ceiling tiles and then connect it to the vent in the living room floor...the thought being that I could help move some of the warm air up into the main house...

Is this crazy?

 

[kennyp2339]

It sounds logical but prob will not work like you intended it to work. I installed my freestander in the basement and thought cutting holes in the floor would allow heat to riser, its actually quite the opposite, if I put my hands in front of the hole I feel the cold air upstairs coming through, the idea is cold air is more dense and sinks, in my house what I did was cut 4 floor registers in and leave the basement door open on top of the stairs, I then have a small fan pointed directly at the wood stove at the base of the steps, the cold air comes through the air vents I cut in and the majority of the heat comes up the stairs and through the door. So far this is keeping my upstairs at a comfortable even temp between 68 & 73 deg, Im going to maxiumize this by taking out part of the wall on the stair case side going in the kitchen, taking out the cabinets on the wall and getting a new floor cabinet and adding counter top. have that same wall only coming up 48 inches (knee wall) It should work.

 

[Woody Stover]

You have to be aware of fire codes when cutting holes between levels...

 

[Chimney Smoke]

It sounds logical but prob will not work like you intended it to work. I installed my freestander in the basement and thought cutting holes in the floor would allow heat to riser, its actually quite the opposite, if I put my hands in front of the hole I feel the cold air upstairs coming through, the idea is cold air is more dense and sinks, in my house what I did was cut 4 floor registers in and leave the basement door open on top of the stairs, I then have a small fan pointed directly at the wood stove at the base of the steps, the cold air comes through the air vents I cut in and the majority of the heat comes up the stairs and through the door. So far this is keeping my upstairs at a comfortable even temp between 68 & 73 deg, Im going to maxiumize this by taking out part of the wall on the stair case side going in the kitchen, taking out the cabinets on the wall and getting a new floor cabinet and adding counter top. have that same wall only coming up 48 inches (knee wall) It should work.

This is very similar to my setup except the fan. For the first half of last winter I kept a fan blowing from the stove towards the stairwell. It did OK and then I forgot to turn the fan on one day after reloading the stove and I noticed the first floor was much warmer. Now I use now fan. My theory of why it works better is because the fan circulates the warm air around the basement and there's more stuff to cool the air down. With no fan, the heat rises straight up from the stove and freely flows up the stairwell. When standing in front of the open stairwell door in my kitchen you can feel the warm air blowing up with no fans in place.

 

[FiyahBurnah]

It sounds logical but prob will not work like you intended it to work.

I know what your saying about the cold air sinking etc but wouldn't the fan suck in the warm air from the basement and deposit it where the ductwork terminates upstairs?

 

[kennyp2339]

It could but you might create a draft issue with the stove And get smoke inside the house, espically when reloading, negative pressure

 

[FiyahBurnah]

You have to be aware of fire codes when cutting holes between levels...

Good point...not sure if cutting a hole in a drop ceiling tile and filling the hole with a exhaust fan (that then vents across the room to an existing 'hole' in the upstairs floor would change anything but yeah, for sure something to think about...

Frankly, the current setup with a ceiling tile with no insulation above it and a vent above it doesn't feel right to begin with...

 

[FiyahBurnah]

It could but you might create a draft issue with the stove And get smoke inside the house, espically when reloading, negative pressure

Hmmm...home already has crazy negative pressure. When I crack a window in the basement cold air comes blowing in...when starting stove I usually crack a basement window. I keep the basement door (to upstairs) open...wonder why the cooler upstairs air isn't falling downstairs to begin with...I wonder if my exhaust fan idea would help or hinder warm air rising up and cool air flooding into basement...

 

[Rickb]

my setup is similar. What I did was cut a whole in the floor far away from the stairs then I put in one of these http://www.homedepot.com/p/VENTS-327-CFM-Power-6-in-Energy-Star-Rated-Mixed-Flow-In-Line-Duct-Fan-TT-SILENT-150/204804485 with some ductwork blowing the cooler air from upstairs into the basement. Made a huge difference. All the hot air now moves up the stairs and keeps both levels much closer in temp.


was around 76 -78 when the stove was running in the basement now its closer to 72-74 and upstairs is a little warmer too.

 

[FiyahBurnah]

my setup is similar. What I did was cut a whole in the floor far away from the stairs then I put in one of these http://www.homedepot.com/p/VENTS-327-CFM-Power-6-in-Energy-Star-Rated-Mixed-Flow-In-Line-Duct-Fan-TT-SILENT-150/204804485 with some ductwork blowing the cooler air from upstairs into the basement. Made a huge difference. All the hot air now moves up the stairs and keeps both levels much closer in temp.


was around 76 -78 when the stove was running in the basement now its closer to 72-74 and upstairs is a little warmer too.

That's very interesting...I would suck air from the existing vent in the upstairs floor and vent it out right above the stove (blowing the cool upstairs air right into the area the stove is in)...

Quite a project...not sure where I'd mount the fan and I assume just having it sitting on top of the drop ceiling frame would be loud and cause vibrations...

How loud is the thing and how'd you wire it up?

 

[Rickb]

First you cant drop it right out ontop of your stove. Most regulations require at least 10 foot away. Im 25 foot away. That fan comes ready to mount to your normal 2x10 floor joists. I run it on low and I dont even notice the noise. I will wire it up to a 8 hour timer panel eventually. Right now its just plugged into a extension cord.

 

[Stretch]

I ran a pellet stove in the basement for about 9 years or so. I played around with fans, but in the end, I just
left the basement door open. It turned the stairway into a conveyor. Sitting at the bottom of the steps, one
could feel a strong, cold draft coming down the stairs. At the top, one could feel warm air blowing on one's
face. The basement was 70-75, and upstairs it was 68-70. Perfect.

If you're gonna move air, move the cold air. It's much denser than warm air and will push it out of the way
much more easily than warm air will displace cold air.. Even weather systems work that way. A warm front
will have a much tougher time scouring out cold air at the surface. A cold front will shove the warm air up
and away a lot more easily.

-Stretch

 

[FiyahBurnah]

Thanks guys. The more I think about it to more I think I'll just add a vent to the ceiling of the basement which will allow cold air to drop in from the family room above. I could always put a small fan on the vent in the living room facing down towards the vent to help push cold air into the basement.

If I leave the basement door open (which I already do) my hope is that Id get some movement happening. Cold air coming in one side and warm air moving up the basement stairs at the other.