Need help with air circulation to heat house

[smitty81]

We have had our wood stove for close to 3 years now and I just cant seem to understand how to get heat up to the main part of the house from where the stove sits. My house is really chopped up and where the stove sits, its not insulated very well and it has its own gas furnace system that is very old and expensive to use. So we put a stove down there in hopes of heating the whole house. If I burn hot and long enough, I can get SOME heat up there with the help of doorway fans. I would think that our stove should be able to heat most of our 2,000 sq' house. Granted its a bit chopped up and stupidly designed, it should be something that can be done in my mind. Someone told me to place a box fan on the floor to push air from the cold part of the house to the room with the wood stove....... I guess its suppose to create a loop of air. I tried that one year and it didn't really seem to help much in my mind.

I had this idea to cut a hole in the ceiling in the room with the stove and run a air duct tube to the main part of the house with a fan in between to help push it. The guy that installed the stove thought that the distance would be to long to get much of a benefit from it. I'd say its between a 20'- 30' stretch. If I can just get it to room 1, I'd be happy.

Well guys, i'm here for your help and advise. What do you guys think I need to do?

I attached a rough drawing of my house so you guys have a bit of an idea. It's not exact drawing but its the best of my capabilities.

 

[blujacket]

Fan on floor blowing towards stove work well for most. The biggest gain for home heating is insulating your attic. I only had about 5" of blown in when we purchased our home. I added R30 and it paid for itself the 1st winter.

 

[smitty81]

Fan on floor blowing towards stove work well for most. The biggest gain for home heating is insulating your attic. I only had about 5" of blown in when we purchased our home. I added R30 and it paid for itself the 1st winter.

I'd like to do that but there isn't enough attic space in that room to even get above that room. I don't know why they built it like that but they did.

Also, with the fan.......there are a set of 3 stairs going down into the room that the stove is in. Will it matter if the fan is blowing about 3' higher than the floor of that room?

 

[Grisu]

You certainly have a kind of difficult layout to work with. What kind of stove do you have? What is the temp in the room with the stove and do you also have s stove thermometer? You don't say anything about the room with the stove being really warm. Hence, maybe your problem is not only heat distribution but an undersized stove. Is the room with the stove higher or lower than the rest of the house? From the sketch I thought higher but your post suggests lower. Last, do you have a cathedral ceiling in the addition?

 

[smitty81]

You certainly have a kind of difficult layout to work with. What kind of stove do you have? What is the temp in the room with the stove and do you also have s stove thermometer? You don't say anything about the room with the stove being really warm. Hence, maybe your problem is not only heat distribution but an undersized stove. Is the room with the stove higher or lower than the rest of the house? From the sketch I thought higher but your post suggests lower. Last, do you have a cathedral ceiling in the addition?

The stove is a Pacific "Super 27" model I believe.

The room gets warm for sure...........Somewhere between mid 80's and 90's If I remember right. I'm just used to the heat, I guess it doesn't really bother me to much.

The room is lower by about 3' which should help I would think.

Yes, Its a half cathedral ceiling with the high part towards the door way.

I also thought about the stove being to small myself.

 

[begreen]

I have not found doorway fans to be that effective. Try this with a couple of table or box fans. Put one on the floor, near the furnace door blowing toward the stove and another on the floor in Room 1 blowing toward the hallway per the purple fans in this diagram. Run on low speed.



Is there a ceiling fan running in the stove room? If not, it may need one to break up heat stratification at the ceiling. Run it in reverse in the winter.

 

[Mitch Newton]

Are you burning 24/7? I also have my stove in the basement and it takes a couple of days burning 24/7 to get the whole house warmed up.

 

[Grisu]

The stove is a Pacific "Super 27" model I believe.

The room gets warm for sure...........Somewhere between mid 80's and 90's If I remember right. I'm just used to the heat, I guess it doesn't really bother me to much.

The room is lower by about 3' which should help I would think.

Yes, Its a half cathedral ceiling with the high part towards the door way.

I also thought about the stove being to small myself.

I have the PE Super insert model and heat about 1300 to 1400 sqft with it but I would not try to heat 2000 sqft. In principle, we would recommend something larger for that house size in the 2.5 to 3 cu ft firebox range. Nevertheless, you also have a heat distribution problem as your stove room seems to get warm so a bigger stove may not help much. A second mid-size stove in the other part of the house would be a possible solution.

If the room is lower than the rest I would expect the heat to travel up towards the house quite naturally. The cathedral ceiling may keep you from getting a good air loop. A ceiling fan may help and have you thought about a dropped ceiling? Since you cannot insulate the attic you can maybe get some more insulation in that way.

 

[begreen]

Another potential solution might be a modern, EPA wood furnace.

 

[smitty81]

Are you burning 24/7? I also have my stove in the basement and it takes a couple of days burning 24/7 to get the whole house warmed up.

no......

 

[smitty81]

I have not found doorway fans to be that effective. Try this with a couple of table or box fans. Put one on the floor, near the furnace door blowing toward the stove and another on the floor in Room 1 blowing toward the hallway per the purple fans in this diagram. Run on low speed.

View attachment 108977

Is there a ceiling fan running in the stove room? If not, it may need one to break up heat stratification at the ceiling. Run it in reverse in the winter.

I will try it and yes, there is a ceiling fan.

 

[smitty81]

I have the PE Super insert model and heat about 1300 to 1400 sqft with it but I would not try to heat 2000 sqft. In principle, we would recommend something larger for that house size in the 2.5 to 3 cu ft firebox range. Nevertheless, you also have a heat distribution problem as your stove room seems to get warm so a bigger stove may not help much. A second mid-size stove in the other part of the house would be a possible solution.

If the room is lower than the rest I would expect the heat to travel up towards the house quite naturally. The cathedral ceiling may keep you from getting a good air loop. A ceiling fan may help and have you thought about a dropped ceiling? Since you cannot insulate the attic you can maybe get some more insulation in that way.

I crawled up there over lunch to take another look.

It appears that I CAN get above that room through a small doorway in the attic and there is blown in insulation up there.

I might try the fans once again this year with a combination of some better wood and see where that get me.

If not, I think my plan will work.

I'm thinking of putting a ceiling vent in that room and duct it over to the other part of the house with a duct bootster in the middle.

I think it should work well if the length isn't to long from room to room.

 

[Grisu]

The previous owner of my house had installed such a system to get warm air from the living room to the bedrooms at the other end of the house. When the home inspector saw it he laughed and suggested I should remove it right away. I was curious and gave it a try when the colder weather set in. I closed one bedroom door with the vent to the air system open and left one bedroom door open but closed the vent. Guess what? The temp in the room with the door closed dropped by the hour while the other bedroom did not change much. The following weekend I was up in the attic to tear the stuff out and close the holes in the ceiling. I am sure the insulation I added since then had a much more positive effect.

 

[smitty81]

The previous owner of my house had installed such a system to get warm air from the living room to the bedrooms at the other end of the house. When the home inspector saw it he laughed and suggested I should remove it right away. I was curious and gave it a try when the colder weather set in. I closed one bedroom door with the vent to the air system open and left one bedroom door open but closed the vent. Guess what? The temp in the room with the door closed dropped by the hour while the other bedroom did not change much. The following weekend I was up in the attic to tear the stuff out and close the holes in the ceiling. I am sure the insulation I added since then had a much more positive effect.

so you think I'm wasting my time with that idea?

 

[begreen]

I crawled up there over lunch to take another look.

It appears that I CAN get above that room through a small doorway in the attic and there is blown in insulation up there.

I might try the fans once again this year with a combination of some better wood and see where that get me.

If not, I think my plan will work.

I'm thinking of putting a ceiling vent in that room and duct it over to the other part of the house with a duct bootster in the middle.

I think it should work well if the length isn't to long from room to room.

If you try that you will want to use very well insulated ducting of sufficient size. And you should reverse the fan direction so that it blows the cooler air from room 1 into the stove room. That will create a slight negative pressure in room 1 that the warm air from the stove room will migrate to replace. This should even out temperatures in both areas quite a bit after about 30-60 minutes. The fan doesn't have to be overly strong. Something around 150cfm should suffice. You just want to get a good convection loop going.

 

[Huntindog1]

I second the idea BeGreen had. Make sure the fans sit low to the ground like a couple of those 9" high velocity models.

As its important to move the cold air towards the stove room, which the cold air is low to the ground. Then up high towards the ceiling the warm air will flow back into the part of the house where the furnace is. Then the fan blowing down the stairs should be low at ground level and a warm flow will flow at the ceiling level up the stairs to your upper level. Its important to keep that separation of cold air low to ground warm air flows up high. Thats the reason for the small 9" fan sitting on the floor.

 

[Grisu]

In the end it is your decision and my experience may have been different than yours may be but to be frank, I doubt it will help much if anything at all. You will probably see a much better result and get a better payback for the money and labor you want to invest if you insulate your addition properly. The heat will have to go somewhere then.

 

[begreen]

Or the room will push 100F instead.

 

[Grisu]

Or the room will push 100F instead.

Maybe, but then you could still put in the duct system but in the knowledge that you are not wasting heat warming up your yard. Heat naturally want to travel upwards so it should not be too difficult getting the heat out of that room. The biggest obstacle may be the cathedral ceiling; that's why I suggested to drop it.

 

[smitty81]

ok guys, thanks.

I will try the fans on the floor and see what happens. I used a box fan on low in the manner you are describing and it didn't do much of anything...........

To big of fan with to much air flow?

Also, with the fans on the floor, should I run my doorway fans?

The walkways all have headers, its not a flat ceiling the whole way through the rooms.

 

[begreen]

If the box fan is on low speed it should be fine. Are you saying you tried this last season using a thermometer to check for temp rise in the hallway? Was the ceiling fan running at the time?

 

[smitty81]

If the box fan is on low speed it should be fine. Are you saying you tried this last season using a thermometer to check for temp rise in the hallway? Was the ceiling fan running at the time?

yes and yes

 

[paul bunion]

I crawled up there over lunch to take another look.

It appears that I CAN get above that room through a small doorway in the attic and there is blown in insulation up there.

I might try the fans once again this year with a combination of some better wood and see where that get me.

If not, I think my plan will work.

I'm thinking of putting a ceiling vent in that room and duct it over to the other part of the house with a duct bootster in the middle.

I think it should work well if the length isn't to long from room to room.

If you add a duct I think you need to run it to the far side of your stove room, or at least past the stove. That way the flow that you create will pass in front of the stove and move the heat away from your stove.

 

[HDRock]

Honeywell Air Circulator Fan,8" , 16 bucks , I have 2 , put em on the floor, where U need em, on low, Magic
http://www.menards.com/main/heating...able-air-circulator-fan/p-1393844-c-12727.htm

 

[smitty81]

Honeywell Air Circulator Fan,8" , 16 bucks , I have 2 , put em on the floor, where U need em, on low, Magic
http://www.menards.com/main/heating...able-air-circulator-fan/p-1393844-c-12727.htm

Ha, funny that you mention that.

I just purchased two at menards for this purpose. Good little fan me thinks!