no heat up stairs

[fishercat]

I got my new Napolean 1400 installed the other day. Cranked her up and waited for the heat. The heat came but stayed in the room my stove is in. Doesn't seem to want to go up the stairs. Put in a vent 2ft by 1.5 feet and the heat will not go up it to the up stairs. The house is 48ft by 24 ft. The stove is in a finished room 24 by 24. This is where the heat stays. A bit gets to the upstairs but not much. You can hardly stay in the room where the stove is but it doesn't seem to go up the stairs. I have double doors just before the stairs. The stairs is quite high. The heat won't even go into the other basement room. Any body have any suggestions of what might be wrong. Is it a citculation problem or not enough stove? The house would be about 2000sq ft in total but it seems to be heating only about 700sq ft. My wood is farily dry so that shouldn't be a problem. Thanks

 

[Michael6268]

We'll the old saying "hot air rises" is true, but I guess not everywhere. There are a lot of factors that enter in to why hot air rises in some houses and not in others. I dont think its a matter of your stove not being big enough, as you said it is already too hot in the room it is in. If you put a bigger stove, you will make that room unbearable and probably still wont get much more heat upstairs. My house is in a wacky pressure zone, and no matter what I did, I coulnt get hot air from the basement to go upstairs. It was 90 in the basement and 65 upstairs. I tried box fans to push the hot air up. I also tried to push the cold air down. I had registers cut in the floor, and very little warm air made it upstairs. I ended up going with a stove that had a "duct top" and hooked ductwork up to it and into the registers I had made, and now the basement stays warm by "radient heat", and the hot air is pushed upstairs via the ductwork. You may want to try registers with fans in them, but be warned due to fire code issues, it may or may not be acceptable. You can also try the box fans as it may work for you. I recall one person on this site had good luck with it.

 

[sharpclaws]

We just had our stove put in in Sept. We have a 2100 square ft. Colonial. We ordered the optional blower fan that came with the stove and it automatically turns on and blows the air. The upstairs is comfortable. I even shut the bedroom door some nights to keep it cooler. You did not state if you had a blower on your stove or not. But that makes a huge difference for us. When we dont use the fan the room seems a bit more uncomfortable. So we usually leave it on automatic on the low setting.

 

[Dave_1]

fishercat,

What style of house?
Split level with basement, tri-level, Cape Cod?
Size of basement?
Size of upstairs?
Do you have central heat/air?
Where is the duct work, floor or ceiling?
Where did you put in the 2’x1‘-½ vent? Is it directly above the heater?
Got indoor thermometers?
Move them around while recording a log. Start at that vent.
Are the doors to the stair well always open? If not leave them open
What is the temp at the floor & the header level on the floor the heater is on?
What is the temp at the top of the stairs, at the floor & header levels?
Unless the heated air is escaping thru the house on the heater level, & if the doors are always open, then the heat will rise upstairs which the temp gauges will prove.
Heated air will not go downstairs unless blown down.

Dave

 

[fishercat]

House is a bungalow 48ftx24. I have a blower on the stove. No central air. Room where stove is 24ft by 24 ft. I'm not even trying to heat the other side yet. vent is about 15 ft from the stove. I could not put directly above stove as its in the bedrooms. no thermometor. But will buy one. Door is always open. It seems like something is forcing the hot air back down. I will check the temp when I get a guage.

 

[begreen]

fishercat, is there an air path for the cool air to return to the stove? Is there a door at the top of the hallway stairs that is closed?

 

[BrotherBart]

Try this. Lay a fan face down on that vent and blow the cold floor level air down into the basement. If there isn't a huge air leak somewhere in that basement that will pressurize the basement and the hot air at the ceiling has no place to go but up those stairs.

Stand in the basement door and see if you feel the warm air coming up.

 

[nshif]

Sounds like the upstairs is so air tight that it is being pressurized and the heat cant flow up. For a test try opening a window on the 2nd floor as far away from the stairs as possible and see if the flow improves. Open it only an inch or so and see if there is a draft outward. hold a small strip of paper in front of it and see if when you open the window it gets sucked out. If so you need a better cold air return to the lower floor. May need to be fan assisted. Ive seen this happen with AC systems ducted only to lower floors so it might follow that the same applies with heat.

 

[Martin Strand III]

Fishercat:

The fact "The heat came but stayed in the room my stove is in." is a testimonial that stoves are designed only to be local area heaters. Be thankful it is doing this for you. Wanting more out of it is a common, but usually unrealistic, expectation; the results depend on numerous factors.

Warm air will rise, thanks to Mother Nature. To help Her out, put a small fan on the top of the upstairs stairway pointing low down the stairs to help push upstairs floor cool air down to the first level. This slightly pressurizes the first level and helps normal convection push warmer air, higher on the first floor, upstairs.

I use this technique to warm my main first floor when I burn my coal stove in the basement and it works well but requires time - give it a couple hours. I can't promise it will work for you as your house is probably different than mine in many respects.

Hope this helps.

Aye,
Marty

 

[suematteva]

Try this. Lay a fan face down on that vent and blow the cold floor level air down into the basement. If there isn't a huge air leak somewhere in that basement that will pressurize the basement and the hot air at the ceiling has no place to go but up those stairs.

Stand in the basement door and see if you feel the warm air coming up.

We have stove in insulated basement, open stair well and one open register, stove is closer to stairwell...Try the fan as BB says in the register. We don't need a fan but if you put hand near open register, you feel cold air going down..

Cracking a window is a good trick also..

 

[wg_bent]

Add a ceiling fan. Or as an experiment, get a box fan or some other fan to move the heat up in the center of the room and down the outsides.

Just circulating the air will get things flowing.

 

[rudysmallfry]

I've got the same issue. I've considered adding the illegal floor registers, but am concerned about safety. I think the blower would be a good addition to my Hearthstone Heritage. I know I need the rear heat shield with it, but do I also need to upgrade to double wall pipe?