Noob: tips for moving hot air from basement up a weird stairwell?

[schmobodia]

I’m perplexed at how to position fans. Basement gets 85-90F with the stove loaded. I have a bit of a weird staircase, with a mid landing that is open to the basement.

Pictured is a box fan, mid staircase, blowing air into the basement towards the fireplace. This would be right at the basement ceiling level, disrupting the hottest air. Would it be better to pivot this fan to pull this hot air out of the basement and up the stairs? Or change the box fan for something smaller, and to aim it down towards the floor through the stair opening, to try to have hot air flowing back in above it and then up the stairs?


I’ve considering cutting floor vents, but directly above the wood stove is a pellet stove in the main living room area. I’d love to avoid floor modification, so I’m after the best fan positioning for what I’ve got.

 

[begreen]

As a test, try placing the fan at the top of the stairwell, pointing downward toward the basement.

 

[bigealta]

Yeah the idea with the fan at the top of the stairs is the cold upstairs air flows down the stair treads while the hot basement air flows up by the ceiling where your fan (in pic) is and the other side of the stairwell ceiling. Tight fit though so let us know if moving the fan helps.

Try low speed on the fan to avoid mixing the cold air into the hot rising air.

And yes also worth a try to just use the smaller fans. to help keep cold air and hot airflows separated. Probably going to take some trial and error.

 

[EbS-P]

Not disturbing the hot air near the ceiling would help. This is what sets up the convective loop. A box fan is going stir things up too much and not be helpful. Get the cold air to the stairs on the first floor.

As a test get the basement good and hot with no fans running and figure you the natural circulation with an incense stick. Then figure out how to enhance it.

When helping establish convection less is often more. A ceiling fan on the lowest level blowing up on the lowest setting would help move hot air to the stairs.

 

[schmobodia]

Yeah the idea with the fan at the top of the stairs is the cold upstairs air flows down the stair treads while the hot basement air flows up by the ceiling where your fan (in pic) is and the other side of the stairwell ceiling. Tight fit though so let us know if moving the fan helps.

Try low speed on the fan to avoid mixing the cold air into the hot rising air.

And yes also worth a try to just use the smaller fans. to help keep cold air and hot airflows separated. Probably going to take some trial and error.

Thoughts on the mid level fan placement? Shoot through the little “gap” or down the stairs into the open space?

 

[schmobodia]

Not disturbing the hot air near the ceiling would help. This is what sets up the convective loop. A box fan is going stir things up too much and not be helpful. Get the cold air to the stairs on the first floor.

As a test get the basement good and hot with no fans running and figure you the natural circulation with an incense stick. Then figure out how to enhance it.

When helping establish convection less is often more. A ceiling fan on the lowest level blowing up on the lowest setting would help move hot air to the stairs.

Gotcha, that’s a good idea. I have small streamers placed around the ceiling to watch for air movement. Though I often relate more movement with better heat transfer.

For the ceiling fan, so you mean in the basement or upstairs? There is a fan on low with upward direction above the pool table in that picture.

 

[bigealta]

Thoughts on the mid level fan placement? Shoot through the little “gap” or down the stairs into the open space?

I would 1st try to just take those mid level fans away and try the little fan blowing down the top of the stairs. Tilt it down so it blows along the steps if u can.

Try the small fan on the floor by the blue bag hanging on the stair rails.

 

[bigealta]

Let us know if any of this helps.

Another thought would maybe be cutting a large vent on that mid level landing floor and remove the door under it. I'm assuming this is a small closet space. The idea would be to get the cold air dropping down the stairs into this vent and out thru the closet, run across the floor to the woodstove to be heated and rise up to the ceiling and up the stair's ceilings. You could even add the box fan where the closet door is to help push the cold air across the floor to the stove.

 

[Max W]

I wonder that the vaulted ceiling on the main floor helps creates a main floor circulation loop that limits the cold air return to the basement. Might want to see what the incense shows there and if so if you can redirect some of that. Another crazy thought, it seems that the hot air going out at the landing would be conflicting with any cold air trying to sink to the basement. What about taping some cardboard or sheet plastic over that opening and see what happens.

 

[Shrewboy]

I agree with what others said - ive done this same setup, and I placed the fan at the very top of the steps on the left side, so that the right side would allow the hot air to come up.

For some physics reason, blowing cold air around is much more effective than trying to move the hot air. Good luck and report back!