Proper airflow for split level home?

[JHalv42]

I just bought a traditional split level home. It has an open staircase to the family room downstairs and the living room upstairs. I have a wood stove on the side wall in the basement. My question is how to set up proper airflow so I can heat the home with only the woodstove?
There is a fan in the entry way that is reversible direction. Other than that there is no floor registers or vents. Only other heat is electric baseboard.
Do I need to put in a floor register because the only way for air to move from the bottom floor to the top is through the open entryway?

 

[Woody5506]

I have a split level house as well, and all I can really say is good luck. Even with a forced air gas furnace these homes aren't easy to heat. My woodstove is located to the far end of the house in the lower ground level floor off the garage. It was the coldest area of the house before the stove was in, now it's the warmest. Basically what I do is have a tower fan blowing cooler air at the stove, and a box fan blowing air down the hallway opposite that room at the bottom of the stairs which lead into the kitchen and main floor living room. The heat will make its way up there fairly easily but unless I'm home all day to feed the stove, it cools down quick in low temps. The floor the stove is on will easily stay warm. My house is poorly insulated but has new windows. Insulation will be upgraded this year at some point with blow-in into the attic spaces, and next year the house will tighten up more once I get all new siding put on. Until then, it's been a lot of experimenting moving that wood heat around, dialing it in, and trying to keep up with the dropping temps. I'm still able to keep the furnace on as back up heat to the stove, rather than vice versa. I keep that set at 62 right now.

 

[Doc C]

I have a 2 story Dutch Colonial style house. Staircase in the center of the house.

I have a 6" fan that is mounted between the floors that feeds from above the wood stove to the center of the second floor.

It's on a light switch. But it runs most of the winter.

There are some places where registers between floors are not allowed. Also some safety considerations to take into account with opening between floors.

I use extra smoke alarms especially near the fan and I also have ladders leaned up to the bedroom windows in the winter. I live in the woods with Noone around.

 

[Doc C]

You can see the register with the fan inside it and the switch on the wall controls it.

 

[JHalv42]

I have a split level house as well, and all I can really say is good luck. Even with a forced air gas furnace these homes aren't easy to heat. My woodstove is located to the far end of the house in the lower ground level floor off the garage. It was the coldest area of the house before the stove was in, now it's the warmest. Basically what I do is have a tower fan blowing cooler air at the stove, and a box fan blowing air down the hallway opposite that room at the bottom of the stairs which lead into the kitchen and main floor living room. The heat will make its way up there fairly easily but unless I'm home all day to feed the stove, it cools down quick in low temps. The floor the stove is on will easily stay warm. My house is poorly insulated but has new windows. Insulation will be upgraded this year at some point with blow-in into the attic spaces, and next year the house will tighten up more once I get all new siding put on. Until then, it's been a lot of experimenting moving that wood heat around, dialing it in, and trying to keep up with the dropping temps. I'm still able to keep the furnace on as back up heat to the stove, rather than vice versa. I keep that set at 62 right now.

Thank you for the info. That is what I have heard is they are hard to heat. I was looking for advice from people who loved in the same type of house, so thank you. My house luckily has had the insulation increased so it actually has kept the heat pretty well even with our -10 degrees we have had. My wife might just need to get used to it not being 75 everywhere in the house.
Do you think having a separate air transfer would help? The upstairs bedrooms on the other end of the house will be the coldest. Would putting a register at the far end of the hall help? I don't know much about air currents beside heat rises

 

[Doc C]

Thank you for the info. That is what I have heard is they are hard to heat. I was looking for advice from people who loved in the same type of house, so thank you. My house luckily has had the insulation increased so it actually has kept the heat pretty well even with our -10 degrees we have had. My wife might just need to get used to it not being 75 everywhere in the house.
Do you think having a separate air transfer would help? The upstairs bedrooms on the other end of the house will be the coldest. Would putting a register at the far end of the hall help? I don't know much about air currents beside heat rises

Try to visualize the flow of air with stove running. Use smoke in a bottle like we use for hunting, or kids bubbles, or something similar.

See if that gives you any ideas of how things look right now.

Then make adjustments. Just know that the farther air moves the more heat drops out of it.

Also remember you can move cold air as well and let the warm air naturally replace it. Might be easier to feed the wood stove room with the cold air and let the heat move on its own.