Radiant Heat vs Blower

[Huntindog1]

Unless your using a Wood Insert which requires a blower.
How many people have found radiant heat seems to heat
the entire house better?

I have found the radiant heat (No Fan)to suit me better and I like
performance it gives me of getting heat to my entire house.
My stove does have a fan but I never turn it on.

My thinking is the room the stove is in is easily heated anyways.
Why blow more heat out in that room. And I have found that mixing
the air up in the room the stove is in seems to mess with the natural flow
of convection heat thru out the house.

Back in my early 20's they sold Kent tile side stoves which was hi tech for that time.
The local stove guy said Kent Stoves found that out also that to heat the entire house
that Radiant heat was the best option.

For wood inserts I would suggest the lowest blower setting.

 

[ToltingColtAcres]

I would think it really depends on the setup of the house, where the stove is, the natural air flow of the house, and a lot of other factors. Thus, my guess is the "correct" answer is there is no correct answer.

 

[cuttingedge]

We discovered last year that our blower set on low seemed to help move heat into the far rooms in our house. This coupled with a small fan on the floor in our bedroom was the best. BTW: our Jotul F55 is supposed to produce radiant and convective heat.

 

[DougA]

I would think it really depends on the setup of the house, where the stove is, the natural air flow of the house, and a lot of other factors. Thus, my guess is the "correct" answer is there is no correct answer.

EXACTLY. I've done both and an undersized stove needs a fan, an oversized stove without a fan is so much nicer.

 

[EJL923]

I have an insert which heavily relies on the blowers, maybe more than 90% of the heat. Its fine to heat up the house quick, but there is no residual heat when the stove starts to cool. Radiant is best

 

[begreen]

Radiant is not the best nor is convective. The question should be what is best for your home and setup? If the house cools too quickly that is a house heat loss issue or an undersized stove.

Just because the stove doesn't have a blower running doesn't mean it isn't convecting. We rarely use the blower with a convective stove and it works great. That is because our house's open floor plan convects the heat over a large area very nicely. A true radiant stove like the Jotul F600 or Quad Isle Royale would not work in our home due to clearances. And it would be wasted. A big radiant stove like that is best used in large areas where clearances are less an issue and air convects poorer. A good place for a strongly radiant stove would be in a great room with a cathedral ceiling where the radiant stove feels warmer because of line of sight heat radiating from the stove. The warm air convecting from the stove (and there is a lot) is heading up to the peak of the ceiling where it needs a convective fan to break up heat stratification.

We had a radiant stove (F400) prior to the T6 and the T6 is doing a better job. Why, because it is sized better to the house and because it's thermal mass reduces temperature swings as the fire cools down. I should note that I have turned on the blower and turned up the stove during very cold weather to help move more heat to the far corners of the house like the bathroom and kitchen pantry. That is because I am making up for greater heat loss during very cold weather.

 

[BobMcG]

Hi Huntingdog1!

We have a small freestanding stove (Quadrafire Yosemite) with a 1580 sq ft home. It heats our entire home fine without the blower running, the only time I turn the blower on is when I have let the fire get too hot. Our bedroom is 4-5 degrees cooler than the rest of the house but we prefer it that way.

We do live in a much more temperate climate than most stove owners, but I wouldn't give up our stove for anything!

Best wishes!

Bob

 

[begreen]

Hi Huntingdog1!We have a small freestanding stove (Quadrafire Yosemite) with a 1580 sq ft home. It heats our entire home fine without the blower running, the only time I turn the blower on is when I have let the fire get too hot. Our bedroom is 4-5 degrees cooler than the rest of the house but we prefer it that way.

Case in point. The Yosemite is a convective, cast-iron jacketed steel stove. Sounds like it is nicely sized for the heat loss of the home.

 

[HarvestMan]

I have only owned two soapstone stoves in my life. They work great for my open floor plan 2 story; no idea how a convective stove would work in my home. Would love to try a BK, but not going to happen unless I move. Most people favor what they own ... well, that is my observation based on reading these forums.

 

[Highbeam]

No stove is completely one or the other. I've had both on the same hearth in the same house and both heat just fine. The real key is to have a stove large enough that it doesn't matter. If you were hugely undersized then a more radiant stove would be more effective at keeping you warm. Think "campfire".

 

[N_m_1986]

It has to depend upon air flow in your home.
My old place was *completely * designed against air flow. with square joined rooms with 2 floors of arched 9 foot ceilings and low 6 foot door ways everywhere. I was literally heating up a milk block creamery from the basement up with a tiny Morso 2b.

The only way to move the heat upstairs was with a fan, and patience.

 

[EJL923]

I'm simply saying radiant stoves heat other objects better and therefor things stay warmer longer, it's the same as forced hot air furnace vs hydronic heat. My insert is flush and the front glass on the jotul Rockland has a coating which reflects heat back into the stove. If I lose power, I probably get half the heat out of it, if that.

 

[TradEddie]

I'm simply saying radiant stoves heat other objects better and therefor things stay warmer longer, it's the same as forced hot air furnace vs hydronic heat. My insert is flush and the front glass on the jotul Rockland has a coating which reflects heat back into the stove. If I lose power, I probably get half the heat out of it, if that.

Agree fully with the first part, but my experience, albeit with a non flush insert is the opposite of yours. I believe that the fan has little overall affect on the heat output, but that using the fan gives a much faster room/house heatup, but a much faster cooldown too. Leaving the fan off lets the surrounding brickwork absorb more heat and release it more evenly into the house, resulting in much less drastic temperature swings between reloads. Instead of insulating between the insert and old firebox, I've put bricks in that space to create a thermal mass. It does help that my insert is oversized.

TE

 

[northwinds]

Radiant heat work great in my setup and house. I sure love the quiet of no fan.

 

[TheRambler]

I had a convective stove with blower previously, byt my radiant stove heats my house with high cathedrals waaayyyy better. I felt like that warm air was just stuck up there before(it was, measured ceiling temp much higher). Literally a night and day difference between the 2 in my case.

 

[Ash]

I've tried both fan on and off and now I only use the fan when we've been gone and the house is cold. When it gets warmed up I get nice even heat with no fans.

 

[rowerwet]

I heat an old house with 13' ceilings down stairs. Last fall I put up a ceiling fan.
Before the fan the living room was hot and the other rooms were frozen. With the fan on low blowing up, I'm not freezing in the other corner of the house. Most of the down stairs is open. Radiant only does so much, blowing the heat gets all of the air warmer.
Even the rooms off the room with the stove are much warmer.
It really depends on the house.

 

[Huntindog1]

As far as heating the far ends of the house insulation plays an important part.
Blowers create pretty strong air flow currents in the room your in. It gets lots
of heat bouncing around in the stove room and heats the stove room up
pretty hot. While the air flow down lets say the hall way is a weak natural
air flow as warm air flows to replace colder air I think this is called convection. What
may be happening is the strong blower air flow bouncing around in the stove room
is inhibiting the weaker natural convective flows down the hall. I think some of this same
stuff happens with ceiling fans. People think blasting ceiling fans help the outter ends
of the house and it dont always help.

I think if the stove is left to be radiant type and turn off the blower you get a more
natural balanced flow of the air letting the cold air from the other end of the house
naturally flow back towards the stove room and heat naturally flows to replace that cold air.
But if your house is poorly insulated then the air flow isnt sufficient to keep the outter ends of
the house warm and fans must be used to get more heat flowing. But I would say
still leave the stove fan off and place the fan to move air from the cold end of the house
towards the warm stove room. This works better than trying to blow warm air down to the
colder rooms. Even if you dont have the money to insulate the whole house. You might be
able to insulate more just those outter end rooms , this would help greatly. As the rooms
closer to the heat source wont need as much insulation. I did this in my basement insulating only the
floors of the upstair rooms of the outter rooms thus it help with keeping those outter rooms a little warmer
having less cold floors down there.

 

[begreen]

I had a convective stove with blower previously, byt my radiant stove heats my house with high cathedrals waaayyyy better. I felt like that warm air was just stuck up there before(it was, measured ceiling temp much higher). Literally a night and day difference between the 2 in my case.

Good to hear that the Progress is working well. The Hampton was undersized for the area being heated. Going from a 1.7 cu ft stove to a 2.8 cu ft stove is a significant factor.

 

[HarvestMan]

Good to hear that the Progress is working well. The Hampton was undersized for the area being heated. Going from a 1.7 cu ft stove to a 2.8 cu ft stove is a significant factor.

People believe what they choose to believe. Reason and logic rarely come into play. This is what I choose to believe!

 

[bjkjoseph]

Having both radiant stoves and convection in the same house..The convection is quicker to heat but,Once the radiant stoves have been on for a while there is no comparison...Radiant is the most comfortable...it heats the floors the walls and any object in the room...its the same heat as the sun and warms you down to your bones.

 

[begreen]

Almost all stoves are radiant from the front and top. Just ask my cat.

 

[TheRambler]

Good to hear that the Progress is working well. The Hampton was undersized for the area being heated. Going from a 1.7 cu ft stove to a 2.8 cu ft stove is a significant factor.

Yes i agree completely that having a larger stove is a big part of the equation. But the other side of the equation is having high ceilings, like 20ish ft high at the peak, the main floor 15-20, and even the bedrooms etc are still 10ft. Watm air rises as we all know, and it gets trapped or can , in high ceilings. Radiant does a better job in general in my situation. My ceiling temps were a good 20F cooler on average after switching stoves, while my overall house temp went up.

I voted radiant because if you have high ceilings warm air will get trapped or damed up in spots and prevent good distribution. A radiant stove is going to heat objects in its line of sight instead of using a blower to strip off heat from the stove and blow it into the room. Two stoves of like size may technically heat the same btus, but when it comes to distribution of that heat its largely dependent on the style of the house.

 

[Huntindog1]

I guess my example is comparing a stove with a blower forcing a high amount of air flow off the stove and mixing it up in the main room where the stove is. There are natural convective stoves and then we have just plain radiannt stoves. But like begreen said even radiant stoves have a convective aspect as well.

Too bring up another point is if its really cold out and you need every ounce of heat. As I have been there as once your thermal mass of your house gets cold its hard to take the house the other direction when its like -10 outside and wind is blowing wind chills to -20 or more.

Then getting heat to come off the stove quicker may call for use of the blower if you have one.

Question could be asked does a blower get more of the heat out of the stove before it gets up the flue? Most likely the answer is yes.