The Draft from Hell !!

[r_d_gard]

How many of you experience the following.

I fired up my freshly installed VC Encore CAT (2550) back at the end of October and am now running it every night when I get home from work. Up until about a week ago, I had reached insanity from trying to track down a draft that was entering the house from 'somewhere' upstairs. My house is a 2 storey house with the stair case in the middle of the house and the stove at the back of the house.

When I'd get home I'd light off the stove and after about an hour and a half the main level in the house warms up (and the 'draft' only appears after the main level warms up) I would then notice a cold draft (nay a torrent / river)coming down the stairs from the second level. So up I'd go up the stairs, cursing the kids, for opening a window. Never a window open. As time and fires went on I would troop upstairs with an 'incense' stick smoldering (I had to resort to something) to try and track where the incoming cold air was coming from. I could always trace it to the bed rooms but then the 'leaky' cold air would disappear. I have sealed all windows and no air gets in or out of these puppies now, to no avail.

Up until a week ago.

I had the stove fired up for the entire weekend. I noticed after about 6 hours the draft diminished. This also coincided with the second level being 'warm'.

So, here is my theory. It takes a little while for the main level of the house to become warm at which point the warm air has no place to go except up. Therefore the warm air shoots up the stair well to the hallway at the top of the stairs where the warm air is disbursed along the hallway into the bedrooms. As hot air rises, room must be made for the incoming warm air and the cold air in the upstairs bedrooms is pushed out of the way and 'sinks' back down the stair well and back to ward the stove. Once all the temps in the house equalize the transfer or movement of air reduces to the point that you can't feel it's movement anymore (<1ft per second (a figure from my underground mining days)) and the cold draft just disappears...

Thought I'd pass it on.

Ray

 

[Pagey]

Our Endeavor is downstairs about 5' away from our stairwell. I can sit on the 3rd step up from the bottom and feel the cold air coming down the stair well to be replaced by the warm air traveling higher up the stair well. The difference in the air temps is enough to give you a slight chill if you're in short sleeves or shorts. It's an interesting effect, but it's evidence of a working convection loop!

 

[Todd]

Yeah, I've found the same thing in my house. Cool air is down low traveling to the heat source and warm air up above moving away. Floor fans can help this process along quicker.

 

[gpcollen1]

I think that is relatively normal except for the cold air coming down the stairs at my house never really stops. If you sit on the bottom step of either staircase [split level hose], you will feel the cold 'draft'. I have never tried to measure the temp of this draft but assume it feels colder than it is because of the warm house.

Glad you got your sanity back...

 

[savageactor7]

...another reason why many experienced burners recommend fanning cold air toward the stove if you want to spread the heat out. It's a force of nature that small convection currents will establish themselves naturally.

 

[Motor7]

Cool post Ray....pun intended!

RD

 

[LLigetfa]

Ja, that's natural convection for you. My 1 - 1/2 storey home has a central open stairway and I experience the same draft. Works very well to keep an even temperature throughout the house. I designed the home so that the largest cold air return is at the base of the stairs and my woodstove blower draws that air down into the crawlspace.

Glad to hear the kids were found to be innocent despite the assumption of guilt.

 

[Pagey]

Glad to hear the kids were found to be innocent despite the assumption of guilt.

They're certainly guilty of something else, though. Only time will tell what.

 

[Retreadsme]

Rayza - your story made me smile. Isn't physics fun and interesting! Very well expressed, as less dense molecules (warm air) rise and more dense moles fall. At some point in a closed system there is equilibrium and as you said, the cold air stops coming down from the 2nd floor. (of course this is a short simple correlation - continued heating of the same air mass brings on some reversing activities - as all good firemen are aware hopefully.) I wish more young people would realize "science" is interesting, can be fun, and the principals are actually experienced/used by each of us every day.
Have a Merry Christmas and everyone be safe.

 

[LLigetfa]

Glad to hear the kids were found to be innocent despite the assumption of guilt.

They're certainly guilty of something else, though. Only time will tell what.

Ja, when my boys would complain about being unjustly punished, we would simply say "OK, then this applies to the time you (insert prior indiscretion here) and thought you got away with it". They were always surprised that we knew about it.

Back to the topic of draft, I'd stop short of calling mine "The Draft from Hell !!" now. The colder the house the greater the draft but we let the gas furnace come on so the house never gets that cold. I designed my house from the ground up and factored the wood stove in the design. There was much (heated) debate with my wife on the placement of the stove. She wanted it next to the stairwell and I put it at the far end of an ell (35' away) instead. While we were building, the wood stove was installed well before the gas furnace and when we would build daily fires that took the house from stone cold to T-shirt temps, noticed the "The Draft from Hell !!" at the time. Like the kids, I was found guilty by the wife about the placement before proven innocent.