So I have a 2 story colonial with a basement. Wood stove is on the 1st floor but due the layout, like most colonial homes, all the rooms are separated by walls. Right now the home has gas fired baseboard heat with 2 zones, upstairs and downstairs. No baseboards in the basement but the boiler being down there keeps it pretty warm. This is my first year with the stove setup and I am having great luck keeping zone 2 from running, the upstairs. Apparently the heat is coming out of the room with the stove and rising right up the steps. However, the 1st floor is running almost about the same as before the stove. So I am saving money with zone 2, but if I can figure out how to move this heat along the 1st floor it would be alot more. Currently I have an ecofan on the stove and a door mounted fan pulling air out of the room toward the area of the house opposite the steps. Does anyone have any ideas?
Tips on getting better heat circulation
- Thread starter sr73087
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This style colonial can be a challenge. Sometimes you can get a circular convection loop established to reach the other rooms.
How large are the openings between the stove room and adjacent rooms? Can you post a simple sketch of the floor plan?
How large are the openings between the stove room and adjacent rooms? Can you post a simple sketch of the floor plan?
![[Hearth.com] Tips on getting better heat circulation](/talk/data/attachments/242/242159-46438f736946c151d8751cf07822f268.jpg?hash=iGHRJlyHtQ)
I can see why the upstairs is getting warmer. Heat is naturally convecting. That is where the bulk of the hot air wants to go. Is this a freestanding wood stove or an insert? Does it have a blower on it and if yes, is the blower running?
Those corner fans don't do a lot and they tend to be noisy. As a test, take two table and/or box fans and put them on the floor at the room openings and run them on low speed. Have one blowing warm air out of the room and the other blowing cool air from the opposite side into the room. This would be fans a & c in this diagram. Or try the combo of fans at locations b & c, blowing cool air towards the stove room.
Like I said this would just be a test. Let the fans run for about an hour and measure temps in the dining room to see if they are having an effect. If not, it could be that there simply is too much heat heading upstairs.
![[Hearth.com] Tips on getting better heat circulation](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/242/242160-f5959f91a6b761759b73e2de2b208bed.jpg?hash=L2nj3dvKaI "[Hearth.com] Tips on getting better heat circulation")
Those corner fans don't do a lot and they tend to be noisy. As a test, take two table and/or box fans and put them on the floor at the room openings and run them on low speed. Have one blowing warm air out of the room and the other blowing cool air from the opposite side into the room. This would be fans a & c in this diagram. Or try the combo of fans at locations b & c, blowing cool air towards the stove room.
Like I said this would just be a test. Let the fans run for about an hour and measure temps in the dining room to see if they are having an effect. If not, it could be that there simply is too much heat heading upstairs.
I'd try putting a small fan on the floor in the dining room, on low, just inside the doorway and angling toward the stove room door. Ideally, that will move cool air into the stove room door at the bottom and displace warm air out the tops of the doorways at A and C.
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