Trying to get hot air to circulate from basement to 1 floor

[seanie99]

I have a harman p68 in the basement of my 1600 ft bilevel. The heat in the basement is great. I am trying to get more heat to the 1 floor. The stove is facing entrance that goes to the stairs and is 10 ft away. My ceilings are low 7 feet. Thanks for your help

 

[MtDew]

I have a Ranch style home with my P38+ in my basement. It is located about 8-10 feet away from my stairs to the main floor. I have used a box fan, aimed up the stairs to push heated air to the main floor. Normally though I have to run the stove slightly warmer for the basement to have the main floor at a comfortable temp. Some may suggest cutting in floor vents to allow the heat from the basement to flow to the main floor. Not sure what the fire codes are but would check with someone in your area before doing so.

 

[hockeyfan]

I run a cold air return fan at the bottom of the staircase toward the stove. Pointing the fan up the stairs to push the heat to the main floor also works, although some say the cold air return fan works better. For each house it takes some experimenting to get results, but if there is no natural ducting, in my experience you'll have to accept some degree of uneven heating.

 

[kenstogie]

What the above folks have said, though to be honest my friends who have pellet stoves did put registers in knowing it's against code as it provides a circulation of air. That's the best gig a place to pull the air from upstairs and push the air from downstairs to upstairs. Others have timers that will run thier air fans in the house for a few minutes every hour.

 

[bee_2102]

I just put a register in over the weekend and have noticed a difference in the amount of heat that is making it's way to the first floor. I have an accentra insert installed in my finished basement. I put the register in the furthest I could from the stove and I am thinking about putting one in directly above the stove.

 

[bdaoust]

I have a similar setup. P68 in basement of 1,200 sqft ranch. I do have two registers, but when I put my foot/hand on one (located in same room as stove), I barely feel heat! My guess is distribution blower is blowing most of heat past to where the register is. My P68 is about 10 feet from the stairs.

I did find that putting a fan on the floor of my living room (which is above the stove) pointing to the stairwell, seems to make my living room heat up faster! Still experimenting that that though. I do have a ceiling fan in my living room, but putting that on reverse did not seem to help.

 

[seanie99]

Thanks to all for your help. I will start experimenting. To those that installed registers, what kind did you use and how far from stove did you put them

 

[rowerwet]

I have a friend who heats his house with a stove in the basement, he leaves the door to the stairs (central) open and has a small fan in each corner of the house blowing down to help draw the heat to each corner

 

[mik_kane]

I have a similar setup. P68 in basement of 1,200 sqft ranch. I do have two registers, but when I put my foot/hand on one (located in same room as stove), I barely feel heat! My guess is distribution blower is blowing most of heat past to where the register is. My P68 is about 10 feet from the stairs.

I have a fan in the basement pointing up the stairs and a register in the floor too, and have noticed that the cold air on the floor is pushed down as the fan is pushing the hot air up. So basically you will not feel any hot air from the register. Try and put your hand over the register in the basement you will feel it.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Expect a 10 degree difference in temps form one floor to the next.

 

[bdaoust]

I have a fan in the basement pointing up the stairs and a register in the floor too, and have noticed that the cold air on the floor is pushed down as the fan is pushing the hot air up. So basically you will not feel any hot air from the register. Try and put your hand over the register in the basement you will feel it.

Not sure I'm following you. So your saying I'll never feel the heat through that register?

 

[cpmken]

I have an XXV in the lower level of my raised ranch (installed last fall) which sits on the far wall directly facing the stairs. I was very happy with the amount of heat flow between floors by doing nothing..... if you stand on the lower set of stairs you can feel the warm air flowing past your head while the cold air is moving down past your feet. A candle flame in fact is horizontal in each respective direction. I did try putting a floor fan blowing the cold air coming down the stairs right at the stove and to be honest I did not see any big difference in the heat on the upper level (the was generally about a 10 degree drop in temperature). More tinkering this winter but I am almost certain I will not try any floor vents as it very well could interrupt the air flow I now have.

 

[mik_kane]

Not sure I'm following you. So your saying I'll never feel the heat through that register?

I have the same setup as you do. If you go into the basement you will feel cold air coming down. The fan is pushing the hot air up so whatever is going up has to circulate down in through the register. You probably will not feel hot air coming up through the register. I know I don't and my register is a few feet from the stove.

 

[bdaoust]

So your fan is in the basement blowing up the stairs? Currently mine is in the living room, blowing towards the basements stairs- but the fan doesn't have a line of sight to the stairs.

So if we don't feel heat - the whats the point of the registers - are they just to complete the loop for the circulation of air?

I should note that I also have a second set of stairs going to the third level of the house (basement, first floor and second floor)

The thermostat on the second floor reads about the same as my living room - however, it often feels a bit cooler and sometimes when I sit in my living room it feels like cool air is coming down from my second level.

 

[bellini13]

Expect a 10 degree difference in temps form one floor to the next.

care to elaborate why?

 

[Seasoned Oak]

care to elaborate why?

Even with a strong air current you wont get the other floors as warm as the one where the stove is. The stove room is benefitting from radiant heat as we as hot air.
In my house while the basement is 85 (where the stove is) the floor above wont get warmer than 75-76 even with a lot of air moving.

 

[mik_kane]

So your fan is in the basement blowing up the stairs? Currently mine is in the living room, blowing towards the basements stairs- but the fan doesn't have a line of sight to the stairs. So if we don't feel heat - the whats the point of the registers - are they just to complete the loop for the circulation of air?

Sorry I must of read another persons comment and tied it to you. The register in my house completes the circulation of the fan blowing the hot air upstairs. So the register is pushing the cold air down.

 

[bellini13]

Even with a strong air current you wont get the other floors as warm as the one where the stove is. The stove room is benefitting from radiant heat as we as hot air.
In my house while the basement is 85 (where the stove is) the floor above wont get warmer than 75-76 even with a lot of air moving.

Is your basement a large single room, or multiple rooms divided by walls and doors? I'm just trying to establish if your basement is receiving the benefit of radiant heat b/c there is only a single room.

My stove is located on my first floor in a back room and can easily reach 85-90 degrees. The rest of the first floor will maintain 75-78, but only if i run fans to distribute the heat to the rest of the first floor rooms.

My second floor does not receive this same benefit, and I am lucky if it gets to 70-72, and trying to find some options for this.

So it would seem that your statement is not necessarily related to heat movement between floors, but just to heat movement in general and not receiving the benefit of radiant heat.

 

[mik_kane]

Is your basement a large single room, or multiple rooms divided by walls and doors? I'm just trying to establish if your basement is receiving the benefit of radiant heat b/c there is only a single room.

My stove is located on my first floor in a back room and can easily reach 85-90 degrees. The rest of the first floor will maintain 75-78, but only if i run fans to distribute the heat to the rest of the first floor rooms.

My second floor does not receive this same benefit, and I am lucky if it gets to 70-72, and trying to find some options for this.

So it would seem that your statement is not necessarily related to heat movement between floors, but just to heat movement in general and not receiving the benefit of radiant heat.

If you have central air in your house you should maybe look into ThermGuard http://www.bearmountaindesign.com/

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Is your basement a large single room, or multiple rooms divided by walls and doors? I'm just trying to establish if your basement is receiving the benefit of radiant heat b/c there is only a single room.
My stove is located on my first floor in a back room and can easily reach 85-90 degrees. The rest of the first floor will maintain 75-78, but only if i run fans to distribute the heat to the rest of the first floor rooms.
My second floor does not receive this same benefit, and I am lucky if it gets to 70-72, and trying to find some options for this.
So it would seem that your statement is not necessarily related to heat movement between floors, but just to heat movement in general and not receiving the benefit of radiant heat.

My stove is in a separate 18x20 room in the basement and yes it gets 90-95 degrees in there. The adjoining room 24x24 stays about 85. From there I direct the air up thru a floor vent to the 2nd floor family room and kitchen which stays around 75 ,and the 3rd floor where the bedrooms are stays about 68-70. Each floor is about 1000SF. 3000 in all. This takes moving a lot of air. I never tried it without the fans. I assume the temp differences would be much larger.

 

[ClanCameron]

My stove is in a separate 18x20 room in the basement and yes it gets 90-95 degrees in there. The adjoining room 24x24 stays about 85. From there I direct the air up thru a floor vent to the 2nd floor family room and kitchen which stays around 75 ,and the 3rd floor where the bedrooms are stays about 68-70. Each floor is about 1000SF. 3000 in all. This takes moving a lot of air. I never tried it without the fans. I assume the temp differences would be much larger.

What are your outdoors temps with those indoor room temps? Wondering how they shift for each outdoor 10 degree drop.

 

[bellini13]

If you have central air in your house you should maybe look into ThermGuard http://www.bearmountaindesign.com/

Yes, this is one of the options I am pursuing. Currently my HVAC system's fan/circulation mode only works at 10% power. I do run it to try to circulate the warm air rising up the stairs to the second floor into the various bedrooms, however it has little effect.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

What are your outdoors temps with those indoor room temps? Wondering how they shift for each outdoor 10 degree drop.

I dont run my stove unless its below 40 outside. It just gets too hot inside. Once the stove is up to temp the air setting is turned all the way down. I burn mostly pine. Oak for overnight sometimes.