OK, I built my new house last year and installed a Regency 2400M in the basment. The primary heat is oil hot water with cast iron rads. I had read online that the Venmar air circulation unit can be used in recirculation mode to help circulate hot air throughout the house. For those who don't know what the Venmar system is, its actually in our building codes to have it installed when building a new home. It helps filter the air in the house as well as keep the humidity at comfortable levels. Each section of the house has a small inlet and outlet in the ceiling that blows air in and sucks air out. It can be seen at www.venmar.ca. Anyway, I had read on the venmar site that if I upgraded to the Solo 2.0 unit and the ultima controller (like $500 more) I would be able to use a "recirculation mode" to move hot air around the house from a wood stove. In this mode, the unit stops taking cold air in from outside and simply circulates the hot air in the house. I was a bit sceptical at first, as I hadn't read anything about it anywhere but on the Venmar site.
I am happy to say, that it works perfectly
.. There is an outlet and inlet in the basement where the wood stove is located. By code, I wasn't allowed to suck air right above the stove in case it sucked smoke or fire through. However, the inlet on the other side of the basment still sucks enough of the hot air up and through the house, that after turning the recirculation mode on, it takes approximately 1/2 hour to see 1 to 2 degree changes on the main floor and 2nd floor of the house. Normally without this mode you would be waiting 2 to 3 hours. Put your hand on one of the outlet vents on the 2nd floor, and you can feel the heat.
I can confirm that this works great to distribute heat.
I am happy to say, that it works perfectly
.. There is an outlet and inlet in the basement where the wood stove is located. By code, I wasn't allowed to suck air right above the stove in case it sucked smoke or fire through. However, the inlet on the other side of the basment still sucks enough of the hot air up and through the house, that after turning the recirculation mode on, it takes approximately 1/2 hour to see 1 to 2 degree changes on the main floor and 2nd floor of the house. Normally without this mode you would be waiting 2 to 3 hours. Put your hand on one of the outlet vents on the 2nd floor, and you can feel the heat.I can confirm that this works great to distribute heat.
