Wife hates the floor fans.... :(

[Bster13]

I have a BK Princess Insert with a blower making noise, plus 4 other 12in desk fans on the floor blowing cold air from various parts of the house into the stove room.

She hates the noise, the look, the rushing air, and the tripping hazards all over the place.

Has anyone compared the ability of doorway fans (https://www.google.com/search?q=doo...IIbpkQfs4IDIBQ&ved=0CHIQsAQ&biw=1920&bih=1009) to pull hot air into a room vs. the ability of floor fans to push cold air into the stove room? Are they any more quiet?

I have a one story home so moving heat horizontally is a PIA. Any advice is welcome. Thanks.

 

[higginscl]

I have one of the Entreeair fans and i can tell you its very noisy. It moves some air but for the amount of noise I think the fans you are using are probably quieter and move way more air.

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

Is this your only source of heat?

 

[Augie]

Can you make a path for the hot air to get as easily from the stove room to the coldest part of the house? Examples of things that might help are cutting out the area above doorways and adding vents, Floor Vents or through wall vents. If you can get hot air easily to the coldest part of your house it will cool, fall to the floor, and return to the stove along the floor as hot air from above replaces it. You are encouraging a convection loop to set up naturally this way, instead of using fans to force the convection loop.

Provide a floor plan and Ill try to mark it up with the changes/additions that I think would help.

 

[bryankloos]

I installed the Entreair door vent a couple days ago. It does a good job of moving warm air but at the cost of noise. It is not quiet.
I may look into some PC fans and see what I can rig up that moves a decent amount of air but makes less noise.

 

[Todd]

Ceiling fan

 

[DanCorcoran]

Moving the cold air toward the stove is always going to easier and more efficient. What about installing small, quiet 4-6" muffin fans in the walls of adjoining rooms, at floor level? You still have the cool breeze, but no tripping hazard or unsightly fans.

 

[BrotherBart]

I used the fan in the top corner of a door method for decades. And noticed the difference in going with the fans on the floor blowing down the stairs back toward the stove within and hour. And ain't ever going back. I have an Entreair and it the is the noisiest, low cfm piece of junk I have ever owned. It is in a drawer in the garage.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

I have a one story home so moving heat horizontally is a PIA. Any advice is welcome. Thanks.

Yea that gets old fast.All The various fans here and there. I have floor vents that need air pushed up into the next level so ill be looking into some kind of permanent in floor mounted out of sight fan
that i dont have to look at and trip over. If i were just circulating on the same level they would be in the wall somewhere.

 

[Bster13]

Honestly the easiest way to do this would be by relocating the return for the air handler/ A/C in the hallway to the stove room. I mean I already have this great system that distributes cold air during the summer to all reaches of the house.... but all I ever hear is that folks lose all the heat in the attic ducting when they do this which does not make sense. Why are the insulated ducts good enough for cool air not to lose it's coolness, but not good enough for hot air to retain it's hotness?

 

[mrjohneel]

I have a little (10"?) Vornado compact "circulator" that is very quiet.

 

[Bster13]

I actually think 2 of the 4 fans I have are very quiet, but I think the aesthetics is where my wife objects the most and wind at her ankles all the time.

 

[PLAYS WITH FIRE]

i had this problem with my wife also and it was 1 fan.....I said ok and turned the fan off. She got cold and then SHE turned the fan on! I win...

 

[Sons924]

i've been thinking about saving up for a dyson fan for the really cold nights, just to push more air into my far bedrooms. They are expensive, but seem to push the air well in online reviews. Maybe even a hot and cold dyson. Still cheaper then a tank of oil.

 

[John-Eddie]

I just started using one of the little Honeywell fans on the floor of the coldest room, and the difference was immediate. That particular brand is pretty quiet, and my wife is very sensitive to anything noisy, so it passes that test here.

-JE

 

[PLAYS WITH FIRE]

Ain't no way I blow that kinda coin on a Dyson fan! Check out the cfm ratings compared to some 20" box fans that put out 2 times the cfm for 10 times les the money. To each their own....

 

[Sons924]

i understand that they are expensive and underpowered. This guy is trying to appease the wife though.

 

[weatherguy]

Honestly the easiest way to do this would be by relocating the return for the air handler/ A/C in the hallway to the stove room. I mean I already have this great system that distributes cold air during the summer to all reaches of the house.... but all I ever hear is that folks lose all the heat in the attic ducting when they do this which does not make sense. Why are the insulated ducts good enough for cool air not to lose it's coolness, but not good enough for hot air to retain it's hotness?

Have you tried it? If your ducts are insulated you have a better chance of the air not cooling. I have insulated ducts under the floor and it does a decent job of circulating the warm air around the house. My return is located in the stove room though so that may help. I wouldn't want fans on the floors either unless it was my last option.

 

[Bster13]

Dyson fan is crazy, but thx for the idea. I still don't have an logical reason why the duct work in my attic would work for cooling but not for heating. Any takers?

 

[Nick Mystic]

I have what would seem to be the ideal situation for moving hot air from the stove downstairs and distributing it through the insulated duct work for the central AC/heating system and I can tell you categorically that it just won't do the job. Bstr13, the difference with running the cool AC air through the duct work has to do with the differential between the cool air and the rooms it is going to. When I put a thermometer at my floor vent with my central AC running it reads in the upper 50s while the rooms are say around 80. So, it's coming out at say 56 degrees after losing a certain amount of its "coolness" in transit through the duct work. Now when I pull heated air out of my den downstairs at my wood stove the hottest that room gets is maybe 75 since the basement has cinder block walls with no insulation. Even if I didn't lose any heat during transit 75 degree air is not enough to warm up a room when it's coming out of a floor register.

 

[Bster13]

Why wouldn't 75F be enough? Run long enough, would it equalize?

 

[BrotherBart]

Because your house is losing heat faster than air is coming out of that little vent. People complain about heat pumps not keeping them warm and the air coming out of their registers is around 95 degrees usually. In fact that is why if feels cool to their skin because their skin is around 98 degrees.

If you stove was run at 75 degrees would it keep the house warm?

 

[Bster13]

I'm not sure what you mean here. My stove room is regularly 75F and it keeps the stove room warn of course, but the farthest reach of the house is 62F and that's with an 18in fan blowing on the ground and full force.

If you stove was run at 75 degrees would it keep the house warm?

 

[earl764]

Get a thermguard. Have it run for 5 minutes every 30 minutes.

Once enabled it will keep the place even.

 

[Bster13]

It looks like some sort of timer...

But in one section it talks of periodically turning on the furnace fan to circulate stove heat....ok cool.

But the section underneath that talks about circulating hot boiler water through pipes to keep them from freezing?

Get a thermguard. Have it run for 5 minutes every 30 minutes.

Once enabled it will keep the place even.