Wood insert heat distribution and concerns-

[bywater56]

I have a 2 story salt box plus a great room off the back with a 2 szone heating system. I'm evaluating a wood insert but wasn't sure how well it would heat the great room and was wondering what to expect and best practices.. the thermostat is in the living room with the fireplace. I've attached a diagram of the first floor below.. the base is 28X34, the great room is 13X18 with a ceiling fan. The living room is front to back.. 14 X 28 (back of diagram).The stairs is right off the living room.. ..heat goes up.. what tempature can I expect in the great room..
I've live in New England(New Hampshire)

Thx




_________________________________________________
| | | |
| ______ |
| fireplace |
| |
| |
| |
| Living Room |
| |
|_________ __________________________ |
| | |
| Bath | |
| ____________________ |
__________________|_________ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | ______Stairs__________ |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | Kitchen | |
| Great Room | | |
| | | |
| | | Dining Room |
| | | |
| |
| |
________________________________________________________________|

 

[bywater56]

The diagram, specifically front of house way off.. front is to the right straight line

 

[btuser]

My house is about 70' long with a family room on one end, and 4br upstairs. House is pretty tight. Plain Jane Colonial.

Don't count on even heat. Our family room is about 80f and the rest of the house is about 65f. Personally I like it, because once we go to bed the heat dissapates eventually through the whole house to around an even 70f.

 

[Gooserider]

Inserts generally fall in the "wood stove / area heater" as opposed to the boiler room's "whole house" application, so I've moved your thread to the appropriate area Bywater, no big deal and welcome to the forums - it can take a bit to figure out the system of just where different questions should go.

In terms of your actual question, "ASCII art" drawings don't tend to survive most forum software very well - you are better off attaching a picture (either something done w/ a computer drawing package, or pen and paper and scanned or photographed...) I think I have a general idea of your layout however.

Heat distribution questions tend to be really tricky, as there are an incredible number of variables, and it seems no two setups are the same... A lot will depend on how open the passage between the great room and the rest of the house is, and if you can establish any sort of air flow pattern. If the great room opens to the kitchen and dining rooms through doors at each end, you might do pretty well, but if you only have doors at the far end of the house from the living room, you might not.

The rest of the house should do pretty well as long as the floor plan is fairly open, but the GR might be an issue. To make the best of it, I would look at picking an insert that tends more towards making convective heat with a blower, rather than radiant (This is something inserts tend towards anyway) and trying to figure out ways to encourage cold air movement from the GR towards the living room (Cold air is generally easier to move...)

Good luck with your planning...

Gooserider

 

[jcjohnston]

I have the same insert and had to add two vents to move air between the ceilingfloor to get more heat upstairs. Will be trying the theory of moving cold to the warm area this winter, as last what I did was suck heat from the first and blow into the second floor. My house is 2250 sqft with the insert in one corner of the family room with stairs going to second floor in the middle of the house. Both of the vents have fans in them.

 

[oconnor]

I have an American Foursquare two story with the insert in the living room. 600 sqft each on the main and upper levels. I get a good even temp thru the whole house by using a fan at floor level to circulate the cold air from the kitchen around to the living room, and convection takes care of the upstairs so long as the doors are open. My home is well air sealed and insulated with new windows, so I don't have many of the air/heat loss issues some older homes (75 years old) do.

Over the run of the day and night I have been within 2* Celsius if 21 degrees for the last month.