There are various ways of moving heat from a wood, pellet, coal or gas stove so that it covers more of your home. Obviously, the correct location of the stove in the first place is important. Here are some hints for other methods:
1. Get the optional blower (if your stove has one available) - if not, try a stovetop fan such as:
http://www.gkmmarketing.com/
2. Small computer-type fans are available for setting up in the corner of open door ways and moving heat from one room to another. Example at
http://tinyurl.com/5dmbgk
Or, you can mount such fans inside the wall:
http://www.tjernlund.com/Retail/aireshare.htm
3. In one story homes, a small bathroom-type fan can be mounted in the room with the stove and be ducted through the attic and down into another room. Do not use a powerful fan of any type as this may cause a negative pressure in the room with the stove.
Should you use your Central Heating system air returns to move heat from your space heater?
NO
There are code and safety issues involved.....AND also the fact that most such installations do not end up working good.
Think about it - a return duct is a very strong suction.....and you are putting it near a stove that needs to pull air from the room and send it up the chimney. The result could be the duct making the stove backdraft and then the smoke or smell spreading through the house.
Also, since the furnace is engineered to put 120,000 BTO or so into the air moving through it, the tiny amount of air coming in a room return slightly warmed (say 5,000 BTU) will be “lost in the sauce” so to speak!
My suggestion - don’t do it.
Use small fans...room to room fans, even a kitchen or ceiling bathroom fan. Or, just let the stove do the job it was designed to do...and get a central heat wood burner if you want to go that way. Sometimes an attempt to go just a bit too far.....ends up going too far.
Here is another link on the subject:
http://www.woodheat.org/move-heat-around.html
Added 3/31/09 - In addition to the 3 options listed above there are at least a couple other possible solutions:
4. Use a ceiling fan. In homes with open floor plans, but high ceilings, the heat will often stratify at ceiling level. To break up this heat pocket, run a ceiling fan on low speed. In the winter it is usually more comfortable to run the fan in reverse, blowing upward. It creates draft free air circulation by drawing the ceiling warm air down along the outside walls and then back up the center of the room.
5. Use a fan on the floor in the cool area and blow the cool air towards the stove. Although at first this seem counterintuitive, it really works well because you are working with natural convection. Cold migrates toward heat. As the cold air is blown towards the stove it will be replaced with warm air from the stove room. A common table fan running on low speed works well, so does a box fan or other directional floor fan.;Move_Stove_Heat_around_house
