# Circulating warm air to other rooms?



## skmag357 (Jan 15, 2010)

Hey guys,
My stove is in a small addition on the front part of my house. I was wondering how you guys circulate the warm air into other areas of the house? The stove heats downstairs but upstairs is pretty cold. Right now, I am using to box fans to move the air.Let me know. thanks


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## bushinspector (Jan 15, 2010)

Very difficut thing to do since cold air is heaver than warm air. One of the things that I have been paying attention to is to use a fan to push the cold air OUT. Circulating warm air will natually occur if there is a negative pressure in the room.


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## stint (Jan 15, 2010)

Old center hall colonial Farmhouse.

What worked wonders for me with Jotul F600 in living room.
Put a floor resister in each end of room with stove. Cold air billows down from upstairs stairway, and warm air blasts up thru vents.
http://www.floorregisters.net/

Used 2 vents on each end, one in ceiling, and directly above it, one in floor upstairs.

Actually will almost blow out candle sometime with moving air...all convection, no electricity$$ for more fans


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## sachsmo (Jan 15, 2010)

Read that you should push the cold air towards the stove. The warm air will fill in the voids and have a "train" effect. If you have a forced air furnace, you could try running just the fan to circulate some warm air. (if cold air return is near the stove)


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## CrappieKeith (Jan 15, 2010)

When I was a kid our farm house had grates in the floor upstairs in every room. We had an old pot belly in the basement with a 5x5 grate over it.Our whole house heated on gravity.


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## mga (Jan 15, 2010)

i pull the cold air into the it.

has worked great for me.


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## numnuts (Jan 15, 2010)

I had the same issue, although we are in a 1 level ranch style home. My solution, albeit rather involved, works fantastically. I bought a Panasonic FV-40NLF1 8" inline vent blower. Very quite and very efficient (132W 120V). Had I known, I would have gotton a smaller blower, 440 CFM is way too much and had to throttle it down. The ceiling in the living room (where the stove is) is vaulted so it collects heat real well. I installed a 12" sq intake duct at the peak of the ceiling and then distrubute via 4" ducts to small registers in each bedroom. I have it thermostatically controlled so when the room heats up, the fan turns on. If the fire burns down and the room cools down, the fan turns off. Really sweet setup that has allowed me to not run the furnace yet this year. People are pretty impressed with how even the temp is in our house.


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## Tim Carroll (Jan 15, 2010)

I use the fan on my forced air furnace to move the heat around. I think that the fan is not so much pushing the warm air out the air vents but pulling the heat toward the cold air returns. The result of this is that my upstairs (2100 sq ft) is toasty warm but the basement is much cooler.


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## coog (Jan 15, 2010)

CrappieKeith said:


> When I was a kid our farm house had grates in the floor upstairs in every room. We had an old pot belly in the basement with a 5x5 grate over it.Our whole house heated on gravity.



Not a lot of secrets in a house like that,eh?


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## CrappieKeith (Jan 15, 2010)

coog said:


> Not a lot of secrets in a house like that,eh?



Not many.....you had to bring that up ...didn'tcha!


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## coog (Jan 15, 2010)

CrappieKeith said:


> Not many.....you had to bring that up ...didn'tcha!



A few good memories of staying at my Great Uncles.He and his wife were still _obviously_ fond of one another! Great stuff for a 10 year old.


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## logbutcher (Jan 15, 2010)

coog said:


> A few good memories of staying at my Great Uncles.He and his wife were still _obviously_ fond of one another! Great stuff for a 10 year old.



You need help. 
How old did you say you are ?:monkey:


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## reccutter (Jan 15, 2010)

logbutcher said:


> You need help.
> How old did you say you are ?:monkey:


 Hey what's wrong with that, he did say "Great" Uncle and his Wife. Lol


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## reccutter (Jan 15, 2010)

numnuts said:


> I had the same issue, although we are in a 1 level ranch style home. My solution, albeit rather involved, works fantastically. I bought a Panasonic FV-40NLF1 8" inline vent blower. Very quite and very efficient (132W 120V). Had I known, I would have gotton a smaller blower, 440 CFM is way too much and had to throttle it down. The ceiling in the living room (where the stove is) is vaulted so it collects heat real well. I installed a 12" sq intake duct at the peak of the ceiling and then distrubute via 4" ducts to small registers in each bedroom. I have it thermostatically controlled so when the room heats up, the fan turns on. If the fire burns down and the room cools down, the fan turns off. Really sweet setup that has allowed me to not run the furnace yet this year. People are pretty impressed with how even the temp is in our house.



I had the same idea in mind. For now I'm keeping the ceiling fan above stove running. Stoves in living room and bedrooms still a little cool.My question from a HVAC point of view would it make more sense to suck air from bedrooms and blow it to above stove? or vice versa?


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## logbutcher (Jan 15, 2010)

reccutter said:


> Hey what's wrong with that, he did say "Great" Uncle and his Wife. Lol



Whiskey Tango Foxtrot ----You both need help.


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## coog (Jan 15, 2010)

logbutcher said:


> Whiskey Tango Foxtrot ----You both need help.



Maybe, but at least I shun dead languages.I'm sure my Uncle knew, as we all do, that there were times when the woodstove was just a little short on btu's to provide total comfort.


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## jimdad07 (Jan 15, 2010)

reccutter said:


> I had the same idea in mind. For now I'm keeping the ceiling fan above stove running. Stoves in living room and bedrooms still a little cool.My question from a HVAC point of view would it make more sense to suck air from bedrooms and blow it to above stove? or vice versa?



If you are pulling the air off of the ceiling, then you are forcing it to other points which in turn force the cold air to the heated space because that is the only place that is left for the air to go unless you have the doors to your other rooms closed, at that point, you will build static pressure and won't move any air. Basically all you have to do is get the air moving and it will circulate the cold air back to the stove to get heated. I have the same setup in my house where I have the stove on one end in a great room with a vaulted ceiling and a cold air return in the ceiling. When the living room gets too hot, I turn the blower on and it pulls the warm air out and sends it to the rest of the house. This does not work very well if you are pulling the air too fast. I have a Trane variable speed furnace that I have set the dip switches to the lowest speed setting on the blower. The slower the better.


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## unclemoustache (Jan 15, 2010)

coog said:


> Not a lot of secrets in a house like that,eh?



Speaking of secrets, my brother and his wife kept a baby monitor in their bedroom when the baby slept, and the speaker was in the kitchen/living room area. Sometimes they would forget to turn the monitor off when they went to bed, and when relatives came to visit for several days,...well, let's just say there was great potential for some very interesting listening!!

To get back to the thread, I had planned to do the convection thing also, but never got around to it, being somewhat hesitant to cut holes in the floor/ceiling. I think I might do the fan, but it wouldn't help keep the upstairs warmer.


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## reccutter (Jan 15, 2010)

Thanks NN and Jd, definitely going to hook up a small inline fan in attic above stove.Run ducts to bedrooms maybe even basement.I like the t-stat idea sometimes the living room can get very warm to the point of opening windows.


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## jimdad07 (Jan 15, 2010)

reccutter said:


> Thanks NN and Jd, definitely going to hook up a small inline fan in attic above stove.Run ducts to bedrooms maybe even basement.I like the t-stat idea sometimes the living room can get very warm to the point of opening windows.



I am an HVAC tech for a living (hope I don't sound like a cocky d$%k), if you need any advice, just send a pm and I will help all I can.


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## JFerg65 (Jan 16, 2010)

Last night I put a small fan in my hallway and just pointed it down the hall back to the end of the house where the stove is. WOW! that is the trick!! my daughters room went from 64 to 69 in about an hour. You could really feel the warm air heading down the hall to the back bedrooms. 
THANKS for the IDEA!! We are now set.


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## Wirenut2266 (Jan 16, 2010)

Numnuts: First of all I like the name! Next, did you install vent pipe in attic? If so, did you bury in insulation or other? Just curious, I may do something like you did in summer?












numnuts said:


> I had the same issue, although we are in a 1 level ranch style home. My solution, albeit rather involved, works fantastically. I bought a Panasonic FV-40NLF1 8" inline vent blower. Very quite and very efficient (132W 120V). Had I known, I would have gotton a smaller blower, 440 CFM is way too much and had to throttle it down. The ceiling in the living room (where the stove is) is vaulted so it collects heat real well. I installed a 12" sq intake duct at the peak of the ceiling and then distrubute via 4" ducts to small registers in each bedroom. I have it thermostatically controlled so when the room heats up, the fan turns on. If the fire burns down and the room cools down, the fan turns off. Really sweet setup that has allowed me to not run the furnace yet this year. People are pretty impressed with how even the temp is in our house.


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## olyman (Jan 16, 2010)

CrappieKeith said:


> When I was a kid our farm house had grates in the floor upstairs in every room. We had an old pot belly in the basement with a 5x5 grate over it.Our whole house heated on gravity.



convection--


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## skmag357 (Jan 17, 2010)

numnuts said:


> I had the same issue, although we are in a 1 level ranch style home. My solution, albeit rather involved, works fantastically. I bought a Panasonic FV-40NLF1 8" inline vent blower. Very quite and very efficient (132W 120V). Had I known, I would have gotton a smaller blower, 440 CFM is way too much and had to throttle it down. The ceiling in the living room (where the stove is) is vaulted so it collects heat real well. I installed a 12" sq intake duct at the peak of the ceiling and then distrubute via 4" ducts to small registers in each bedroom. I have it thermostatically controlled so when the room heats up, the fan turns on. If the fire burns down and the room cools down, the fan turns off. Really sweet setup that has allowed me to not run the furnace yet this year. People are pretty impressed with how even the temp is in our house.



This is exactly what I planned on doing at my house. I wasn't sure what size fan to use. I only really care about heating my bedroom and the bathroom upstairs. There is a floor joist that runs down from the stove to the bedroom and bathroom. How far are you moving the air from the stove? what size fan would you recommend? when you installed the intake, was the fan directly behind the register? Is the thermostat included with that fan or did you have to purchase seperately? Can you pm me the full list of everything needed for the project? I would greatly appreciate it as I have vaulted ceiling as well so it would be perfect...thanks!


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## 046 (Jan 17, 2010)

sounds like a slick solution!!!



numnuts said:


> I had the same issue, although we are in a 1 level ranch style home. My solution, albeit rather involved, works fantastically. I bought a Panasonic FV-40NLF1 8" inline vent blower. Very quite and very efficient (132W 120V). Had I known, I would have gotton a smaller blower, 440 CFM is way too much and had to throttle it down. The ceiling in the living room (where the stove is) is vaulted so it collects heat real well. I installed a 12" sq intake duct at the peak of the ceiling and then distrubute via 4" ducts to small registers in each bedroom. I have it thermostatically controlled so when the room heats up, the fan turns on. If the fire burns down and the room cools down, the fan turns off. Really sweet setup that has allowed me to not run the furnace yet this year. People are pretty impressed with how even the temp is in our house.


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## bwmcintyre (Jan 18, 2010)

Numnuts - I've thought of doing the exact same thing in our house. A ceiling fan does well to move some of the air towards the hall where our bedrooms are, but our master bathroom and one of the rooms at the corner of the house suffer from lack of heat. Nothing like getting a shower on a cold day when the temp in the bathroom is in the 50s ... brrr.


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## JFerg65 (Jan 18, 2010)

Not to beat a dead horse here but before you go and drop all that coin into a duct system, you should really try the pointing a small fan on the floor near the rooms or rooms you are trying to heat and point it down the hall back toward the stove. We have our two rooms that prior to doing that we had a hard time getting above 65. With a hot stove and the fan, the rooms stay right at 70 degrees, all for a $15.00 fan on low. The next thing will try to find one that is efficient as possible.


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## mga (Jan 18, 2010)

if your wood burner uses a blower that draws air from the same room, run duct from a far end of the house so that it draws the cold air from that room into your wood burner.


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## numnuts (Jan 19, 2010)

skmag357 said:


> This is exactly what I planned on doing at my house. I wasn't sure what size fan to use. I only really care about heating my bedroom and the bathroom upstairs. There is a floor joist that runs down from the stove to the bedroom and bathroom. How far are you moving the air from the stove? what size fan would you recommend? when you installed the intake, was the fan directly behind the register? Is the thermostat included with that fan or did you have to purchase seperately? Can you pm me the full list of everything needed for the project? I would greatly appreciate it as I have vaulted ceiling as well so it would be perfect...thanks!



I am running the ducting to 3 bedrooms. The furthest(and coldest in more than one way) is the master bedroom, it is about 30' from the intake duct. I bought 1/2" foam board that has thin foil on 1 side to make my intake and exhaust plenums. The intake utilizes a 12" x 12" filter and grate(a filter here is strongly recommended after plugging one in 1 season!). Then I ran 8" ducting to the fan somewhat centrally located to the 3 rooms (all of this is obviously in the attic). On the outlet side of the fan I built and mounted another plenum which has 3 - 4" outlets. Those run to 4" x 6" (I think) registers in the ceiling of the respective bedrooms. I used flexible, insulated ducting. I used a whole box to run the 8" from the intake to the fan, 25' per box I believe. It then worked out that a 25' box of 4" was just enough to run to the 3 rooms. Eveything but the fan and thermostat were purchased at the big orange box store.

I have learned that you really want to try and keep the length of the outlet ducts as close to the same to balance flow and noise. For my application, a 440 CFM fan is waaaay more than enough, probably 1/2 that would be sufficient, but I was sailing uncharted waters and took a guess thinking the bigger the better. Anyway, I ended up installing a fan speed control to slow the sucker down. As mentioned speed is not paramount, and the noise of all that air running through the register was a bit much....the fan is real quiet, but the rushing air is not when turned up all the way.

The thermostat is a great idea, in theory. Unfortunately it didn't work as planned. I used a 110V A/C thermostat and I think I either have it mounted in a poor location or it just isn't sensative enough. I think the latter is more than likely. The idea is that, say it is set at 70°. When the living room gets to setpoint, the thermostat thinks you want to cool it down, and turns the fan on. It should stay on as long as the stove is putting out heat and the room is more than setpoint. Once the fire goes out and the temp drops sufficiently enough, it will turn off the blower. I have since removed the T-stat and replaced it with the fan speed controller like you would use to control a ceiling fan. I may look into a real thermostat in conjuction with a relay to control the fan. I believe most home thermostats use 18V(?) to control relays to turn on/off the various HVAC systems, so there's a little more BS associated with installation of that system. My stove fan is also thermostatically controlled. When the fire goes out, usually about 3 or 4 AM, and the stove cools down to about 100°, it turns off. The the room temp will drop below setpoint and turn the fan off so you are not circulating cool air. That's how it works on paper.

I had the stove for 2 years before the fan and it was never real comfortable in the house. It was smoking hot in the living room and freezing in the bedrooms. Mama was not happy. The fan installation has really made a huge differance in the balance of the temp in the house. The kitchen and dining rooms are adjacent to the living room so the temp is not an issue there.

If there's enough interest I could probably drag my butt up there for some pics of my setup.

As if this response wasn't long enough.....opcorn:
I did all this right before Christmas of 2008. I had _just_ completed renovating the living room, which consisted of scraping the popcorn texture off the ceiling, plugging the 9" square ceiling light holes, and installation of can lights, and a whole lot more. Anyway, the actual fan / plenum / ducting was done on Christmas eve. As I was traversing across the vaulted ceiling I stumbled and guess what....I made a new access point to the living room from the attic through my freshly completed ceiling.:jawdrop: I wasn't hurt physically, but a man will go through an enormous range of emotions when he has just ruined a project that took several weeks to complete. Nothing is better than blasting off to HD to get a sheet of sheetrock 5min. before the store closes and doing a little sheetrock on Christmas eve! Got the hole plugged before Santa showed up.

That's enough....


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## bwmcintyre (Jan 19, 2010)

_As I was traversing across the vaulted ceiling I stumbled and guess what....I made a new access point to the living room from the attic through my freshly completed ceiling. I wasn't hurt physically, but a man will go through an enormous range of emotions when he has just ruined a project that took several weeks to complete. Nothing is better than blasting off to HD to get a sheet of sheetrock 5min. before the store closes and doing a little sheetrock on Christmas eve! Got the hole plugged before Santa showed up._

Oh man .. I can identify with this one! One of the early trips I made up into our attic space included an extra "vent" being created by my foot. Fortunately, it was in the utility room, not the most visible part of the house. I still get crap about it every time I have to get up there for something.

I really appreciate the info you shared .. as I have thought about doing the exact same thing, but wondered how effective it would be. The other suggestions about using a fan are great, but due to the layout of the rooms, wouldn't be as effective.


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## Techstuf (Jan 19, 2010)

Our stove sits in an unfinished basement and heats the whole house, all three levels, (including basement) around 2650sqf. If one has central air, it is not all that complicated to make a metal shroud around part of the stove with a bit of stove pipe plumbed into the system. Furnace fan will draw air over and around the stove, providing plenty of heat. Get yourself an 'aircycler', which is simply a timer for running the central air fan at programmed intervals. Since our main floor already stays toasty via heat conducted through the floor and sent up the main stairwell, we cover half of all return air ducts, and close the vents to all but the coolest room on the main floor and the second floor.


Works great with hardly a noticeable difference on electric bill.



Blessings in Christ Yeshua


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## CrappieKeith (Jan 20, 2010)

Hey numnuts....you been messing around dingeryote?...just asking cause with a handle like that I figured you been splitting wood with him or something?


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## numnuts (Jan 20, 2010)

CrappieKeith said:


> Hey numnuts....you been messing around dingeryote?...just asking cause with a handle like that I figured you been splitting wood with him or something?



No, but if he's offering to help, I'm all in. The fact that I came through the ceiling might be foretelling.....


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## skmag357 (Feb 5, 2011)

well a year later I finally installed my air moving system. I have an intake above the stove with 220 cfm fan connected to 20 feet of insulated ductwork that runs to our bedroom. There is one S bend to get through a rafter and a slight rise into our room. The problem is that there is hardly any air flow in our room and any air that comes out it is cold....any suggestions? The fan is directly behind the intake as well


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## jimdad07 (Feb 6, 2011)

Glad to hear you got it in. You say there is little air flow in your bedroom? Is this with the door closed? If it is you might have static pressure built up, meaning if the air can't get out, then it won't bring it in. As far as the cold air goes, you may be moving it too fast and it is cooling down by the time it gets to your room. Trying to circulate warm air from your woodstove is not like pushing hot air off of a heat exchanger in a furnace, it is not nearly as hot and it needs a much lower cfm to keep it from cooling down too much.


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## skmag357 (Feb 6, 2011)

I went off the earlier recommendations of lowering the cfm to 220 vs 440. The door is open from our bedroom but that doesn't seem to help. Does the number of turns or the angle of the turns reduce both air speed and temp??


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## RacerX (Feb 6, 2011)

Many of these attic ducting scenarios sound great but installing the vents in the ceiling is not the most efficient use of the heat. The duct should run down from the attic in the wall and the vents should be down near the floor. That does create a problem with trying to blow the warm air down however.


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## Billy_Bob (Feb 6, 2011)

I use fans, doors, the weather forecast, and indoor/outdoor thermometers.

Fans to circulate heat to other rooms.

At night, if it is going to be real cold, I heat up the living room real good, then close the bedroom door so I don't roast myself. Then in the morning the living room will be somewhat warm. Might open the bedroom door in the early morning if I get cold.

And if I should build a big fire or not before going to bed... This depends on the weather forecast and the outside temperatures.

Also same with during the day. If it is supposed to be cold that day, I'll keep a good fire going. If it is supposed to be warm, then I will let the fire burn out.

And if I'm not using the living room, I might build a big fire and use fans to circulate the heat to other rooms. Then if I go back in the living room and it is hot as can be, I'll open the front door to cool off the living room.

I guess I've learned how much heat loss the house has. And depending on where the outside temperature is heading, I can predict in advance how big of fire to build.


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## jimdad07 (Feb 6, 2011)

skmag357 said:


> I went off the earlier recommendations of lowering the cfm to 220 vs 440. The door is open from our bedroom but that doesn't seem to help. Does the number of turns or the angle of the turns reduce both air speed and temp??


 
The number of elbows does have an effect on the air movement, but from what you have it doesn't sound like it should be a major deal. I bet if you put a temp probe in the supply air in your bedroom, I bet you will be reading in the mid to high 70's if you are taking air from above your stove. Anything below body temperature will feel cold coming ouit of the supply blowing on you.


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## mga (Feb 6, 2011)

skmag357 said:


> well a year later I finally installed my air moving system. I have an intake above the stove with 220 cfm fan connected to 20 feet of insulated ductwork that runs to our bedroom. There is one S bend to get through a rafter and a slight rise into our room. The problem is that there is hardly any air flow in our room and any air that comes out it is cold....any suggestions? The fan is directly behind the intake as well


 
not going to work.

you'd be better off using that fan to draw the cold air OUT of the rooms and onto your wood burner. as others suggested, let the negative pressure draw the warm air into the rooms.

there's a different science going on than trying to heat a house like a gas furnace.


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## brown2501 (Feb 6, 2011)

I know I am going to hear it (all the bad) but last year Ihooked up a outside air intake to my stove. What a differance it made no cold air rushing down stairway &got heat all the way to back bedroom witch never got before with any fan configuation.


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## skmag357 (Feb 11, 2011)

RacerX said:


> Many of these attic ducting scenarios sound great but installing the vents in the ceiling is not the most efficient use of the heat. The duct should run down from the attic in the wall and the vents should be down near the floor. That does create a problem with trying to blow the warm air down however.


 
Mine doesn't go into the attic...it goes in the ceiling above my addition, thru the wall and into my bedroom at floor level...


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## meatwagon45 (Feb 11, 2011)

I was using a box fan to push the heat from my family room to the rest of the house. I wasnt really impressed with this. A friend told me to use one of those little corner doorway fans from Home Depot. I was a little weary, but after finding myself standing infront of them I said why not. At only $20 each, I figured I would give it a try. I told my wife that I bought it but waited a few days to install it. The day I did, she came home from work and noticed it immediately. She literally walked in the back door and said "you installed that fan, didnt you?" I am really impressed with it.


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## bejay (Feb 11, 2011)

skmag357 said:


> well a year later I finally installed my air moving system. I have an intake above the stove with 220 cfm fan connected to 20 feet of insulated ductwork that runs to our bedroom. There is one S bend to get through a rafter and a slight rise into our room. The problem is that there is hardly any air flow in our room and any air that comes out it is cold....any suggestions? The fan is directly behind the intake as well


 
ya I would turn it around also so your pulling air from the bedroom and blowing it out above the stove you may need more cfm to make up for the bends and get it were you want it but its worth a try using your existing fan before upgrading. then assuming there is no closed doorways between your bedroom and the stove the heat from the stove should circulate back to the bedroom.


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## LFEngineering (Nov 18, 2011)

When the discussion came up where to install our stove it was an easy choice; the breezeway. It's poorly insulated, unheated, useless in the winter, has slate floor & feet from the garage (for access to wood). The only downside to the plan was getting the heat though the rest of the house (Cape). After a week of firing the stove with no circulation I new we was in trouble, the breezeway was 98 degrees & the house was 62. I figured what the heck, I grabbed my $8.88 all back desk fan I got from Home Depot & screwed it to the ceiling about 2' to the left of the stove, pointing directly though the door > kitchen > dining room > bedrooms. I was pleasantly surprised when I turned it on low and it started a whole house circulation. You can feel the warm air blow in and cool air come back on the floor. The house is now 74 & the breezeway is 84. Even our poorly heated upstairs is 65 if you leave the door open.


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## BSD (Nov 18, 2011)

well... since someone dragged this to the top... we've had the best luck by blowing the cold air towards the stove. cold air is more dense than hot air and more efficient to move with some little 8" fans. we can do our ~1k ft house with just two.


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## stihlavarna (Nov 18, 2011)

I use the level to level one and it works awesome, you can even have it wired off a thermostat.

AireShare™ Room-to-Room and Level-to-Level Fans : Dryer Boosting Fan : Tjernlund Products, Inc.


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## zogger (Nov 19, 2011)

*Doorway fans*

You can buy inexpensive doorway fans that mount up in either corner of a doorway or hallway sill. The housing is triangular so you don't lose much "headway" space at all, even if you are real tall.

With that said, if it could work, floor vents and grates for the win! Look at all the old houses that used wood or coal, that is how they did it, no electricity needed. It isn't *that* hard to cut a hole in the floor/ceiling, and the grates have a trim piece to hide your cuts. About the only thing to check is electrical lines or floor joists or plumbing pipes whatever, try to miss those things when doing your cuts....good thing to know where all that stuff is anyway, map your house.


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## HILLBILLYREDNEC (Nov 19, 2011)

I remodel a friends old house with a floor to ceiling register to keep the pipes from freezing do to no insulation. All you need to do is move the air around it will seek its own equalized tempature.


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## joshua mason (Nov 19, 2011)

glad this was moved back to the top. first year burning and i have been wondering how to get more of the heat to the bedrooms. apparently i have had the fan facing the wrong direction. we will see how that goes. i have ceiling fans in each bedroom, and was wondering should i have them rotating so that they pull air from the floor or from the ceiling during the winter months.


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## coog (Nov 19, 2011)

Have the fans push towards the ceilings.


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## kd460 (Nov 20, 2011)

mga said:


> not going to work.
> 
> you'd be better off using that fan to draw the cold air OUT of the rooms and onto your wood burner. as others suggested, let the negative pressure draw the warm air into the rooms.
> 
> there's a different science going on than trying to heat a house like a gas furnace.



I agree with above. I have played this game the first two seasons heating with wood (going on my 6th now). You have to think "backwards". Move the cold air out or to the stove and the heated air will find a way to take up the "space" that was created by removing the cold air from that room. 

I use a fan on the floor at the entrance to the room where the insert is (main floor family room at the back end of the house) like this:

Shop Feature Comforts 16" 3-Speed High Velocity Fan at Lowes.com

That forces the cold air to the insert and the warm air out of the room. I then use a smaller 8 inch fan just like the ones above on the floor in the doorway to each bedroom (two bedrooms) that are in use (my bedrooms are on the second floor other end of the house from the insert). Again these fans blow the cold air out. 

Lastly, I have a fourth fan at the top of the stairs blowing the cold air down the steps. I can feel the cold air leaving the bedrooms and the warm air taking it's place, same with the stairs. It is funny, cool air going down at the steps, warm air rising all on it's own about 6 feet above that. I can really notice that area. 

The larger fan on the floor in the insert room really helps cut down on that rooom getting too hot. I use the speed control on the fan to regulate the temps in the insert room, and it pulls the cool air from the other little fans coming down the stairs. 

It really makes a big difference. I now can't sleep unless I hear the "drone" of a fan:msp_smile: KD


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## joshua mason (Nov 20, 2011)

thanks coog. i tried pointing the floor fan toward the stove and it worked. now i will have to argue with dad when he walks in and sees the fan blowing "the wrong way". he is a bit stubborn and set in his ways, can be quite aggravating for my brother and i. lol


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## coog (Nov 20, 2011)

A lot of us dads can be that way.


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