Circulating Wood stove heat via blower....

[Marc Fink]

I have a VC Encore 2550 in my main living area. I purchased a blower motor on Amazon last night and want to do 1 of 2 things with it. Blower came with a thermostat for the fan and a rheostat:

1. I want to fabricate a box to place behind the wood stove so the blower (which has two blowerz and pushes 160 cfm) will suck cold air and push cold air over the wood stove.

Or

2. I have a heat duct behind the wood stove. The thought is to make that duct into a cold air return and utilize the blower to pull hot air from the wood stove through the duct work in the whole house. This would be obviously more work, but if it WILL work, it may be a better long run heating solution.

I hope I explained my ideas clearly...any thoughts, ideas, reasons it will not/will work are greatly appreciated. Thanks!!!

 

[mauldinoutdoor]

While not that good of a wood stove, I have a hotblast 2557. Sold at tractor supply. Anyway it's a stand-alone or a add-on furnace. Ideally the stove is located near the main house furnace and blows air into and through the whole house. Mine is in a utility room 25' away and we plumbed it into the cold air return and use the central fan to blow the warm air around. Works great
We burn 15 or so f.c. a year and have to open doors occasionally for relief. The stove is rated for 2500sq.ft. and we only have 1000. So a little overkill but we only use half of the firebox. As I said as a stove it's not efficient but wood cost me about $25/fc. $375 a year plus $100 to run the fans makes for a nice heating bill.
Watch ducting close to the stove though, you don't want to put too much heat into the wall without protection and start a slow burn fire inside the wall. My stoves firebox regularly gets 700 degrees on the external magnet gauge on the front so the air coming out of the box would be very hot within a couple of feet. Mine ducts in about 6' on one and 8' on the other and the pipes are just cool enough to leave your hand on

 

[Marc Fink]

While not that good of a wood stove, I have a hotblast 2557. Sold at tractor supply. Anyway it's a stand-alone or a add-on furnace. Ideally the stove is located near the main house furnace and blows air into and through the whole house. Mine is in a utility room 25' away and we plumbed it into the cold air return and use the central fan to blow the warm air around. Works great
We burn 15 or so f.c. a year and have to open doors occasionally for relief. The stove is rated for 2500sq.ft. and we only have 1000. So a little overkill but we only use half of the firebox. As I said as a stove it's not efficient but wood cost me about $25/fc. $375 a year plus $100 to run the fans makes for a nice heating bill.
Watch ducting close to the stove though, you don't want to put too much heat into the wall without protection and start a slow burn fire inside the wall. My stoves firebox regularly gets 700 degrees on the external magnet gauge on the front so the air coming out of the box would be very hot within a couple of feet. Mine ducts in about 6' on one and 8' on the other and the pipes are just cool enough to leave your hand on

I should let you know, the ducting would run in the basement as we have a log home

 

[Highbeam]

I added a very similar 160 cfm squirrel cage blower to my Englander NC30, a convection deck to route the air, and a snap disc to control the blower. HUGE improvement.

 

[mauldinoutdoor]

Our house was built in the early 50's and the cold returns air just boxed in around the floor joists with sheet metal on the bottom and I wouldn't be comfortable with all the heat blowing directly into the wooden ducts

 

[Marc Fink]

I added a very similar 160 cfm squirrel cage blower to my Englander NC30, a convection deck to route the air, and a snap disc to control the blower. HUGE improvement.

Thank you for sharing!

 

[Marine5068]

Our house was built in the early 50's and the cold returns air just boxed in around the floor joists with sheet metal on the bottom and I wouldn't be comfortable with all the heat blowing directly into the wooden ducts

That was common practice in the 60's and even up to 1970.

 

[Oldman47]

That is still a common approach. My "under construction" house has boxed between floor joists as the cold air return until it joins the main duct going the last few feet to the furnace. Why not? The air in that box is at room temperature. I actually had to stop the installers and ask them to look at the spec sheet for my job because they started out creating that box with what amounts to insulated cardboard.

 

[Marine5068]

That is still a common approach. My "under construction" house has boxed between floor joists as the cold air return until it joins the main duct going the last few feet to the furnace. Why not? The air in that box is at room temperature. I actually had to stop the installers and ask them to look at the spec sheet for my job because they started out creating that box with what amounts to insulated cardboard.

Yes, sorry that I didn't elaborate.
Only cold air returns should be constructed this way as Oldman47 said. And yes they should be made with sheet metal to enclose the joists into forming a box.
Heating ducts are made from galvanized steel material.