HVAC Guy Said No Good-Transfer Heat From Wood Stove-

[Cambium]

I'm trying to find a way to get heat from my wood stove in living room to other side of house into bedrooms at a faster pace. Instead of installing another stove elsewhere.

I read somewhere here about in-line ducts. As an electrician I always see the HVAC guys on the jobs so I aked him about it.

He said it doesn't work. By the time it gets to the other side, it would have cooled the air and ends up pushing cooler air then the warm air it takes from the wood stove locations.

So basically it's a lose lose situation. You're taking warm air from the warm room and you're pushing cooler air in the rooms you want warm.

My air handler is in basement.

Beginning to think my only options are...

1. Fireplace insert with fan blower.
2. Get a bigger stove that can make it 90 degrees in that location.
3. Install a stove on other side of house.

Sucks. Anyone have expierence with that flex duct with inline fan?

 

[Wife'nHubby]

We are supplementing our oil heat with our fireplace in the living room which has a blower on it. To move the heat from the living room we placed a fan on the floor in the bedroom wing blowing cold air in to the living room. Bedroom wing is 90 degrees away from the fireplace. Combining that fan with a ceiling fan in the adjacent dining room we get great heat distribution with temps down in the 0-10 degree area. YMMV (Your mileage may vary.)

Shari

 

[BIG JAKE]

What you need is circulation and the flex duct with fan would help circulate the air to the other side of the house. This would reduce the temp offset between stove and farside. Are you trying to heat the whole house with that stove? If so what is the max btu/sq footage rating of the stove compared with the sq footage of your house? YOu could install that duct above the stove and take it over to the otherside with insulated flex duct. That would make a difference if the stove was crankin out the heat. Feeding two stoves gets to be labor intensive, but you would be warm!

 

[sthomas77]

We are currently experimenting with ways to distribute heat as well. I bought two door frame fans that seem to work well. They are a bit noisy, but between the ceiling fan (in the same room as the stove) and the corner fans, I can raise the temp in the main house by 4-5 degrees. I have not kept the stove running full time as it is still too warm and I am trying to conserve wood. I have heard that through wall fans work as well. Good luck!

 

[coog]

I'm trying to find a way to get heat from my wood stove in living room to other side of house into bedrooms at a faster pace. Instead of installing another stove elsewhere.

I read somewhere here about in-line ducts. As an electrician I always see the HVAC guys on the jobs so I aked him about it.

He said it doesn't work. By the time it gets to the other side, it would have cooled the air and ends up pushing cooler air then the warm air it takes from the wood stove locations.

So basically it's a lose lose situation. You're taking warm air from the warm room and you're pushing cooler air in the rooms you want warm.

My air handler is in basement.

Beginning to think my only options are...

1. Fireplace insert with fan blower.
2. Get a bigger stove that can make it 90 degrees in that location.
3. Install a stove on other side of house.

Sucks. Anyone have expierence with that flex duct with inline fan?

Is there room for a fan behind your stove? I have my Jotul in front of a fireplace and am able to put a vornado fan behind it.The stove hides the fan and it really helps move the heated air out into the house.

 

[oneoldbanjo]

I guess the problem is that if you install new heat duct in the basement, attic or crawl space it loses too much heat by the time it gets to the other side of the house and the air is no longer warm enough to provide heat and will just result in a drafty room.

However......I wonder what would happen if you did just the opposite? If you installed duct work and a vent near the floor in the far end of the house and brought the cold (return) air from the far side of the house to the room the stove is in.....the warm air near the stove would then have to travel toward through the house to get to the room that the duct work is pulling the air from. I am not sure where the cold air from the far side of the house should be discharged.....I suppose somewhere near your stove so it can be warmed again.....if you discharge it near the floor it may not mix well....I suppose if you discharged it above the stove it may help to temper the hot air rising off the stove.

If you are using the unheated attic or crawl space to install the duct work it should be insulated to help avoid any problems with condensation occuring in the duct. If you are using your basement you may not have to use insulated duct.

 

[CrappieKeith]

A stove is not meant to heat the entire home...just the room it is in and maybe a joining room.

A FURNACE HOOKED TO DUCTING IS MADE TO HEAT THE ENTIRE HOME EVENLY.

 

[Tim Carroll]

We have a fireplace insert with a blower and we have had good luck with turning the blower on our forced air furnace on continuous. The furnace is only heating when the temp gets low enough but still circulates the air in the house. We have 2100 sq feet on main level and it keeps it quite comfortable. The basement is some what cooler but it works well for us.:greenchainsaw:

 

[oneoldbanjo]

We have a fireplace insert with a blower and we have had good luck with turning the blower on our forced air furnace on continuous. The furnace is only heating when the temp gets low enough but still circulates the air in the house. We have 2100 sq feet on main level and it keeps it quite comfortable. The basement is some what cooler but it works well for us.:greenchainsaw:

That is a good idea. We have our furnace blower on the low setting and run it all winter - the OWB only adds heat through the heat exchanger when the thermostat calls for heat. Maybe the furnace and ductwork will help to move the heat around adequately if it runs whenever the stove is on.

 

[giXXer]

The only experience I have with this topic comes from our ancient cabin. It has two bedrooms off the living area where the stove is located. The living area and the loft above were always about 90 degrees when the stove was fired and the two bedrooms: frigid, at best. Since the ceilings are vaulted and the wall between the bedrooms only goes up 8' we simply had to deal with getting the heat from the living room to the bedroom "area." We did this by using a very old ventilation fan that was removed from the kitchen 10 years prior during a remodel. We installed this at about 9' high in between the two areas and use the bedroom ceiling fans to help push the air down. It works very well for the not so well insulated cabin, but the wood stove is huge and the cabin is small.

While I'm sure you don't want to lose the ambiance that stove provides your living room, could it be installed in the basement so the heat rises to the main floor? That, coupled with some "convection" vents in the floor might do the trick if the wood burner is sized correctly for the square footage.

 

[olyman]

if you have a forced air furnace--just do as mentioned--turn on the blower fan. it will move the air around, and the heat with it. course,now youll be paying for the elec to run the fan---

 

[greengiant]

My long-winded in-line fan experience:
I have a wood insert with a blower in my existing fireplace in my living room on the end of a 60' ranch with a full walkout basement. I had the same issue with my living areas being warm, and the three bedrooms at the other end being cold, especially with terrible 1960's walls, insulation, and windows (except the attic where I re-insulated).
A friend helped me run an 8" insulated flex duct through my attic crawl space to the closet in the back bedroom, then with a 90 elbow, we dropped it down into the closet, and tied in a 6"in line fan, which then T's. One T goes strait down to a vent in the ceiling of the basement, the other goes to a vent in the room. It's not your average closet, it has wooden, sliding doors, and then two drawers in the bottom. So we cut a hole in the front of one drawer, and attached the vent right to the drawer, and busted off the sides and bottom of it, so it's just a front with a vent in it now that has 6" flex duct back to the T . (Sorry, I tend to get too detailed) Also, I used 8" duct for the 40' run through the attic to maximize the air flow over that distance, even though it's only a 6" fan.

The return in the living room ceiling is a 12"x12" grate. Above that in between joists, we made a box out of foil lined duct board and attached the 8" insulated duct to the box with an adapter. It's all closed in everywhere with foil tape.

The inline fan is controlled by a dialed thermostat at the door of the back room.

How it works: It was definitely worth putting in. We used to put a box fan in the hall on the floor to push the cool air into the living room, but it got to be a pain in the neck. I not only used insulated 8" duct through the unheated crawl space, but I also burried it in 9" insulation up there. The air coming out in the back bedroom is warm, but not hot. It definitely helps keep that end of the house more comfortable, especially when the baby is in that room sleeping and the door is closed. (that was the main reason for installing). The fan noise also, IMO, is good background noise for napping kids. It doesn't really pull enough heat to start and stop the thermostat, so we basically use it like a light switch and turn it on and off when we want to.

I think if you can get cold air to move backwards towards the stove you are better off, and the warm air will find its way to where you are taking the cold air from. I didn't go that route, since I had no way of running all this stuff through the basement ceiling. I suppose I could have run my air the opposite direction with the set up we made, and brought the cold air back to the ceiling of the living room and the warm air would have worked back to the bedroom, but that wouldn't work as good when the door is closed to that room.

I need to shut up, but also want to say that I was always told that when moving air through duct, you get more by pulling it through, than pushing, so put any inline fans at the end of the line.

GOod luck, hope this helps.

 

[greengiant]

Oh, ya, forgot about one thing. I tried running my forced hot air furnace on 'blower only', to try and circulate, and it didn't work for me. That's not to say it won't work for you. I just know that my furnace and duct work really sucks, and was part of the reason we switched to wood. I think it has a lot to do with poor vent locations, and horribly insulated everything in this house. Good thing I don't pay for my wood (aside from my back, the wear on my truck and trailer, and the chainsaws, and oh, ya my time-good thing I enjoy it, ya, I really do)!

 

[Tim Carroll]

I think that a couple things help the furnace work for me. 1 the fireplace is dead center in the middle of the house. 2 the furnace is a two stage furnace and the blower runs on a lower speed when used to circulate air.

 

[Highbeam]

Stoves can certainly be house heaters though they are not ideal house heaters. You will never get the whole house to the same temp with a stove alone which I think is actually fine since who wants to sleep in a 75 degree bedroom. My 1700 SF single story home is long and narrow and the stove room/living room is in the middle. We run it as high as 70-80 in that room (really enjoy this) and the bedrooms run 65-70.

If this is not acceptable, like if we need warmer bedrooms, then each room is equipped with independent programmable thermostats and electric wall heaters.

The wall heaters are like old baseboard heaters and are extremely effective zone heaters. I would pop these in before screwing around with ducts to move room temp air.

 

[Tim Carroll]

I would have to agree with Highbeam, I like the bedrooms cooler myself. I would rather have cool sheets on the bed.

 

[mga]

consider drawing the cold air from the bedrooms into the room where the wood burner is. this creates a negative air pressure in those room, which would be replaced by the hot air from the wood burner.

pushing hot air from a wood burner is different science than pushing it from a heat source like a gas furnace.

gotta think outside the box. (no pun intended)

 

[outdoorlivin247]

I heat primarily w/ an insert in the center of our home...Our house was built in the late fifties and has no insulation other than the celtec behind the brick...My boys bedroom is on the NW corner of out house and is by far the coolest room in the house...I am thinking of putting a quiet energy efficiant bathroom fan in the wall between their closet and the hallway for more reason than one...First reason is we have had a mold problem in their closet since we moved here and I feel this will help w/ that and second it would move air in or out of their room...Still have not decide on which way to put it?...

 

[Mike PA]

Something else to consider: HVAC and furnace people have a particular mindset when it comes to heating. They look at keeping a house at an even temperature and being able to warm a house quickly, which requires more BTUs and better air handling. However, if you are willing to wait and don't expect to have hot air coming out a duct, adding warmer than ambient air to your room will heat the room, but it will take time. You may lose a lot of heat along the way, but where is that heat going? If it goes to living space, that is fine. When I was a kid, we heated the entire house (except the attic), with a wood stove in the basement. It was connected to the air handling system for the furnace and took hot air off the top of the stove. If you let the house get cold, it would take a long time to heat it up, as we moved larger quantities of air, but not at the temps you would get from a furnace. What you suggest could possibly work, just not like an HVAC guy would like.

Adding a plenum to the top of your stove and drawing air from that would help tremendously when trying to heat from a stove (sort of turns it into a furnace).

 

[mga]

Something else to consider: HVAC and furnace people have a particular mindset when it comes to heating. They look at keeping a house at an even temperature and being able to warm a house quickly, which requires more BTUs and better air handling. However, if you are willing to wait and don't expect to have hot air coming out a duct, adding warmer than ambient air to your room will heat the room, but it will take time. You may lose a lot of heat along the way, but where is that heat going? If it goes to living space, that is fine. When I was a kid, we heated the entire house (except the attic), with a wood stove in the basement. It was connected to the air handling system for the furnace and took hot air off the top of the stove. If you let the house get cold, it would take a long time to heat it up, as we moved larger quantities of air, but not at the temps you would get from a furnace. What you suggest could possibly work, just not like an HVAC guy would like.

Adding a plenum to the top of your stove and drawing air from that would help tremendously when trying to heat from a stove (sort of turns it into a furnace).

the problem is removing cold air from the rooms.

on your other home, you said it was connected to the air handling system, which, is already drawing the cold air from the rooms...which is why it worked good.

running a single run to deliver warm air doesn't do much when the room air can't be exchanged.