Anyone tried to distribute wood stove heat with duct boosters?

[Rowan]

I have a 1300 sqft bungalow that I heat with a wood stove (oil furnace only when away.... too expensive).

My stove is at one end of the house, the bedrooms/washroom are at the other. On those nights when it drops to -20C or colder it gets pretty chilly in the bedrooms/washroom and the wife starts wanting to run the furnace.

The hall to the bedrooms is cut off from the living room with the stove by a closet. I'm in the process of building a pass-through in the top of the closet so I can add a fan to blow the warm air from the living room down the hall.... I was thinking about mounting 2 duct boosters side by side and sealing up the space around them so the suck from the lv rm and blow down the hall?

How loud are they?

And will they move a decent amount of air?

can you think of a better air mover that will fit in a 14" X 8" opening (or duct depending on how you want to look at it)?

really don't want to pay for oil its close to .95$/L up here.
cheers!

PS.... I know....... I'm cheap, but its more the principle, I like being as self sufficient as I can.

 

[wildbio]

assuming your oil furnace heating is a forced air system you might be able to just turn the fan on via the thermostat without turning the furnace on. I do this with our propane forced air system. I have 3 air intakes for the system - one in the livingroom (where the woodstove is) and two in the diningroom (room next to where the stove is at). The air intakes pull the warm air in and send it throughout the house via the ductwork. My thermostat does not have the switch required to just turn the fan on so I have to go to the furnace itself - which is where the fan "only" switch is. Take a look at your thermostat/system, you may be able to do the same.

 

[Rowan]

I should have mentioned, the furnace is in the un-insulated crawl space. Its only 5-10 C down there.... likely colder at times. And insulating is out of my budget at the moment.
by the time the air makes it through the ducting its lost most of its heat. Also the air returns are on the floor, and the windows are a pretty drafty (78 vintage wood sliders).

Ok so the house is a piece of crap...... but overtime we'll fix it up.

 

[jdboy9]

Where are your pipes they don't freeze?

 

[Rowan]

Haven't frooze so far. It's only been -25 C so far this year, it's more of a basement than a crawlspace..it has block walls. Its below grade, and having the house over it seems to keep it from freezing.

we hit -40 a few times last year but we were running the furnace more.

 

[wkpoor]

I tried duct boosters to move more warm air from basement to first floor and was very disappointed. Plus I didn't like hearing the noise all the time.

 

[treemandan]

I to have the same problem. Downstairs gets like 90( perfect temp) but upstairs is only about 70. The thermometer located 1 foot up on the stove pipe reads under 300. I burn any hotter and I pass out.
The air handler for the A/C has a discharge right above the stove. I thought about changing the flow on it but would have to enlarge it ( I think) to be a suction duct. I would hate to try it and it not work as I hoped it would. Also I would just have to change it back to normal in the summer. We don't usually pump cold air down in the basement( where the stove and duct are) because it stays cool down here.
I guess I will have to cut 9x9's in the floor but then noise would travel as well. There are some smaller vents in the floor but don't do much and I know those little fans aren't going to help. I did see some that claimed to be quiet but I don't believe it. There are two through vents above the stove. The one on the right lets warm air up( not much) the one one the left brings cold air down. Beats me. Other than the little vents that don't do anything the only other way up is the stairs.
When you sit on the stairs you feel cold air rushing down on your back and when you stand up hot air flattens you. I have to go now as I feel sort of parched and its hard to breath down here.

 

[coppermouse]

Just my 2 cents, but you are better to push cold air into the stove area and it will displace the hot air, rather than suck the hot air from the room through the cold air returns through the furnace, I tried that an it helped, but not that much. My solution is to run a 6" duct across the basement to the opposite end of the house, put a blower inline. Put 2 registers on the suction side (opposite corners on the other end of the house from the stove, then put one register on the other end right next to the stove blowing the air. It evens out the house very well.
This has been discussed alot, see ********** for more info.

 

[Festus Haggen]

The key is circulation, which is why hot air furnaces have supply and return ducts, which should be sized to match the air handler and each other. "Pushing" will not work unless there is somewhere for the displaced air volume to go. This is why "gravity" heat works, but just barely- there is no seperate cold-air return path. That and the dangers of having open air passage between stories, but that's an argument for another site.

This is the age-old battle of the woodstove, trying to move the heat around so the stove room isn't 90 while the rest of the house is 40. The duct booster fans are essentially worthless, they just can't overcome the static pressure in a duct, they barely add anything, which is why they're so cheap. You are better off spending the money on a regular fan, that will do more than the duct fans will. Best of luck.

 

[Deadman]

Definately install a air filter, cuz otherwise you'll have a dusty mess everywhere. I know this from experience.

 

[coppermouse]

yeah, definitely put a filter in line

 

[Rob G.]

I use a product called a ThruWall Transfer Fan.
I found it to be very quiet and move plenty of air.
It has two speeds, 200 cfm and 160 cfm.
It is a fan with duct and trim in one package.
It is designed for walls 3.5" to 6.5" thick but can be extended with a short piece of duct.
I ordered from homedepot.com for about $50.
If you google Thruwall fan you should get some ideas.

 

[58hydraglide]

Here's what i did

I installed a "cold air return" behind my stove, sealed the studs with construction adhesive and installed the reflective bubble wrap in the stud bays. I then cut out the floor sheating in the stud bays and installed a blower in the basement. I got a squirrel cage furnace blower out of a friends barn and belted it to a 1/3 hp electric motor. I then built a plenum out of plywood , sealed all edges and bolted it to the floor joists, sealing that edge with sill sealer. this setup pulls air from above and behind the woodstove and pumps it into the basement. I have an open staircase at the opposite end of the house so it forms a nice loop throughout the house. I was going to duct the basement into the existing forced air system but found that it was unneccessary. I installed a filter at the bottom of the plenum, but it kept blowing off, so i have since built a grill out of expanded metal to slipp the filter in and it works great. (it is also good for sucking the ash into the filter when i clean out the stove!) initeally i was going to push the air across the top of the stove but after i got it hooked up, i'm glad i didn't. I'd of had to fight the wind to load the stove!this system has been in for 2 years and works great in my situation (with the open staircase at end of house.)
I have some pics, but they're too large to upload, I'll try and decrease them so i can post pics

 

[Festus Haggen]

....construction adhesive....reflective bubble wrap.....then cut out the floor sheating in the stud bays and installed a blower in the basement. ...built a plenum out of plywood....sill sealer...pulls air from above and behind the woodstove and pumps it into the basement...open staircase...system has been in for 2 years

I just left all the pertinent words in your post when I quoted...


You are very very lucky. Hope you never have a fire, you've built the perfect system to spread it through your whole house as fast as possible. You'd be lucky to make it out of the house, even with smoke alarms. Argue all you want, breaching walls and floors is just a plain bad idea. Yep, it's been done for a long time, and yes, ducts are also penetrations, but that's why fire dampers are made.

My best friend is remodeling a house now that had a fire in the basement, shot the fire straight into two bedrooms because they had done just about what you describe to move the air in the house. Luckily, the fire chief was there in under a minute, and acted quickly enough to save most of the building. In the 5-7 minutes that it took to start fire suppression, the two bedrooms were charred from the ceiling down to about 1 foot off the floor, melted the carpets, and would have killed anyone in the room before the detector in the hall went off. The "open stairway" in the kitchen brought heat and smoke up from the basement, did similar damage in there and the living room. The rooms without penetrations are really undamaged, hardly any smoke at all in them.

It's your house, but please don't recommend it to others as a viable solution.

 

[58hydraglide]

Festus, I respect your opinion and you are correct on many issues. any breach of floors or walls is a fire hazard. I own a small construction company and build about 2 homes a year, and I have yet to build a new home where the designs have called for a closed staircase. Most home designs today are very open from floor to floor and room to room. Cold air returns in bedrooms , for instance could be consider potential fire hazard. When I installed my stove i applied for the proper permits and had the inspections done and approved. I did not recommend this to anyone I simply stated what is in my house. And if I were to recommend anything to Rowan, it would be to find a reputable HVAC contractor and discuss his options with him. I have learned in my experiences that there is a heck of a lot more to heating and cooling a home with efficient and even distribution than running ducts and pumping air.

 

[Festus Haggen]

Agreed. I know staircases and such are going to give a chimney effect, but no reason to add to that or having the openings channel fire anywhere that it wouldn't normally be. Fire dampers are cheap, but obviously not as cheap as some HVAC contractors. I have 3 in my ducts, as I said, they were not that bad from the supply, cheaper than some other parts I had ordered.

Personally, if I built a new house I'd install sprinklers through the whole thing. Nothing will stop a fire like a sprinkler system. Be worth the cost in peace of mind alone.