Circulating warm air to other rooms?

[brown2501]

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.

 

[skmag357]

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...

 

[meatwagon45]

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.

 

[bejay]

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.

 

[LFEngineering]

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.

 

[BSD]

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.

 

[stihlavarna]

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.

 

[zogger]

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.

 

[HILLBILLYREDNEC]

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.

 

[joshua mason]

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.

 

[coog]

Have the fans push towards the ceilings.

 

[kd460]

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

 

[joshua mason]

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

 

[coog]

A lot of us dads can be that way.