Getting more heat upstairs?

[NMman]

Hey Everyone,
We're about to begin our 3rd winter of wood only heat using a Lopi Liberty in the main floor dining room. One thing I'd like to improve on is the amount of heat that gets upstairs to my kids' bedrooms. The stairs is one room, about 12 ft. around a corner, from the stove, and there is definitely some heat going up it, but when the night time temp gets below 15 or 10 (which is not at all uncommon in NW New Mexico!) it gets pretty cold up there. The big plus is that my kids wake up quickly on school days to warm up downstairs at the stove!

Any ideas? Is an open vent (dining to upstairs hall) to much of a potential fire hazard? What about a forced convection system from the bedrooms back down into the living room--try to get heat going up the stairs and cool air coming back down through the bedrooms?

I've really enjoyed this site so far--lots of good stuff here!

TP

 

[Zodiac45]

Hey Everyone,
We're about to begin our 3rd winter of wood only heat using a Lopi Liberty in the main floor dining room. One thing I'd like to improve on is the amount of heat that gets upstairs to my kids' bedrooms. The stairs is one room, about 12 ft. around a corner, from the stove, and there is definitely some heat going up it, but when the night time temp gets below 15 or 10 (which is not at all uncommon in NW New Mexico!) it gets pretty cold up there. The big plus is that my kids wake up quickly on school days to warm up downstairs at the stove!

Any ideas? Is an open vent (dining to upstairs hall) to much of a potential fire hazard? What about a forced convection system from the bedrooms back down into the living room--try to get heat going up the stairs and cool air coming back down through the bedrooms?

I've really enjoyed this site so far--lots of good stuff here!

TP

I'm no expert but in my 200+ year old house in Maine, there are floor vents in many strategic spaces. They can be closed our opened depending on where you'd like the heat to go. They work well for me. My bedroom is directly above the cookstove in the kitchen downstairs. I get allot of heat through that grate. some of the others down at the far end of the house I'll keep closed to keep the heat downstairs since those bedrooms are only in use on occasion.

 

[wobdee]

Maybe a small fan at the top of the stairs blowing the cool air down would help pull the warm air back up?

 

[EzTrbo]

I just put an inductor fan right above the stove and its ducted str8 into the hall way up stairs, even with the door closed going back to the basement it pulls enough cool air back down and keeps the back half of the house, where the bedrooms are very nice. I've got one of three new doors put on so I think that will help me retain the heat better this year as well.

Trbo

 

[TomB]

You could install a passive vent from the first floor to the second. A vent in the ceiling of the first floor with lines up with a floor register in the second. We have installed them in envelope houses where they want to take advantage of the physics of the heat rising. We have use 6 x 12 in registers. We usually fabricate some 28 gauge pieces of sheet metal to act as ducting between floors. The draw back is sound travels from floor to floor, so you may lose the privacy and quiet your used to enjoying, but the heat will rise using no electricity. Just a thought. If you are worried about fire rating and fire isolating between floors, I have no answer.

Hope this idea may help

Tom

 

[mga]

which way do the upstairs floor joists run in relation to the wood burner down stairs?

what i'm getting at is that maybe you could use the space between joists as a "heat run" to feed the rooms. that way, you'd only have one opening downstairs, instead of several.

 

[zipper1081]

I my old house I had a set of gas logs downstairs in the family room. I cut a hole in the ceiling the size of the largest floor register I could find did the samething upstairs. Then I put insulation on both sides of the hole. I could not belive all the heat that I got threw the opening I had made. You could even put a small fan in there if you wanted to. I would not think twice about doing what you want to do. Mine worked out great.

 

[NMman]

yeah, that's about what I was considering doing, just that I heard it can be a fire hazard--providing a built in draft system--but I guess any solution that get warm air up there is going to do that.

The stove is right below a hall that connects the two bedrooms--w/ bedroom doors open, a lot of heat should be able to enter the rooms from the hall.

Some sort of cold air return, w/ fans, from the cold far walls of the bedroom would probably help also.

thanks for the comments

TP

 

[Split this!]

I had the same problem the first year I heated with a wood stove, 92. We lived in a log home in western NC. I had a heatalator in the great room that was useless!! I had poured concrete foundation with a thimble access to a double walled chimney pipe. I installed the wood stove in the basement, but couldn't get the heat upstairs, it would run you out of the basement. The stove was directly below the heatalator, so I cut to register holes, one on either side of the hearth, and man that did the trick. That Fisher mama bear kept the family warm on cold nights, and when the ice storms hit and we were without power for a week, we cooked on it. We were on a well so no electric, no running water, so we also melted ice and snow in a pot on that old stove! Sorry I wandered a little there, but if you get the heat upstairs, the cold will find its way back downstairs, most likely via the stairwell. Good luck keeping them youngins warm.

 

[dustytools]

Check out some of your local HVAC supply houses. They make fire dampers if you are worried about the rating of the floors after you have cut your grill(s) in.

 

[Wife'nHubby]

Place a fan to blow cold air down the stairs, warm air will naturally flow 'up' to replace the cold air = warm 2nd story! Cheap fix without cutting through floorboards. Try it, you will like it - of course the kids might not get up so quick in the morning!

Shari

 

[Marc]

Along with some good ideas here... if you haven't already, add insulation to the attic above the rooms, seal any places where cold air is infiltrating. Getting heat to a room is futile if the room looses heat as fast as it gets it.