Help me design a solution to heat the whole house with existing woodstove location

[cnice_37]

The problem:
I have a one year old daughter who refuses to wear her blankets at night. We have oil heat (forced hot water baseboard), and I don't want to crank it upstairs for fear of the oil man $$. I looked into a space heater for her room, but I'm thinking it will be about another $40 a month in electric bill. We have a fireplace insert (Jotul Rockland) and with a nice full stove of good hardwood I can get useful heat for almost the entire night. HOWEVER, that heat gets trapped in the stair well and doesn't really make it past there (no fans besides blower on insert and ceiling fan in living room.)

The solution?
Below is my crude attempt at my floorplan. The key things to note are the solid wall between Living & Extra room on main floor; the open staircase; and the upstairs hallway where the warm air stays trapped. With the open staircase, warm air gets upstairs no problem without any mods at all. Priority is getting heat more dispersed upstairs, although if someone has an idea how to heat the extra room downstairs, I'd be interested.

I located some mods (floor grates and 2 doorway fans blowing in opposite directions) that I thought would help. But I turn to the professors here to help me get it right on paper before I proceed.

What would you do?

Thanks,
Craig

 

[pook]

cold air is denser than warm air so blow cold air to the heat for more effectiveness

 

[rmount]

For the extra room downstairs I'd cut a grill (or transom window) into the wall just below ceiling height. For upstairs, the floor grates should work. Maybe duct one through your daughters bedroom wall with a small internal booster fan, or move her to the spare room.

By the time she is a teenager you will think that $40/month to keep her happy & comfortable is a bargain! (We have 4 girls)

 

[GRAYSTONE]

Graystone House Heating

Hi
I have a similar house plan to you and find I can heat house effectively. By the way no furnace here. If you want heat it is the wood stove. I have 3 in the house but only use 1 at a time unless it is really cold.

I have a woodstove in the corner of the living room with a blower running on low.
In the Kitchen I have a 12" fan blowing air toward the dinning room. This fan is ontop of the fridge when woodstove in kitchwn is on to blow away hot air. Fan is on floor near fridge when kitchen woodstove is not on.
I have a ceiling fan in the living room to help stir up the air.
My stairs are enclosed with a door so to regulate heat upstairs I just open or close the door depending on how much heat I want upstairs. Mostly 90% of the time the door is closed.
I have one 8 x 12 vent in the living room going up to 1 upstairs bedroom. The vent is always open.

Right now it is 10F outside and the Living room is 78F and the coldest spot upstairs is 62F
I suggest you use some fans first to try and get the results you need. Try different combinations untill you get it right.
If fans don't work then start with a vent in the ceiling.
It has taken me a few years to figure this house out and I still try new ideas.
Good Luck

 

[Turkeyslayer]

We heat our old farm house (2500+ sq feet) 100% with wood. A wood stove in the back room runs all the time and a fireplace insert in the front for the really cold 10 degree F or colder weather. Fans are your best friend for moving heat around the house. I have had the best luck with tower fans, they push alot of air and seem to last longer than the regular blade type. I would burn the bearings out of one blade fan a year, while I get a few years out of the tower units.

 

[Ambull]

Probably too much work but you could duct up the common wall and vent into daughter's bedroom. There are inline fans to boost the airflow as well.

I like that tower fan. I could use a few of those in my house.

 

[dave_dj1]

I think your on the right track with the grates cut into the ceiling/floors. I had a similar issue years ago, cut a decent size grate above the stove and problem was solved. You can't force hot air without allowing the cool air to return, in my case and yours I think, the grates will act as the places for the hot air to rise and the cool air will come back down the staircase. I would also see what direction the floor joists run and use one bay kind of like ductwork, a grate over the stove (sort of, it could be out in the room more) and the other end of the "duct" in your daughters room floor. Heat will convect naturaly given the opportunity to do so. I.E. the hot air rise and cool air coming back.
Good luck, you could also get her some Dr. Dentin PJ's :biggrinbounce2:

 

[USMC0802]

Do you have central air? If so, where is the central/main return? We have an opening in the ceiling of the first floor above the stove that allows the heat to go up into the middle of the upstairs and on the ceiling of the second floor above the wood stove is the central return for the HVAC system.

When the stove is good and hot, I run the fan only on the HVAC and it pumps the heat around throughout the house. Typically there isn't any more than a 5* difference between any room in the house. The coolest room is the living room, which is downstairs and around the corner from the stove, but it was an addition, so the adjacent wall has exterior insulation and the chimney between them.

The warmest room is that bedroom above the room with the stove, with the opening in the floor down to the first floor directly above the stove.

 

[cnice_37]

By the time she is a teenager you will think that $40/month to keep her happy & comfortable is a bargain! (We have 4 girls)

Oh man, did you really roll the dice after 3? :hmm3grin2orange:

 

[cnice_37]

I have one 8 x 12 vent in the living room going up to 1 upstairs bedroom. The vent is always open.

So just one 8"x12" grate? That's pretty good...

I have one of those tower fans sitting in the basement - I can start the experiments tonight.

Thanks a lot everyone.

 

[chowdozer]

If you're going to put some floor vents in consider putting vents at the top of the wall in the downstairs on the wall adjoining your daughters room, cut a couple of 1.5" holes in the header and put a vent in the wall of your daughters room near the floor. Kind of a zigzag path and if you had to you could add a fan later. It would require a little sheetrock surgery but not too bad. If at all possible it would be nice to use convection exclusively. Fans just make noise, wear out and get in the way.