Suggestions on circulating warm air in the house?

[esshup]

Here's my quandry.

Natural gas furnace. Just don't like paying the utility bill, so I installed an insert in the fireplace a few years ago that is rated for a house 500 sq. ft. larger than this one.

Fireplace is on the East side of the house in the living room. To get to the bedroom and the bathrooms, you have to walk though the kitchen, and a short hallway to the West side of the house. The ceiling isn't flat thru the house, the house is 100+ years old and it's been added onto many times. Each time, it seems they cut thru a wall, but didn't cut thru all the way to the ceiling, so there is a 12" drop down stub wall from the ceiling.

Today with a 20-25 mph wind from the West, and -14°F ambient temps, while the living/dining room was in the low 80's, the bathroom and bedroom was 47°F. Since the central furnace duct work runs thru an unheated crawlspace, and the duct work is uninsulated single wall galvanized, running the furnace on "fan only" just increased the temp in the other rooms by a couple degrees. (the floor of the whole house is not insulated either.) This year I'm having a whole house energy effeciency test done, and the crew will spray foam insulation and insulate any other areas to minimize air infiltration. Windows are 4 years old double pane, I blew 22" of insulation in the attic, drilled in the outside walls and blew in what I could before I re-sheathed the outisde of the house with 1/2" OSB, caulked the seams, then Tyvek wrapped the house before I re-sided it.

Anybody have any ideas how to distribute the warm air more equally in the house? What I ended up doing was setting the natural gas central forced air furnace 2 degrees warmer than the living room and turned it on. The T-stat is in the living room opposite the insert.

 

[Mr. Moonshine]

ceiling fans will push the hot air down and in to the other rooms

 

[Cheesecutter]

I'm guessing normally you don"t have a 35 degree differential, probably closer to 20 degrees. If you have If the stubs are just framed and dry walled it might be possible to put a fan in them to pull in heat as long as there is enough room to install it. Otherwise box fans on the floor in the hallway pulling from bed/bathroom toward livingroom might help.

 

[turnkey4099]

Fans alone will not get the job done. I have my stove sitting just to the side of the hallway entry to the bedrooms. They are at the end of the hallway about 11ft. I have a 20" box fan hanging from the ceiling just inside the entry to the hallway. Yes, it will warm up the hallway and somewhat raise the temp in the bedrooms but not by much - that is with theliving room temp at 80. It takes duct work to move heat efficiently.

Harry K

 

[Stihl working hard]

Ceiling fans with the switch set to push down not suck up I find will distribute the hot air evenly throughout your house

 

[Brushwacker]

I have a similar condition, but probably a significantly smaller house. If I don't let the fire die down for a length of time its not bad, but if I get back well after the fire is died out it can be difficult getting the far rooms temp back up in very cold weather. I have a dewalt squirrel cage type fan I rarely use,but it forces a lot of the warm air in the direction I want it and helps significantly when I want to warm up the far rooms.

 

[esshup]

Thanks guys. That's about what I thought. I do have a ceiling fan in the dining room that wasn't on. The ceilings are low in this house. Why, I have no idea, but they are lower than 8'. Cheesecutter, you are correct, the differential is usually around 20 degrees, which isn't bad because I like the bedroom colder to sleep in.

 

[Mad Professor]

Better to put a large fan ON THE FLOOR at the COLD end of the hallway, blow the cold air into the heated room. Much easier to push the cold air out and the warm air will replace it along the ceiling on it's own.

If you have the fan on the ceiling you are fighting the warm warm air trying to flow from the heated room.

Try it works great. Also keeps the room with the stove from getting too hot.

 

[demc570]

Better to put a large fan ON THE FLOOR at the COLD end of the hallway, blow the cold air into the heated room. Much easier to push the cold air out and the warm air will replace it along the ceiling on it's own.

If you have the fan on the ceiling you are fighting the warm warm air trying to flow from the heated room.

Try it works great. Also keeps the room with the stove from getting too hot.

yep thats what i do works great

 

[woodchuck357]

Insulate those ducts. For now box fans on the floor blowing toward the stove will help.