How Do You Distribute Heat From Your Stove?

Bill · Post by **Bill** » Fri. Dec. 14, 2007 9:08 am

Thank you for the response. I think so..what would the temperature of the stove be (radiant)? May be you could give me a couple of tips on controlling the fire.

Thank you

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Fri. Dec. 14, 2007 9:29 am

Giving a set temperature to keep ones stove at is tough to do.. Keep it as hot as you like to keep your house temperature comfortable. Be sure to have a full bed of coal inside filled up to the bottom of door rim.

control it by air flow.

pbmax · Post by **pbmax** » Sat. Dec. 15, 2007 9:32 pm

So, it looks like I'm not going to be able to just hook up a duct to move air up to the register. No hole for it, and the distribution vent is long & narrow & right over the door.

I saw many posts mention a "plenum" and it sounds like a box that surround the stove and you hook ducting up to it. Can someone give me a little better idea of this?

thanks
pb

pbmax · Post by **pbmax** » Thu. Dec. 27, 2007 6:17 pm

bump

pbmax wrote:So, it looks like I'm not going to be able to just hook up a duct to move air up to the register. No hole for it, and the distribution vent is long & narrow & right over the door.

I saw many posts mention a "plenum" and it sounds like a box that surround the stove and you hook ducting up to it. Can someone give me a little better idea of this?

thanks
pb

av8r · Post by **av8r** » Thu. Dec. 27, 2007 6:44 pm

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plenum

Essentially an airspace/distribution box into which you often run taps to distribute air to other places.

titleist1 · Post by **titleist1** » Fri. Dec. 28, 2007 4:11 pm

A simple design is a sheet metal box above the stove to catch/concentrate the hot air rising up. Ducts are attached to this sheet metal box and or it is piped into the existing furnace ductwork.

drujinin · Post by **drujinin** » Mon. Dec. 31, 2007 8:23 am

Now that it is cold here and snowing again!
I am thinking more about answers or at least comments.
I was cleaning yesterday a few spots I can reach and the wife can't. Standing on the stairs I noticed all the cobwebs moving toward the stairway which means the warm air is going up the stairs and cold air is hopefully going down the floor vent by the stove. We ran all last week in the 30's with only the stove downstairs. The upstairs furnace set at 68 only called for heat 3 times between 5pm and 10pm. Fine with me! Upstairs at the end of the hall above the floor register the thermometer read 72 degrees outside the bedrooms.
If you put a plenum or box around the stove it needs to be about 4 inches off from the floor to create a chimney affect. Then if you add three 8inch runs to it, you need to think about insulating all this sheet metal. Dad tried this with a wood burner and it would lose too much heat through the uninsulated piping to work very well.
That old coal guzzling monster in the basement in the 20's and 30's was insulated so that maximum heat rose and wasn't cooled off from the sheet metal plus it burned LOTS of cheap coal! I know wage and price comparison but remember those houses rarely had insulation in them.
All I have done is add a 4 or 5 inch desk fan behind the coal stove in the fireplace space to push against the back of the stove and the chimney/stove pipe. Between that and the cheap little 100 cfm squirrel cage fan that is piped into the small cavity in the top of the stove I have no other fans for air movement. At the other end of the room by the stairs I can hold 72 to 78 degrees all day and night which I never could do with wood.
We all need to remember that our Grandparents houses were heated with wood or coal and the same as my parents house. Everyone owned sweaters and long underwear. There was a reason for this. The advent of forced air or piped steam or water baseboard heat was because everyone wanted comfort!
We cannot replace comfort by throwing a wood or coal stove in our houses and say this is the cure to our Gas or Oil bills, these devices will only offset the bill.
Before you all blast me remember I live in a converted barn and it is cold and drafty!

pbmax · Post by **pbmax** » Wed. Jan. 02, 2008 12:18 am

I got some ducting to work. Took a floor register connector and cut it to slide over the top of the stove, so the distribution vent blows into it. Hooked up some insulated flexible ducting and ran that to the existing register. The register opens at the end of the hallway next to the doors to all the bedrooms and it keeps the upstairs much warmer.

Looks ugly as all get out, but it'll work until I decide to mess with it again.

Thanks for the ideas.
pb

beatle78 · Post by **beatle78** » Fri. Jan. 04, 2008 2:18 pm

Devil5052 wrote:
heatwithcoal wrote:I got one of those 6" inline duct booster fans and I was thinking about putting it in the hot air duct coming from the stove until I did a little reading here and now know better (a lot of experience on this forum) I am now actually thinking about cutting a return hole and in the far end of the house (in addition to the center stairway) and just putting the inline booster on the end of a short transition that I will install in this new hole. This would assist in pulling air through the house. Anybody ever try this?

I am thinking way to much.

Can you say OBSESSION? My wife can

Mark
Before I put a quiet bathroom exhaust fan in I had tried one of those 6" booster fans too. Thing made such a racket that I thew it away! (No matter how I tried to cover it with insulation,etc to cut down the noise you could hear a very annoying whistling/rumbling sound all over the house through the floor vents......Did a much better job of circulating noise all over the house than air!)
In re your..... "OBSESSION".....I guess my wife would agree with yours! (I think I have turned this into a wintertime hobby) I just love the feeling that I am not totaly dependant on the greedy oil company theives & that my house will be warm regardless of weather or power failures.

If you are talking about one of these http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servle ... =100067594 then that noise you were hearing was a design defect. The manufacturer worked with me and sent me (free of charge), replacement dual speed fans for my single speed fans. I couldn't sleep with the loud whining noise when I first put them in. Now they run whisper quiet

Devil505 · Post by **Devil505** » Fri. Jan. 04, 2008 2:24 pm

beatle78 wrote:
Devil5052 wrote: Before I put a quiet bathroom exhaust fan in I had tried one of those 6" booster fans too. Thing made such a racket that I thew it away! (No matter how I tried to cover it with insulation,etc to cut down the noise you could hear a very annoying whistling/rumbling sound all over the house through the floor vents......Did a much better job of circulating noise all over the house than air!)
In re your..... "OBSESSION".....I guess my wife would agree with yours! (I think I have turned this into a wintertime hobby) I just love the feeling that I am not totaly dependant on the greedy oil company theives & that my house will be warm regardless of weather or power failures.
If you are talking about one of these http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servle ... =100067594 then that noise you were hearing was a design defect. The manufacturer worked with me and sent me (free of charge), replacement dual speed fans for my single speed fans. I couldn't sleep with the loud whining noise when I first put them in. Now they run whisper quiet

Yes,,That's exactly the one! Do you have contact info & ddetails on who to contact, etc?

beatle78 · Post by **beatle78** » Fri. Jan. 04, 2008 2:51 pm

If you are talking about one of these http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servle ... =100067594 then that noise you were hearing was a design defect. The manufacturer worked with me and sent me (free of charge), replacement dual speed fans for my single speed fans. I couldn't sleep with the loud whining noise when I first put them in. Now they run whisper quiet

Yes,,That's exactly the one! Do you have contact info & ddetails on who to contact, etc?

sorry, I don't have the e-mail that was 1 year ago, but here is their website.

http://www.suncourt.com/Products.html

I would go to the bottom and use the contact us link. Tell them what you are experiencing and mention, they'll know exactly what you are talking about.

Devil505 · Post by **Devil505** » Fri. Jan. 04, 2008 4:18 pm

beatle78 wrote:
If you are talking about one of these http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servle ... =100067594 then that noise you were hearing was a design defect. The manufacturer worked with me and sent me (free of charge), replacement dual speed fans for my single speed fans. I couldn't sleep with the loud whining noise when I first put them in. Now they run whisper quiet

Yes,,That's exactly the one! Do you have contact info & ddetails on who to contact, etc?
sorry, I don't have the e-mail that was 1 year ago, but here is their website.

http://www.suncourt.com/Products.html

I would go to the bottom and use the contact us link. Tell them what you are experiencing and mention, they'll know exactly what you are talking about.

Thanks~!! Just emailed them

beatle78 · Post by **beatle78** » Fri. Jan. 04, 2008 7:18 pm

no problem. Glad I could help. Please keep me posted and let me know how they resolve this for you!

pbmax · Post by **pbmax** » Wed. Jan. 16, 2008 12:20 pm

Funny that one fan can make a big difference.
Old setup: heat the garage to 76 degrees, open the door and let the air draft upstairs to keep the living room (by stairs) 69-72 and bedrooms (over stove but floor is insulated) 67-69ish.

Newer: flexible ducting takes distribution air to register by bedrooms. Garage 72, upstairs 69-70
Newest: Portable fan near register blowing down hallway away from bedrooms. Garage 69. Bedrooms 73 (doors open) LR 70.

And it looks like my efficiency in burning has gone up with some tinkering on the timers. Now I get about 200 lb coal to burn into one ash pan. (2 hoppers, one dump)

<3 it
pb

Devil505 · Post by **Devil505** » Wed. Jan. 16, 2008 1:04 pm

beatle78 wrote:
If you are talking about one of these http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servle ... =100067594 then that noise you were hearing was a design defect. The manufacturer worked with me and sent me (free of charge), replacement dual speed fans for my single speed fans. I couldn't sleep with the loud whining noise when I first put them in. Now they run whisper quiet

Yes,,That's exactly the one! Do you have contact info & ddetails on who to contact, etc?
sorry, I don't have the e-mail that was 1 year ago, but here is their website.

http://www.suncourt.com/Products.html

I would go to the bottom and use the contact us link. Tell them what you are experiencing and mention, they'll know exactly what you are talking about.

2 speed fan came today!