How Do You Distribute Heat From Your Stove?

japar · Post by **japar** » Wed. Oct. 24, 2007 8:42 pm

Ok , somthing I am going to try is to use the dual window fans and stick it in the doorway. They are 3 speed and can blow in or out. Now stick 1 at the top of the downstairs stairwell blowing up. Just a pita going up and down stairs. What would realy do the trick is somhow blow air from the dinning rooms outer wall down into the basement. That should be the coolest area near the slider. That will get the air circulating

CoalHeat · Post by **CoalHeat** » Thu. Oct. 25, 2007 7:48 am

5052:
Regarding the fan on the TLC:
I considered the TLC before deciding on the Mark I, which has a fan which pusher air through channels in the stove and out the front above the loading door. The main reason I recommend installing the optional fan on your TLC is that without it a lot of heat is wasted (goes up the chimney). I think the fan for the TLC has a variable speed option. On my Mark I we always run the fan except when it gets too warm in the house or the outside temp. is not that cold and we need just a little heat.

My stove is in the dining room, the fan pushes the warm air into the living room. The stairwell to the 2nd floor is near the stove so convection warms the 2nd floor.

The kitchen addition is behind the stove, I installed a bathroom exhaust fan in the wall above the stove and ducted the air through the laundry area, the outlet is near the floor in the far end of the kitchen.
I wired a switched outlet for the fan on the stove, the switch also controls the exhaust fan in the wall.

CoalHeat · Post by **CoalHeat** » Thu. Oct. 25, 2007 8:00 am

Also, regarding the clothes line, that is absolutely not allowed here, it's the electric dryer all the way

, which a fought for a long time, I finally gave up.

Devil505 · Post by **Devil505** » Thu. Oct. 25, 2007 8:28 am

japar wrote:Ok , somthing I am going to try is to use the dual window fans and stick it in the doorway. They are 3 speed and can blow in or out. Now stick 1 at the top of the downstairs stairwell blowing up. Just a pita going up and down stairs. What would realy do the trick is somhow blow air from the dinning rooms outer wall down into the basement. That should be the coolest area near the slider. That will get the air circulating

I'd be fighting my wife every day if I tried to put a window fan (which I just happen to have) at the bottom of the stairs blowing up! It probably would help but it's not worth the fight!

CoalHeat · Post by **CoalHeat** » Thu. Oct. 25, 2007 5:32 pm

Before I installed the fan through the wall with the ductwork into the kitchen, I had a small (10" X 10") fan in one corner of the doorway. It worked well, the worst part was how we kept hitting our heads on it. We still have scars....

LsFarm · Post by **LsFarm** » Thu. Oct. 25, 2007 6:11 pm

If you are trying to move heat to the far end of your house, you need to remove cold air from that part of the house. Each room or portion of a building is like a sealed box, you can only 'push' so much air into the box without having to remove some too.

Put a return pathway from the far end of the house, and circulation will be established, it really works.

I had an appartment [at college] once that was just a room in a house. It had hot air heat, and it was a really cold room. When the door to the room was open, the hot air register pumped out lots of heat, but when the door to the room was closed for privacy the air basily shut off, the room was slightly pressureized and had no circulation. The room had no dedicated cold air return, the return was in the hallway. So I had to trade frostbite for privacy, .

Greg L

.

heatwithcoal · Post by **heatwithcoal** » Thu. Oct. 25, 2007 6:22 pm

I removed the drywall above the basement door and put a window fan to blow the hot air from the basement ceiling to the main floor and on the bottom of the same door I have a 12"x16" cold air return grate. If I put a lighter in front of the grate on the basement side the lighter blows out.(cold air return)

I was not sure if the stairway could double as a hot and cold air conduit but it seems to be working great

Mark

CoalHeat · Post by **CoalHeat** » Thu. Oct. 25, 2007 6:32 pm

The stairwell acts as a conduit for the hot air rising as well as the cold air return. If I stand at the top of the stairs to the 2nd floor, I can feel the heat rising. If I kneel down at the base of the stairs, I can feel the cold air flowing down the stairs. You improved on this with the fan. Good idea!

Devil505 · Post by **Devil505** » Thu. Oct. 25, 2007 7:22 pm

LsFarm wrote:If you are trying to move heat to the far end of your house, you need to remove cold air from that part of the house. Each room or portion of a building is like a sealed box, you can only 'push' so much air into the box without having to remove some too.

Put a return pathway from the far end of the house, and circulation will be established, it really works.

I had an appartment [at college] once that was just a room in a house. It had hot air heat, and it was a really cold room. When the door to the room was open, the hot air register pumped out lots of heat, but when the door to the room was closed for privacy the air basily shut off, the room was slightly pressureized and had no circulation. The room had no dedicated cold air return, the return was in the hallway. So I had to trade frostbite for privacy, .

Greg L

.

How about just cutting a new floor vent in the dining room (furthest room away from the coalstove) which will simply allow cold air to fall into the basment? (we are mainly in the other rooms anyway so I don't want to waste alot of heat in areas that are used imnfrequently)

heatwithcoal · Post by **heatwithcoal** » Thu. Oct. 25, 2007 8:12 pm

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

jpen1 · Post by **jpen1** » Thu. Oct. 25, 2007 10:38 pm

Devil,
Your Idea is a start but I think you are going to need to add to it to maje it effective. If you cut a hole in the dining room floor get some 6" duct and pipe that cold air all the way to the inlet of your coal stoves air distribution fan. I would try this provided your basement isn't finished. ducting the return air back to the stove will be the most effective way to get circulation. Depending on how long your cold air return duct is you may have to add an inline duct booster fan but even without ithe fan you should make a substancial gain.

coal berner · Post by **coal berner** » Thu. Oct. 25, 2007 11:05 pm

Hi jpen1 devil does not have a blower on his stove he felt he did not need
one at the time he bought the stove it was a option I myself would go get
one and hook up a cold air return as Greg and yourself mentioned It will
definitely Help move the heat where he wants it

jpen1 · Post by **jpen1** » Thu. Oct. 25, 2007 11:12 pm

Yeah like JC said you need the blower on the stove or it will really only heat one room evenly.

Devil505 · Post by **Devil505** » Fri. Oct. 26, 2007 6:23 am

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.

Ed.A · Post by **Ed.A** » Sat. Oct. 27, 2007 9:19 am

From what I've read here my foyer should be working as my cold air return correct?
My house is a raised ranch style, a finished basement with a hung ceiling so cold air return grates are not so easy. My stove is in the center of my home contained in a laundry room (apprx 12 x 12), I've (3) vents/grates at different corners of the room (2) of which are soon to be powered and I'm going to add a through the wall powered vent next week.

Luckly my late father-law had me remove all the insulation from the floor joists prior to putting up the ceilings because he gave me his old King Stove when we built the house to help with heating and knew a warm floor was happy floor.
Since we have electric heat (early 80's BS) a wood stove was for helping to keep that from kicking in and costing us a fortune. Now with the new Channing with the blower and such I'm really hoping that my electric won't ever be needed.

Any other suggestions to move the the heat about?