How Do You Distribute Heat From Your Stove?

Post by **coaledsweat** » Sat. Oct. 27, 2007 10:35 am

The hung ceiling could be used as a plenum, that is how our office is here at the plant where I work. It is not ideal in a large commercial buiolding with HVAC, but it could make your home a lot more comfy. It may even be advantagous to you as you can select where the cold retun comes back to your heat source. The better your convection loop is, the better the distribution will be as the home will be more evenly heated. A few grates in the floor at the ends of the home feeding the plenum and one ceiling tile replaced with a grate (you can move it around to find the best spot) in the basement may provide that for you.

heatwithcoal · Post by **heatwithcoal** » Sat. Oct. 27, 2007 11:41 am

As far as the foyer being your cold air return, I don't know, but it seems to be working for me. This is the first year I am really experimenting with a stove in the basement. I am just trying different things with guidance from this forum.

Last year I had an old stoker going in the basement only on the weekends but since I got a new one this year I am putzing around more with circulating the heat from the basement to the main floor and back. I have an insulated basement ceiling and I am sure I am wasting heat but I have not yet convinced myself to tear down 1300sqft of insulation. (I have gone as far as pricing it out for how much it would cost to relace the insulation it if I ever sold the place.)

It has not been too cold but the house is staying evenly heated.

My house is electric baseboard also but it hasn't been on for years. I am burning pellets on the main floor as my primary heat.

I have 3 ton of pellets in my basement and kinda wish I had 3 ton of coal instead the way this stoker is running.

Just rambling on.....

Mark

Ed.A · Post by **Ed.A** » Sat. Oct. 27, 2007 1:39 pm

Thanks for the info guys, I forgot all about the Grates for hung ceilings...Doh!

With the wood stove it was radiant heat only so I'm really excited about the new Coal Stoker.

daveuz · Post by **daveuz** » Sat. Oct. 27, 2007 10:42 pm

**Broken Link(s) Removed** I use one of these I picked up at a garage sale for 5.00. I put it right next to the single duct from the old coal stove in the basement. I have the setting on 1 or 2 and it does a great job of moving warm air around the house VERY quietly. Check the specs for the air movement . I do not use a filter on it though. The filters are expensive and that is why you can buy like new units with old filters for next to nothing if not free. I read about them on the internet and people sometimes wrap paper towels around them to filter the in coming air. I tried it and it does work but my real aim was to move the warm air around the house. I have thought about building a shelf off the basement ceiling and setting this unit up there with a grate in the floor, this way the top of the unit would be right under the grate thus drawing air from the basement ceiling and blow out into the upstairs. . In my plan I would be able to use inexpensive furnace filter around the side that can only be seen in the basement. If I needed to change the fan speed I would have to lift the grate. Combine this with a cold air return and I think I will have an inexpensive set up.

Ed · Post by Ed » Sun. Oct. 28, 2007 8:08 am

I have a Alaska Stoker, I cut a six inch hole in the top and made a flange (kinda looks like a top hat) and connected it to a six inch pipe that goes up to a elbow and into some flex duct then into my existing ductwork from my propane hot air furnace. (i've been experimenting 2 years now, wife calls me the heat mizer). Anyway, I have approximately a 40 x 40 ranch with a half finished basement. My stairwell is in the the far corner from my stove. The idea of the stairwell being a cold air return works, but not that great. All the cold air in the house travels to that stairwell (which is in the kitchen) and makes the kitchen the coldest room in the house. This year I ran another piece of flex duct from my cold air trunk and put it to one of the fans on the back of the stove. It's one of the distribution fans on the back (stove has 2). It already seems to have a huge difference. I put a door on the bottom of the stairwell and the kitchen is warm now. Just need to make a better setup to hook my cold air to both of the distribution fans. (Sorry so long)

Devil505 · Post by **Devil505** » Tue. Oct. 30, 2007 7:55 pm

WOW!!! I just took this forum's advice & added a fan behind my stove in such a way that alot of the fan's air is routed through the stove's top baffle & washes the top of the stove. (pic attached) The rest of the fan's air is directed to move the heated air (above the stove) out into the room.
What a difference!! Stove stack temp has dropped & I am getting alot more heat than I ever did before!! I am a happy man...Thanks!
(Now I'm just waiting for the wireless thermometer (with Hi/Lo alarms) I ordered & I'll be really happy!)

coal berner · Post by **coal berner** » Tue. Oct. 30, 2007 8:35 pm

Hey 5052 if you buy the Blower fan for you stove you would get more
heat blowing off plus it will lower you stove temp more and you can buy a
Heat Reclaimer for your pipe and you would even get more heat out of it
plus your stove pipe temp will be even lower They use a thermostat Built
in to them they will kick on at 150f and shut off at 110f they have 10 heat
exchanger tubes in them with a fan inside at the back that Pushes the
heat out to the room they have a rate of 30.000 B.T.U.'s saves alot of
heat from going out the chimney And also keeps you pipe Temps down
Something to think about

CoalHeat · Post by **CoalHeat** » Tue. Oct. 30, 2007 8:39 pm

Hi 5052,

As coalberner said, there is a variable speed fan that is sold as an option for the TLC.

I considered this stove before I bought the Mark I.

The single speed fan is standard with the Mark series, During moderate weather we don't use it, but during cold weather we do, makes a big difference.

**Broken Link(s) Removed**

Devil505 · Post by **Devil505** » Tue. Oct. 30, 2007 8:41 pm

At the risk of asking a stupid question:

I am absolutely amazed at how much more heat the fan is extracting from my stove but I'm not sure I understand the principal at play here???
I can see that the stack temp drops when the fan is on & that I am therefore recapturing some of the heat I was losing up the chimney when the stove was allowed to just sit in it's heated but relatively stagnant air.........I guess like a car's radiator cooled by the moving air.

But, since I have made no change to the inlet air setting, I'm not really undertanding why the stack temp is lower (with the fan blowing across the top) & will this make the stove more unstable when fired very low on these warm days?

CoalHeat · Post by **CoalHeat** » Tue. Oct. 30, 2007 9:05 pm

But, since I have made no change to the inlet air setting, I'm not really undertanding why the stack temp is lower (with the fan blowing across the top) & will this make the stove more unstable when fired very low on these warm days?[/quote]

Don't think so, you're just helping the stove radiate heat, which is what it is designed to do.

ktavares · Post by **ktavares** » Sat. Nov. 03, 2007 4:28 pm

I'm into my third year of heating and I'm a little stuck as to what I should do with my venting dillema. I've got my Vermont Casting Vigilant II in the foyer with Cathedral ceilings. It heats up the two bedrooms over the garage and masterbedroom to the upper right but doesn't get the main part of my first floor. I have a ceiling fan which does a good job blowing the heat back down but using other fans doesn't blow into the thruway.

Guess I need to add some ductwork. I'm wondering if by adding a small duct over the foyer door with a blower will help distribute the heat evenly.

I've read the threads with great info but I'm a little clueless as to what will work.

traderfjp · Post by **traderfjp** » Sun. Nov. 04, 2007 8:35 am

Putting a fan behind the stove is a great idea. If you had a blower on the stove and a celing fan near the stove would the fan behind the stove be necessary?

Devil505 · Post by **Devil505** » Sun. Nov. 04, 2007 9:09 am

traderfjp wrote:Putting a fan behind the stove is a great idea. If you had a blower on the stove and a celing fan near the stove would the fan behind the stove be necessary?

If your stove has a blower I don't think so. Im an no proffessional HVAC man but I don't like running ceiling fans in the winter. (feel that the cooling effect of air movement negates any benefit)
From the pic you posted, my amateur opinion is that, since heat will rise up your cathedral ceiling to the bedrooms above anyway, I would not use the ceiling fan at all. Instead use a small fan to blow/suck warm air from the upstairs hall into the bedrooms.

CoalHeat · Post by **CoalHeat** » Sun. Nov. 04, 2007 9:51 am

If we used ceiling fans in our house, we would all be walking around with bandages on or wearing hard hats (7' ceilings). We do have one on the porch, the sloped roof allows enough space for one.

spc · Post by **spc** » Sun. Nov. 04, 2007 8:44 pm

How about this:
http://www.problemsolvers.com/product.asp?pcode=4 ... -_-NA-_-NA

How Do You Distribute Heat From Your Stove?

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