Channing III Heat Distibution

I recently purchased an Alaska Channing III, it is in my Basement at the base of the stairs. I am using a power vent. I have also partitioned the stove off with 2 pieces of plywood to force the air up the steps, rather than heat the basement. Despite the many topics discussing this, I am curious as to what I can do to get heat to the furthest point in the house. I try not to burn at full capacity. If I do the living room at the top of the steps will be around 80 degrees while I barely get 60 in the bedroom. I have put an unconnected vent in the floor in one of the furthest rooms, thinking the warm air will force the cold air back into the basement. It doesn't seem to work. I have put a vent in the wall connecting the stairwell to the living room, thinking if I keep the stairway door closed the hot air will become trapped in the stairwell and be forced into the living room, but the result is minimal. I am trying to do this with minimal use of electricity, so the use of fans is really not what I want. My stairwell ceiling is very high, so I plan on using a sheet of plywood as a false ceiling to lower it to the lowest possible height hoping that will enable more heat to enter the house. If you walk down the hallway towards the bedrooms, you actually get hit with a wall of cold air and when walking in the other direction, you can feel the warm air when you hit it.

It also seems to me, the power vent is sending too much hot air outside. Is it possible with this partition I put up, I am actually doing more harm than good? Maybe I am just heating already heated air, if that's possible? I am hoping to get in on the manometer program to get the baro damper set right. Also, is the flap on the damper supposed to move/fluctuate? Mine appears to be stationary.

I guess that is enough questions for now. I thank everyone in advance.

Without monitoring temperatures and checking your draft, it hard to say what it is doing. I would check your draft first and adjust your DV accordingly.

Do you have temp gauge to read the stove temp or pipe temps?

Very small adjustments in the direct vent affects the stove temps. My DV on my keystoker was off by quite (.05-.06) a bit and I was loosing alot up the chimney, NOW, (.02-.03) it runs great and the exhaust has NOT gone over 200 degrees (inside the pipe before the wall going outside).

This is my Channing III set up, run by A Coal-Trol thermostat. It is in my basement and heats the whole house, a 75 year old story and a half, fairly well insulated.

My air jacket is home made, my own pitiful attempt, but it does move air around the whole stove, the pipe coming off the top off the stove has a draft inducer to move the hot air, it pulls upstream air from my gas furnace cold air return, keeping the heat exchanger under a slight vacume. It dumsps hot air (260* when running 99%) back into the cold air return closer to the furnace. A simple slide in damper separates the cold air return (upstream/downstream) and can be removed when tha AC is in use in the summer. The air is circulated to the first and second floor when the whole house humidifier turns the furnace fan on, or when I use the circulate feature on the furnace thermostat.

The Coal-Trol stat is on the first floor.

I don't run the stove convection fan, I find it presurizes the heat exchanger and puts heat into the basement where I don't need it.

The reason I put the small duct in the stove convection blower is to wash the heat off the back off the stove. The original heat exchanger is only the back and top of the stove. I raised the top 1" and added the sides when I bought the stove, and recently connected the sides under the bottom and closed it up, adding the cold air return. So now I get the heat upstairs where I need it taking the basement out of the loop, the basement still gets some radient heat and from the reclaimer.Less dust upstairs too.

The sides and bottom I had made at a local HVAC sheet metal shop, the rest came from Home Depo.

The Coal-trol keeps the first floor at 73* and the second floor at 70*

So far I have burned $300.00 in bagged rice, by now my gas bill would have been over $1200.00 for the Winter so far.

I have thought about a water coil for the water heater, but one would cost about $200 and I am close to the minimum gas bill now.

What else can I do to improve?

What about a whole house humidifier under the top heat exchanger, say a small tray about two inches deep, a fill valve with small float and inline filter?

BK

Hello 14x300, take a look at the photo of the back of bksaun's stove. you need to make a similar adapter for the inlet or your distribution fan like he did... To the inlet of the fan, hook some simple ductwork to that floor vent at the bedroom end of the house..

You need to pull the cold air from the bedrooms, hot air from the livingroom will replace it. You don't want any more fans, so use the one that is running right now on the stove, just duct the cold return air from the bedrooms to the inlet of this fan.. You will create a circulation loop, and you will have MUCH more even temperatures upstairs.

Hope this helps.. Greg

Sure does! Now I just have to get myself to Home Depot and get the necessary parts together.

One question, in the 2nd picture, there is duct work running off the blower in the back. What is the purpose of that? To the touch it is blowing out cold air. Is this being used as intake or exhaust?

In the second photo, all the ducts you see, the big one going into the side of the stove, the slightly smaller one that 'Y's' off to the inlet of the fan, and the small duct near the floor with a PVC 'Tee' on the end going to the combustion blower.... all these ducts are supplying air INTO the stove... The outlets from the stove are the top vent off the center that has a 'draft inducer' that PULLS air off and out of the stove body... The other outlet is the flue, exhausting the combustion air, CO and other combustion byproducts up and out the chimney..

Let us know how your bedroom cold air return to the fan inlet works.. You can use something as simple as 4" dryer vent for the duct, or an insulated 6" duct if you wish.

Hope the explaination makes sense.

My home is 1800 ft2 and the Channing III does a good job heating the entire home. I also have a loft, but with the ceiling fan reversed and slow, the heat is quite even. The bedrooms are cooler, but it's better sleeping. Typically it's about 10deg cooler from the living area which is about 70-72deg with temps in the teens outside. The house is 2x6 construction with R39 in the walls, Anderson windows & doors. I also keep a small fan near the ceiling pointing down the hallway to the bedrooms.

There is some impact on the electric bill since the stove has a 2 blowers plus the power vent, plus the 2 room fans. It's still cheaper than running the oil furnace pump and blower.

When I bought my stove, the Alaska rep was at the store and gave me good ideas controlling the power vent. For $20 I got a speed control. I run the power vent full speed when I remove ashes and for cleaning. When running I dial it down to where the barometric damper is just waving. When the stove is running you can put your hand on the 6" vent pipe, but you can't touch the sides of the stove. That's a clear sign that little heat is getting lost through the vent and there's enough draft to get the gases out because the damper is opening.