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09/23/07, 11:21 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Beautiful North Idaho
Posts: 110
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Thoughts about how to spread wood heat
We have a kuma wood burning stove and that is the only thing we use for heat. We do have a electric furnace but do not use it. Our only problem is we have 3 back bedrooms (wood stove is in the living room and the kitchen is open right next to it) and they stay very cold. Our theory is in the hall right above the heat thermostat is the vent to pull air when you just want to turn on the furnace to circulate air. It gets very hot right in that hall and we think that that would pull some of that warm air to other parts of the house. What do you think?
Blessings,
Jennifer
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09/23/07, 11:23 PM
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Banned
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Dysfunction Junction, SW PA
Posts: 4,808
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I use little desk fans screwed to the ceiling to move the air around, it keeps 5 rooms warm with one little woodstove.
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09/23/07, 11:41 PM
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Nohoa Homestead
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Join Date: May 2005
Location: SW Missouri near Branson (Cape Fair)
Posts: 5,398
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by praise4him
We have a kuma wood burning stove and that is the only thing we use for heat. We do have a electric furnace but do not use it. Our only problem is we have 3 back bedrooms (wood stove is in the living room and the kitchen is open right next to it) and they stay very cold. Our theory is in the hall right above the heat thermostat is the vent to pull air when you just want to turn on the furnace to circulate air. It gets very hot right in that hall and we think that that would pull some of that warm air to other parts of the house. What do you think?
Blessings,
Jennifer
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Someone I know just sticks a box fan in the hall way. I doesn't look too pretty but it works very well at moving the warm air. We'll be putting in a wood stove in the "back room" and I am planning on just using a box or other type of fan to get it circulated. You might consider using just the "fan" switch on your electric furnace to move the air around we do that in the summer.
donsgal
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Life is what happens while you are making other plans. (John Lennon)
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09/24/07, 12:07 AM
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Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Washington
Posts: 2,832
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Little circulating fans placed strategically do a great job at spreading the hot air around.
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09/24/07, 12:47 AM
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: NC
Posts: 515
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In order to push air to the back rooms you have to have an avenue to bring it back to the stove. The room is full of air,In order to put a cubic foot of air in,you have to take a cubic foot of air out. If you push it back at the ceiling. Set a fan on the floor at the back blowing to the front. I vote for moving the air with the furance.
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09/24/07, 12:56 AM
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Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: MN
Posts: 7,610
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A fan on the floor will move colder air. A fan on the ceiling will move warmer air. If you can follow that & work out a path for the air to curculate through the rooms, fans can do it for you. But don't try to move hot air from your wood stove with a floor on the fan - that floor fan would need to suck air _too_ the stove, letting hot air flow along the ceiling over to the cooler room. You need to work with the natural flow of heat.
The house furnace fan & ductwork will redistribute the heat through the house for you, & probably the better way to go if you have that available.
--->Paul
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09/24/07, 02:28 AM
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Install a duct fan and duct vents leading from the living room toward the bedrooms. This is something I need to do also. Run a 6 inch duct line from the living room ceiling and split off to each cold room. Have a 6 inch duct fan installed close by the living room vent and it can be operated by a wall theromostat located toward the back rooms. If your house is like mine you burn up in the living room and freeze in the bedrooms. By installing the 6 inch duct pipe you will pump warm air out of the living room and into the bedrooms. When the temperature rises to what ever you have the thermostat set at, the thermostat will turn the fan off. And back on when the it the temperature falls again. It would save electricity and warm the house up evenly.
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09/24/07, 04:56 AM
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: The Ozarks
Posts: 5,201
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Put 2 of the very small ceiling fans on either end of the hallway. 24 inches I believe is what they come in? Works very well!
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09/24/07, 05:50 AM
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More dharma, less drama.
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Texas Coastal Bend/S. Missouri
Posts: 30,490
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Our home has a central heat/ac unit that we don't use for heat. We have a wood heater (Earth Stove) in the living room. If the winter temp in the house gets unbalanced, we turn on the fan system for the central heat. It circulates everything around in about 45 minutes.
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Alice
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"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus
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09/24/07, 05:55 AM
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: AR
Posts: 2,260
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we use to use a small fan they are shaped like a piece of pie they get mounted in the top corner of a door way the heat is up there they work well
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09/24/07, 06:16 AM
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Banned
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Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: NY
Posts: 3,368
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by mtman
we use to use a small fan they are shaped like a piece of pie they get mounted in the top corner of a door way the heat is up there they work well
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That's what we use too. We have cut a few holes (rectangles) near the top of the wall in the room with the woodstove and put a piece of ductwork inside the hole and covered it with cold air (return air) covers like this:
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?actio...126&lpage=none
It has made a lot of difference in the bedrooms.
Michelle
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09/24/07, 06:28 AM
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Master Of My Domain
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 7,220
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if you can operate that furnace duct system without actually running the furnace, i woud just do that. the return vent you speak of should pick up the heat and it will circulate through the house...i would think.
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this message has probably been edited to correct typos, spelling errors and to improve grammar... 
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09/24/07, 08:03 AM
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swamper
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 1,030
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by praise4him
We have a kuma wood burning stove and that is the only thing we use for heat. We do have a electric furnace but do not use it. Our only problem is we have 3 back bedrooms (wood stove is in the living room and the kitchen is open right next to it) and they stay very cold. Our theory is in the hall right above the heat thermostat is the vent to pull air when you just want to turn on the furnace to circulate air. It gets very hot right in that hall and we think that that would pull some of that warm air to other parts of the house. What do you think?
Blessings,
Jennifer
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If I am reading you correctly, your heater or thermostat has a switch to run just the fan. Turn it on and let it circulate that warm air throughout the house. You may have to balance the temperature in each room by closing off some registers and leaving others wide open. That's what the fan switch is for.
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Died November 4, 2008
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09/24/07, 08:17 AM
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Banned
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Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: NW OR
Posts: 2,314
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by MELOC
if you can operate that furnace duct system without actually running the furnace, i woud just do that. the return vent you speak of should pick up the heat and it will circulate through the house...i would think.
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In my house, this is called "the summer system". Above the thermostat in the hallway is a vent that travels through the wall and back to the furnace. A switch activates a fan that draws the hot air from the hallway into the furnace and is circulated through the house via the ductwork that is associated with the central heat (in my house, a gas furnace that's fueled by propane). The thermostat is wired to activate both the summer system and the propane, but a separate switch must be flipped to turn the heat on. I can't remember the last time I used the propane furnace, my house is 3000 sq ft and is heated exclusively (3 stories) with a woodstove.
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09/24/07, 12:28 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Tennessee
Posts: 2,963
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Most thremostats have a FAN setting, which allows your system to move air without involving the furnace. We use small floor fans.
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Jim Steele
Sweetpea Farms
"To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing." -- Robert Gates
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09/24/07, 12:43 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Indiana
Posts: 2,961
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Similar to mtmn, I use little square framed computer fans in strategic places (at the top of the doorway to the bedroom, at a corner, etc.), they are extremely quiet, they move the hottest air from the top of the room, they move an extrordinary amount of air, yet you don't feel the movement. The perfect solution in my opinion.
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09/24/07, 03:57 PM
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Join Date: May 2006
Location: north central wv
Posts: 2,321
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We also use small fans hooked to the ceiling with screws. You can aim them any direction you want and they move a lot of air without all the noise and use very little elect, plus it doesn't wear out your furnace blower. Good luck Sam
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09/24/07, 09:46 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Beautiful North Idaho
Posts: 110
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Thanks for all of your replies!!
Last year we did put a box fan in the hall but it didn't seem to move much air....BUT we also realized our ceiling fan which is right in the living room was set to circulate the air up instead of pushing it down. (No wonder when we went up in the attic it was piping hot!!) Anyway we smartened up and switched that so it is pushing the air down. Already I see a difference. I think I will run the air setting on the furnace and see what happens.
I will let you all know how my experiment goes. The only thing I worry about is does it cost almost as much to run the air on the furnace as it does to run the heat in it? I don't want to get a huge electric bill.
Blessings always,
Jennifer
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09/24/07, 09:49 PM
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 17,225
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by praise4him
Last year we did put a box fan in the hall but it didn't seem to move much air....BUT we also realized our ceiling fan which is right in the living room was set to circulate the air up instead of pushing it down. (No wonder when we went up in the attic it was piping hot!!) Anyway we smartened up and switched that so it is pushing the air down. Already I see a difference. I think I will run the air setting on the furnace and see what happens.
I will let you all know how my experiment goes. The only thing I worry about is does it cost almost as much to run the air on the furnace as it does to run the heat in it? I don't want to get a huge electric bill.
Blessings always,
Jennifer
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No, the fan is uses very little electricity in relation to the furnace.
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Flaming Xtian
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
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Libertarindependent
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09/24/07, 10:44 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: MS
Posts: 3,839
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by praise4him
Last year we did put a box fan in the hall but it didn't seem to move much air....BUT we also realized our ceiling fan which is right in the living room was set to circulate the air up instead of pushing it down. (No wonder when we went up in the attic it was piping hot!!) Anyway we smartened up and switched that so it is pushing the air down. Already I see a difference. I think I will run the air setting on the furnace and see what happens.
I will let you all know how my experiment goes. The only thing I worry about is does it cost almost as much to run the air on the furnace as it does to run the heat in it? I don't want to get a huge electric bill.
Blessings always,
Jennifer
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We also use our furnace fan to distribute the warm air through out the house but we only turn it on periodically. We do not run it all the time, therefore, I don't feel that it increases the electric bill very much.
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