Wood stove question

[IndyGardenGal]

We have been discussing getting a wood stove (we're on LP now), and we have one concern. The best place for the stove is on the side the side of the house furthest from the bedrooms. Our house is about 1700-1800 sq ft.

What do we need to look for in a stove, or consider in general, to be sure that the entire house at least gets some of this heat? DH's biggest concern is that if we get a bigger stove (looked at a few Lopis--like being able to cook on top) that it will just heat the one end of the house to an unbearable temp and the bedrooms will still be chilly.

[Bearfootfarm]

Ceiling fans will help more than most anything else.
You can also run the fan on your furnace to help distribute heat

[Harry Chickpea]

Think ceiling fans and box fans to aid the natural convection. Stoves are point sources of heat.

[Drizler]

http://hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/

This is the best place on the net for woodstove info. They have reviews listed elsewhere on the site as well.

[TurnerHill]

Do you have FHA or FHW?

[Stephen in SOKY]

Blow the cool floor air from the far end of the house towards the stove. It will be displaced by warmer air heating the areas further away. I installed a thruwall fan & use a small fan on the floor returning cool air to the stove creating a loop that keeps the entire house in much better balance. Still warmer where the stove is, but better.

[ET1 SS]

Our woodstove heats water, that water flows through our radiant heated floors.

And we have a cieling fan directly over the stove.

So it heats our floors [2400 sq ft] and our air.

[IndyGardenGal]

FHA--not fhw

[Cabin Fever]

If your current LP furnance is the forced air type, I would do the following:

1. Cover all the heat ducts in the room where the woodstove is.

2. Cover all the return air ducts in the other rooms of the house.

3. Turn the furnance fan on.

By doing this, the furnace fan will suck air from the room with the woodstove only and blow this heated air into the other rooms of the house.

[Ross]

Covering heat ducts and returns restricts the air flow through the furnace so you might be setting it up to fail on the high limit which could damage the heat exchanger. Kind of depends on how many retrun air and heat ducts you have, some are better than others. Certainly running the furnace on the blower function alone is going to help. You could also install room to room through the wall fans. Avoid going through bath rooms utility rooms or the kitchen.

You should consider where your thermostat is. If its in the room with the wood stove you will likely shut down the heating function of your furnace leaving some rooms with little to no heat at all. You could also consider alternative heat sources to the furnace, using it only as a back up. Electic baseboards are cheap to install and use part time, or if you have an LP water heater you could use it to heat distant rooms with baseboard type convectors. Not really cheap to set up but cheaper to run than the furnace for just a few rooms or electric.

[Cabin Fever]

Ross, I did this for years in another home and had no problems. When I wanted to actually turn the furnance on for gas heat, I would first remove all the vent covers so the system would be running as designed.

I would think if anything negative thing were to happen by covering vents and only running the furnance fan, is that it might put extra stress on the blower motor and lead to the motor "burning out" after a period of time. That never happened to me after 10 years of doing this, but I suppose it could happen under certain circumstances.

[Stephen in SOKY]

Here's the Thruwall fan I mentioned above and Ross also brought up.

During install in the stove alcove:



And the finished product exiting the dining room wall:



I mounted it high to move warm air & it does a great job without being overly noisy in the room with the stove. When the temp drops I also use a small (6") fan on the floor in the hall blowing cooler air back to the stove & creating a loop throughout the house.

[Ross]

Lots of people do this Cabin and some end up with a damaged furnace. Certainly removing obstructions will (assuming its an adequate set up to begin with) removes the risk. Cold air return filters are just as bad! In an oil furnace shutting off rooms to save heat mearly pumps the savings up the chimney with higher stack temps. Most gas furnaces have safties that will shut it off but they shouldn't be used as operating controls.

As for the blower put an amp meter on your blower motor wire when the air flow is restricted and then remove the fan case cover and see what it draws with all the air in the world to move. You'll be shocked. Think about an outboard motor running out of water and in, where does it have to work hard? With no water (or restricted water) or lots of water? Same holds true for the blower fan. Its actually drawing less amps with a restricted air flow. So no restricting the air flow shouldn't hurt the blower fan motor.