# Room to Room OR Doorway Fan?



## FireRod (Sep 13, 2015)

In trying to find ways to make my house more comfortable I'm looking at some fans to move the heat from my main room where my wood stove is. There are two options I found that seem practical. The EntreeAir Door Frame Fan and the Electric Doorway Fan seem like the two most common one. Has anybody used either one of these and have an opinion?


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## ijbelair55 (Sep 13, 2015)

entreeair is extremely noisy. i have 4 minuteman fans there quiet and work great


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## FireRod (Sep 13, 2015)

Like this one?


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## Sconnie Burner (Sep 13, 2015)

Its been mentioned here many times before, but many of us have better luck moving the cooler denser air near the floor towards the stove/stove room which displaces the warm air out to the rest of the home. I never would have believed it until I took the advice and tried it for myself. Just an idea to try because I know those little fans are spendy.


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## unbidden (Sep 13, 2015)

I've tried using various fan methods including ceiling fans. I've found that just letting the stove do its work, works best.


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## Warm_in_NH (Sep 13, 2015)

+1 on moving cool air towards the stove room. 
We also own an entree air fan that I ended up installing as a through the wall fan to vacate heat from a corner it gets "trapped" in, works well but noisy and not the highest quality.


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## NJ_Burner08002 (Sep 13, 2015)

My ceiling fan moves my heat very well


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## FireRod (Sep 13, 2015)

I do have a ceiling fan along with a small floor fan that sits along side of the stove with an ECO fan on the stove. My thought is if I push or pull the heat to the other rooms instead of the heat escaping into the other rooms the house as a whole will be warmer and then I could run the stove a little colder.


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## Grisu (Sep 13, 2015)

FireRod said:


> My thought is if I push or pull the heat to the other rooms instead of the heat escaping into the other rooms the house as a whole will be warmer and then I could run the stove a little colder.



It does not make a difference in your energy usage how you get the heat to the other rooms. The stove puts out the same BTU regardless. You want to level out the temps between rooms and for that pushing cold air towards the stove room will work better.


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## Husky (Sep 13, 2015)

I finally bought the more expensive, 5" x 5" Extra-quiet Circulator Fan by Imperail. They are the best. Very quiet and they move a lot of air. Don't waste your money on the cheap ones. Great little fans. I use them in the corner of my doorways. I hang them with command strips so I don't have to put holes in my trim work and I can take them down in the summer and put them back up in the fall.


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## Offset (Sep 13, 2015)

If you were to install one of these fans near the ceiling and pointed at the double wall chimney to outside insulated chimney connection would it cause any negative issues?  There is a lot of heat at that point of our cathedral ceiling but I wonder if cooling the (by taking away heat) exhaust from the stove pipe would cause issues inside the chimney?  Cool exhaust more build up?  

I really don't know so I thought I would ask.


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## DanCorcoran (Sep 13, 2015)

Before you make any decisions, get a cheap 15" box fan (about $12 at Walmart) and set it on the floor, blowing the cold air _*into*_ the room with the stove.  You'll be amazed how much it helps warm up the other rooms.  Then you can compare putting fans at the top of the door...I'll bet money you'll be very disappointed in their performance, in comparison.  If looks are more important, though, then top of the door it is...


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## FireRod (Sep 13, 2015)

Grisu said:


> You want to level out the temps between rooms and for that pushing cold air towards the stove room will work better.



Are you saying take the cold air from the cold rooms and push it to the stove?


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## Grisu (Sep 13, 2015)

Yes. Place a small fan on the floor in the area you want the heat to travel to. Blow cold air along the floor towards the stove room. Warm air will travel along the ceiling to the fan's location to make up for the displaced cold air. I see the temperature rising in the room with the fan usually within 15 min and after 30 min the temps are close to being equal. 

The reason why that works better is that cold air is more dense than warm air and easier to move.


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## Wisneaky (Sep 13, 2015)

I actually just bought two thru wall fans. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004I5H22C/ref=oh_aui_i_sh_pre_o0_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1

my living room is always so dang warm no matter summer or winter. My wood furnace is in the basement and is fed to the upstairs through ductwork. Living room is in middle of house and the 3 bedrooms branch off of it. The living room has a drop ceiling and 2x2 foot fluorescent lights which I believe contribute to the excess heat. I'm going to install these two fans and push the air into two of the bedrooms and if they work than I will purchase another and do the same for the 3rd bedroom.


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## firefighterjake (Sep 13, 2015)

As others have said . . . try the fan on the floor pushing the air towards the stove first. Much cheaper option . . . that works well.


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## FireRod (Sep 14, 2015)

Wisneaky said:


> I actually just bought two thru wall fans. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004I5H22C/ref=oh_aui_i_sh_pre_o0_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1
> 
> my living room is always so dang warm no matter summer or winter. My wood furnace is in the basement and is fed to the upstairs through ductwork. Living room is in middle of house and the 3 bedrooms branch off of it. The living room has a drop ceiling and 2x2 foot fluorescent lights which I believe contribute to the excess heat. I'm going to install these two fans and push the air into two of the bedrooms and if they work than I will purchase another and do the same for the 3rd bedroom.



Okay, here's a thought. When using a thru wall fan would you install it near the floor to exhaust the cold air from the the rooms to the stove room?


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## FireRod (Sep 14, 2015)

I guess this is a physics question. What is easier to move, cold air or warm air?


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## EJL923 (Sep 14, 2015)

my master bedroom which used to be cold is now comfortable after i installed a ceiling fan in the adjacent/stove room.  Getting that hot air off the ceiling really does the trick.


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## FireRod (Sep 14, 2015)

FireRod said:


> I guess this is a physics question. What is easier to move, cold air or warm air?


I think I found the answer to this. Cold air is denser which I guess by theory is harder to move. So by using a fan to move the cold air the warm air can be pushed easier. Makes sense now!


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## FireRod (Sep 14, 2015)

Now I have to figure how to manage not tripping over a small fan in the corner of a doorway. LOL


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## DanCorcoran (Sep 14, 2015)

I don't know the physics, but a fan blowing at a certain speed will move more dense air than thin air.  By pushing dense air along the floor into a stove room, it displaces a lot of thin warm air, which flows back into the room from which the cold air came.  If you think about the reverse, pushing a little thin, warm air at the ceiling into a cold room will have a hard time displacing the dense cold air.  (Plus, I've tried both, and moving the cold air works better...)


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## ToltingColtAcres (Sep 14, 2015)

FireRod said:


> Now I have to figure how to manage not tripping over a small fan in the corner of a doorway. LOL



Buy the Entree Air and mount it on the corner on the floor


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## ijbelair55 (Sep 15, 2015)

FireRod said:


> Like this one?
> View attachment 161667


I got mine off of amazon


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## Wisneaky (Sep 15, 2015)

I installed my room to room fans tonight. Took me about an hour. I'll report back with how they work.


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## Wisneaky (Sep 16, 2015)

Wisneaky said:


> View attachment 161818
> 
> 
> I installed my room to room fans tonight. Took me about an hour. I'll report back with how they work.


First night using these fans and this is the first time ever that all my rooms are the exact same temperature. Holding steady at 70 degrees. I'll temp it again tomorrow during the day because it is supposed to get real warm here.


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## FireRod (Sep 21, 2015)

Are those fans suppling two rooms?


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## Wisneaky (Sep 21, 2015)

FireRod said:


> Are those fans suppling two rooms?


I have two fans supplying two rooms.


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## FireRod (Sep 21, 2015)

So your just taking hot air into the rooms not using any cold air towards the stove room?


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## Wisneaky (Sep 21, 2015)

FireRod said:


> So your just taking hot air into the rooms not using any cold air towards the stove room?


For the most part yes. I don't have a stove though. I have a wood furnace located in my basement that is forced air through my duct work. My issue was my main living room which is in the middle of my house is always really hot summer "even though I have central air" and winter, while the rest of the rooms are very cold. I am blowing the warm air into the cold rooms and the cold air I noticed circulates back into the main living area under the door ways. I hope this explains how it is working.


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## saladdin (Sep 22, 2015)

FireRod said:


> Are you saying take the cold air from the cold rooms and push it to the stove?


 
Jumping in.

Do this. Take strips of toilet paper and tape from the ceilings and door jams. Then turn the fan to push the cold air toward the stove. Watch the toilet paper which will show you the current flow.

Pushing the cold air adds multiple degrees to my further rooms.


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## begreen (Sep 22, 2015)

Yes, you can watch natural convection at work by taking a smoking incense or punk stick and watching how the air moves. Toilet paper strips work well too. Supplementing natural convection helps improve the fan's efficiency. There are times where putting the fan low will not work well at all. Consider this scenario with a basement stove: A fan placed low, at the bottom of the stairs blowing upward is not going to work well. In that case the fan would be blowing against the cool air flow coming down the stairs. You can test this with toilet paper or by putting a thermometer high and low. Cool air will be naturally flowing down the stairs and warm air will be exiting the basement at the top of the doorway.  But if you take the same fan and put it at the top of the stairs on the floor pointing downstairs then it is assisting the natural convective flow. Much more warm air will be exiting from the top of the doorway.

That said both ways can work. One could put a fan at the top of the basement doorway blowing into the main floor. One is just more efficient than the other because cold air is denser. I have an ideal case with the upstairs master bedroom where I tested both ways with the fan high and low. The heat pours up the hallway, but doesn't flood into the MBR too fast due to the doorway. In that test, putting the fan low achieved a faster temperature change of about 5 degrees in the room after 30 minutes. The fan set high at the top of the doorway took almost an hour to get the same results. These are things that heating geeks do on long winter nights.


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## ToltingColtAcres (Sep 22, 2015)

This has been a very informative thread for me. This year when I start burning, I am going to use some incense sticks per above and actually watch my air movement in the house, and adjust my strategy for air movement accordingly.


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## ColdNH (Sep 22, 2015)

I have a cape with a center chimney and I am able to push cool air into the stove room in a horse-show pattern blowing the cold air towards the stove with a box fan. from the coolest part of the house. This works surprisingly well. When we turn the box fan off, the temperature of the coldest room can drop 10-15 degrees.

We also installed one of these

http://www.tjernlund.com/airshare_ventilation.htm

which is setup next to the stove to push some of the hottest air directly into some of the coldest. this surprisingly does not do much.


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## begreen (Sep 22, 2015)

ToltingColtAcres said:


> This has been a very informative thread for me. This year when I start burning, I am going to use some incense sticks per above and actually watch my air movement in the house, and adjust my strategy for air movement accordingly.


That's the best strategy. There can be a lot of differences in house floor plans. Ranches are pretty easy to guess at because they so often have a T layout with bedrooms and a hallway. Other houses and floorplans can be more challenging.


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## FireRod (Sep 23, 2015)

Okay with all this new technology, lol, when running your stove do you have ceiling fans on reverse to pull the cold air up or push the hot air down?


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## branchburner (Sep 23, 2015)

I don't have a ceiling fan, but in addition to having a box fan move cold air into the stove room, I have a small fan on the hearth to the side of the stove that blows cold floor air towards the back of the fireplace. This pulls heat off the stove and masonry, as well as giving the natural convection flow a little boost. Works great for me.


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## DanCorcoran (Sep 24, 2015)

After you get all those strips of toilet paper hanging from the ceiling and doorways, leave them up there!  You'll be the talk of the neighborhood...local TV station may even come by for an interview.


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## ToltingColtAcres (Sep 24, 2015)

DanCorcoran said:


> After you get all those strips of toilet paper hanging from the ceiling and doorways, leave them up there!  You'll be the talk of the neighborhood...local TV station may even come by for an interview.



used, or unused, strips?


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## FireRod (Sep 25, 2015)

DanCorcoran said:


> After you get all those strips of toilet paper hanging from the ceiling and doorways, leave them up there!  You'll be the talk of the neighborhood...local TV station may even come by for an interview.





ToltingColtAcres said:


> used, or unused, strips?


Absolutely!


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## rob_ (Oct 23, 2015)

Great thread, thanks all.  I'm contemplating how to get heat from my stove on the main floor down to my basement.  I think the longer-term solution might be some fans and ducting and a stove specifically made for this (see this thread)...but this thread got me thinking a lot more about air flow, and the suggestion to play with cheap fans first.

I'm all ears if anybody has any suggestions on my situation...forcing warm air downstairs.  Maybe 2 fan-powered ducts?  The first blowing warm air from the ceiling above the stove to the floor of the basement, and the second blowing cold air from the floor of the basement to the floor near the stove?  Or maybe the basement inlet/outlet need to be further spaced (e.g., warm air in to ceiling, cold air out from floor)?

Any experiences would be great to hear.

Thanks.

-Rob


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## begreen (Oct 23, 2015)

Methinks the odds are that is not going to work well.


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## FireRod (Oct 31, 2015)

I have to admit having a fan on the floor blowing the cold air into the room with my stove does really work and circulates the warm air much more than I would ever thought. This also keeps the room with the stove cooler and the rest of the house much warmer. And all I did was to buy a little $15 Lasko fan which is a small investment for such a great improvement. Great idea guys and thank you!


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## rowerwet (Nov 1, 2015)

FireRod said:


> Okay with all this new technology, lol, when running your stove do you have ceiling fans on reverse to pull the cold air up or push the hot air down?


Run them blowing up, works better if the fan has a down rod to space it away from the ceiling. We get much more heat from our stove in the far corners and rooms this way.


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## FireRod (Nov 14, 2015)

I did the toilet paper test, hanging strips from the top's of all the doorways in my house really does show how the air is circulating. What a big difference with the fans off and on. I'm not sure where my electric bill will be but there is great air circulation in my house.

A list of the fans when all on:
Eco Fan on stove
Small fan on floor at side of stove
Ceiling fan
Small fan on floor outside blowing into room with stove
Fan in oil furnace with humidifier


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## mass_burner (Nov 14, 2015)

FireRod said:


> I have to admit having a fan on the floor blowing the cold air into the room with my stove does really work and circulates the warm air much more than I would ever thought. This also keeps the room with the stove cooler and the rest of the house much warmer. And all I did was to buy a little $15 Lasko fan which is a small investment for such a great improvement. Great idea guys and thank you!
> 
> View attachment 165698


There are also other variables such as lifestyle. Our ranch is basically two large rectangles separated by one door, common area/bedrooms on either side of door. We spend all our time in the common area until its time for bed. In the time from say, 7pm to 9:30, there's not enough time to heat 3 bedrooms, 2 baths (900 sq ft) at the rate of air exchange. You also have to figure in cold air being replaced in the bedrooms from outside.


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## Pat32rf (Nov 17, 2015)

By pushing the cold floor air back to the stove room it has a clear shot along the floor. The warm air that moves back to take its place is "overflow" air that is lower than door top level. As it flows thru each door it swirls and mixes with the air( above the door) in that room giving a more comfortable result. Its a case of moving the air where it wants to go anyway.....more efficient


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