Anyone doing a DIY blower for their stove?

[jcims]

I've got an Englander NC-30 in the basement, and I would like to install a blower to help distribute the heat.

The factory blower seems fine, but I'd really like to pull my air from the HVAC supply duct so that i'm drawing cool air from the registers on the first floor and helping to support convection. Placing the blower in the ceiling would also avoid requiring power in the vicinity of the stove and provide for better sound insulation.

Code will probably kill the idea, but it's still intriguing to me. Has anyone else tried the same? Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[LLigetfa]

What fuel does your current HVAC use?

 

[jcims]

What fuel does your current HVAC use?

Heat pump down to 40 or so, then LP.

 

[grateful]

I've got an Englander NC-30 in the basement, and I would like to install a blower to help distribute the heat.

The factory blower seems fine, but I'd really like to pull my air from the HVAC supply duct so that i'm drawing cool air from the registers on the first floor and helping to support convection. Placing the blower in the ceiling would also avoid requiring power in the vicinity of the stove and provide for better sound insulation.

Code will probably kill the idea, but it's still intriguing to me. Has anyone else tried the same? Any suggestions?

Thanks

I'm don't know what you are trying to do? This is what I did- Purchased an 8" 500 CFM in line duct fan at Lowe's and cut a hole in the floor under a built in book case and installed a register duct. (If I sell the house I can just put some trim over the hole). The duct fan is suspended above the wood stove in the basement. I have hot water heat and needed to get the heat out of the basement, since there is no duct work I had to create my own system.
If you cut a hole in your duct cool air may naturally go down from the upstairs. This may not deliver heat where you want it. The stove shop told me to cut holes in the floor so the heat would rise, well I just couldn't do that and so glad I didn't because heat does not always rise. The one hole that I did cut needed the duct fan to push heat up, without the fan cold air descended from the duct even though it was 120 degrees in the basement.
Grateful

 

[pyper]

I've only had my stove a few weeks. The room the stove is in easily gets to 80F while the rooms far away stay 55F. I've been considering putting a fan in the wall between the stove room and the remote room (they're actually adjacent) (can be done within existing ducts), but I don't really want to do that for noise reasons.

All I've been doing in the mean time is putting a fan on top of the entertainment center that directs hot air down the hallway. This doesn't seem to really work, but it's an improvement on the default situation.

My wife has vetoed cutting holes in the drywall in the new room.

 

[G-rott]

Here we go . . .

 

[Danno77]

Here we go . . .

you said exactly what i was thinkin' , lol....

save some people some time posting about code and best practice and search around for how to move air around with stove use. (short version is push cold air to the stove, not hot air away). then do some searches on this forum regarding fire codes and why being able to either blow a ton of fresh combustible air at a stove that probably isn't, but could be a fire hazard, same goes for being able to blow fire up to the floor above with hole directly above the stove.

I'm not being harsh, just trying to point you to some good information that is already available on this site! good luck!

 

[skyline]

This isn't exactly your situation but I owe payback to this site so bear with me.

Like so many others I have viewed this site for quite a while logging ideas and advice. Finally bit the bullet in December and installed a Travis Industries Fireplace Xtradonaire-FPX 33 Elite Insert (same as Lopi-Declaration, Avalon-Perfict Fit) Went for the flush front, (no additional fireproof material needed on floor) double doors, 22" log length, it still would fit (barely) in my fireplace, and.... I already had 6 cords of 20-22" wood for the existing fireplace.
Based on everything I had read here and elsewhere, I knew it wouldn't heat my daylight basement (where the kids live) but first things first.

After installing, the downstairs became a few degrees warmer mostly I believe from just not sucking so much air out of the house (that had to be replaced through leakage) with the previous fireplace. The main floor became T-shirt weather at 20 °F outside in our 1949 2x4 shake house. Woohoo!

Now to your point, sort of, I noticed the air at the top of the bookcase next to the hearth was 80 °F and I knew I had an inch of space behind it.
I was able to cut a standard 10" x 3.5" hole in the floor at the back of the book case, (most bookcases don't have a support along the back 2- 3" in height so the whole opening had air available to it).
The hole just happened to line up with my furnace room where I could snake a 5" flex between framing and adapt to 6" straight pipe where I placed an inline 6" blower. I insulated around the pipe in the furnace room both for noise and cold since the fresh air supply requirements on the oil furnace makes the room very cold. Incidentally, this is why I can't just run the furnace fan to distribute heat more evenly because it just blows cold air.

I had room behind the book case to also wire a variable speed control switch near the stove, this assured me that I would control any excess noise just like the one on the stove.
I also stuffed some rags near the front of the book case behind the toe kick for noise suppression. I got my fan and switch at airboosterfans.com for about $55. plus shipping.
I then drilled 2" holes at the top of the book case. (see pics) The air entering there averages between 78-84 °F and comes out in the basement between 74-78°F.
It basically brought the basement temperature up from the relatively constant 57 °F to 61-68 °F depending upon how cold it is outside and how hot the stove is running.
The inline fan noise is insignificant compared to the stove and non-existent at all but the highest speed settings upstairs. Downstairs the noise is more noticeable but more from blowing air than any fan noise.

Total cost about $100 with flex, straight pipe, 5" to 6" adaptor and floor and wall boots.
A lot cheaper than another stove in the fireplace downstairs and made the whining from the kids and visiting relatives over xmas just about stop completely ;-P

Hope the pictures and ideas help.

 

[VCBurner]

I've only had my stove a few weeks. The room the stove is in easily gets to 80F while the rooms far away stay 55F. I've been considering putting a fan in the wall between the stove room and the remote room (they're actually adjacent) (can be done within existing ducts), but I don't really want to do that for noise reasons.

All I've been doing in the mean time is putting a fan on top of the entertainment center that directs hot air down the hallway. This doesn't seem to really work, but it's an improvement on the default situation.

My wife has vetoed cutting holes in the drywall in the new room.

"Try to putting a fan on the floor of the cool room and direct it toward the warm room. A box fan works well. This will create negative pressure in the cold room and cause the warm air to replace the cold. I don't know the print of your house but this should even things out a bit."

 

[pyper]

I've only had my stove a few weeks. The room the stove is in easily gets to 80F while the rooms far away stay 55F. I've been considering putting a fan in the wall between the stove room and the remote room (they're actually adjacent) (can be done within existing ducts), but I don't really want to do that for noise reasons.

All I've been doing in the mean time is putting a fan on top of the entertainment center that directs hot air down the hallway. This doesn't seem to really work, but it's an improvement on the default situation.

My wife has vetoed cutting holes in the drywall in the new room.

"Try to putting a fan on the floor of the cool room and direct it toward the warm room. A box fan works well. This will create negative pressure in the cold room and cause the warm air to replace the cold. I don't know the print of your house but this should even things out a bit."

It's kind of like this:
(broken link removed to http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l211/pyper_2006/home/plan.jpg)

Not to scale, and some details omitted.

The red star is the stove, and the blue box is the return on the HVAC. The house is a big circle, so if I could pump warm air into the middle bedroom on the north wall it woud circulate through most of the house. I'm actually thinking of cutting into the back of the return and mounting a fan and a filter. It's just sheetmetal, so it would be an easy thing to undo. The only hesitation I have is that it might end up just pulling cold air out of the return.

I have experimented with putting the fan on the floor in the east-west hallway, as opposed to on top of the furniture. It seems to work about as well either way. I think maybe because when it's on the ceiling it's taking really hot air and moving it into the adjacent space, but when it's on the floor blowing in the air is mixing more and not-as hot air comes out through the opening. Also, when I put it on the floor, more heat goes into the southern space (the kitchen) but I really want to get it to the west and north.

I have tried running the HVAC fan-only; it makes the stove room cooler but doesn't seem to put any heat into the rest of the house. I think I'm loosing all the heat from the return into the crawl space. Although that seems to indicate I probably have another issue to address.

 

[VCBurner]

I've only had my stove a few weeks. The room the stove is in easily gets to 80F while the rooms far away stay 55F. I've been considering putting a fan in the wall between the stove room and the remote room (they're actually adjacent) (can be done within existing ducts), but I don't really want to do that for noise reasons.

All I've been doing in the mean time is putting a fan on top of the entertainment center that directs hot air down the hallway. This doesn't seem to really work, but it's an improvement on the default situation.

My wife has vetoed cutting holes in the drywall in the new room.

"Try to putting a fan on the floor of the cool room and direct it toward the warm room. A box fan works well. This will create negative pressure in the cold room and cause the warm air to replace the cold. I don't know the print of your house but this should even things out a bit."

It's kind of like this:
(broken link removed to http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l211/pyper_2006/home/plan.jpg)

Not to scale, and some details omitted.

The red star is the stove, and the blue box is the return on the HVAC. The house is a big circle, so if I could pump warm air into the middle bedroom on the north wall it woud circulate through most of the house. I'm actually thinking of cutting into the back of the return and mounting a fan and a filter. It's just sheetmetal, so it would be an easy thing to undo. The only hesitation I have is that it might end up just pulling cold air out of the return.

I have experimented with putting the fan on the floor in the east-west hallway, as opposed to on top of the furniture. It seems to work about as well either way. I think maybe because when it's on the ceiling it's taking really hot air and moving it into the adjacent space, but when it's on the floor blowing in the air is mixing more and not-as hot air comes out through the opening. Also, when I put it on the floor, more heat goes into the southern space (the kitchen) but I really want to get it to the west and north.

I have tried running the HVAC fan-only; it makes the stove room cooler but doesn't seem to put any heat into the rest of the house. I think I'm loosing all the heat from the return into the crawl space. Although that seems to indicate I probably have another issue to address.

"By running it through the HVAC you're probably losing a ton of heat through the maze of ducts. The best way is not to try to push the hot air out. But to get the cold air to where the stove is getting it's air supply. this will cause the hot room to get cooler and the cold room will warm up. The goal is to suck the cold air out of the cold room. Putting a fan on the cold room floor, with the air blowing out of it, causes the warmer air above to replace the cold air. This is easier said than done though, you may have to experiment more untill you find the best method to do it. It can be done in different ways. But without knowing how the air circulates in your house I could only guess. My best guess is to cut an opening between the cold room and stove room. If this is done near the floor on the base of the wall (the stove gets its supply down low,) it may cause the air to naturally circulate through the house without fans. It would also be fire safer because it is a lower opening. If this alone doesn't work, you may have to resort to putting a duct opening in the ceiling of the rooms connecting them with a 6" duct blower fan. This would allow you to then blow hot air into the cold room or suck cold air out of it by simply turning the direction the duct blower faces. Insulate the blower and don't let it touch the ceiling (tie/hang it from above, so the vibration doesn't hit the ceiling joists) it will be almost as quiet as your forced hot air system."

 

[LLigetfa]

My insert has its own air system that is not direct coupled to the duct system for my gas furnace. By code here, a gas furnace duct cannot be connected to any other system. There is only passive coupling of the two systems by the nature that they share the same crawlspace and air will go where nature wants it to.

I suck cold air off the concrete floor of my crawlspace and send it up to my insert. The warm air from the insert makes it's way some 40 feet back to the crawlspace access where it is drops down into the crawlspace. The air stratifies in the crawlspace, warmer rising to heat the underside of the floor and cold settling to the concrete to be picked up again some 40 feet away by the blower. That's an 80 foot round trip for the air. Cold air that settles in the gas furnace ductwork spills into the crawlspace through the warm air registers for the crawlspace.