there seem to be many threads about circulating heat using your existing hvac system so i guess i'll make my own too.
while the wife was at work i tried to light the furnace & reuseable air filter on fire with no sucess.
i tried it with the fan running too, it cleaned out all the deeply embedded dust, but no ignition.
the only combustible material in my hvac furnace is wire, not the filter.
although convection is the obvious goal, it gets hot downstairs & can't feel it upstairs for hours.
my stove is in the unfinished basement, concrete walls & floor.
with steady use, the hvac fan seems less neccessary.
i'd say the house feels warmer in the morning, with the stove, without the fan all night, than it did before with the gas fur fan running all night.
but when i haven't been home all day, it's 67 upstairs...
the day i got the stove, it took 6 hours for heat to get upstairs, something had to change.
my first attempt was rerouting the cold air return to the two joist spaces directly above the stove.
this resulted in very low outlet temps, very drafty feeling with the hvac fan on high @ 67...
not to mention the electricity & noise.
i used an additional hvac thermostat, set on ac, to come on when the top of the hvac furnace reaches 91+.
it's in series with the existing hvac htr thermostat upstairs.
only the fan comes on, no gas heat & this way the fan stops "helping" once the upstairs gets over 72, which it does.
i may have knocked a % off of the 120" code min space between stove & cold air return here...
my master hvac friend mentioned keeping intake temps below 100 for the fan motor's sake.
so i located a thermometer in the cold air return, it hasn't gotten over 92 @ 500.
i have a metal screen over my modified hvac inlet, i can touch all but an inch or two of the hvac tin.
i throughly cleaned out the reused vent sections before i rerouted them.
the huge all metal encased hvac furnace used to get really hot on gas, i can't imagine a fire hazard.
i contemplated if it would do more than smoke damage the house if i threw in a cup of gasoline, match & fan on...
it seems to be working now, with the two thermostats in series.
the fan shuts off mostly since it's fed off the existing hvac programable thermostat upstairs.
if the upstairs is set to heat & on, then the basement ac thermostat only comes on if the stove is hot, or intermittantly.
literally on top of the hvac furnace is my add on ac thermostat location.
depending on the heat coming off the stove, it may run for 2 minutes on & 5 off, or continuously.
the proof is in the fact that i used to come down stairs & was hit in the face by the heat.
now it's the same temp down stairs & stairway.
furthermore, i had the bedroom end of the house vents shut off since the stove is under them.
but after my most recent cold air location change, the bedrooms above the stove were the only cold ones until i opened their vents back up
although i haven't experienced COLD yet, this season has the fan running from 5-10 pm every night.
then it doesnt need to run over night obviously, or the next morning, or all day with no one home...
while staying @ home this weekend, i noticed it's performance is seamless.
the fan may only run 20% of the time since the basement ac thermostat cycles off.
it's interesting how the fan will keep cycling, even during cool down, fully automatic.
not to mention my mate & a consistant thermostat setting upstairs was not possable before.
one of my main concerns is people running their fans continuously.
waste of elec compared to the btus that gas hvac system is meant for, drafty too.
without any kwh eq installed, i do think my fan system is just as eff electrically.
the old system used to run fan all night to heat, my fan stops & system keeps heating all night, good heat too.
but it's running 5 - 10 pm everynight.
while the wife was at work i tried to light the furnace & reuseable air filter on fire with no sucess.
i tried it with the fan running too, it cleaned out all the deeply embedded dust, but no ignition.
the only combustible material in my hvac furnace is wire, not the filter.
although convection is the obvious goal, it gets hot downstairs & can't feel it upstairs for hours.
my stove is in the unfinished basement, concrete walls & floor.
with steady use, the hvac fan seems less neccessary.
i'd say the house feels warmer in the morning, with the stove, without the fan all night, than it did before with the gas fur fan running all night.
but when i haven't been home all day, it's 67 upstairs...
the day i got the stove, it took 6 hours for heat to get upstairs, something had to change.
my first attempt was rerouting the cold air return to the two joist spaces directly above the stove.
this resulted in very low outlet temps, very drafty feeling with the hvac fan on high @ 67...
not to mention the electricity & noise.
i used an additional hvac thermostat, set on ac, to come on when the top of the hvac furnace reaches 91+.
it's in series with the existing hvac htr thermostat upstairs.
only the fan comes on, no gas heat & this way the fan stops "helping" once the upstairs gets over 72, which it does.
i may have knocked a % off of the 120" code min space between stove & cold air return here...
my master hvac friend mentioned keeping intake temps below 100 for the fan motor's sake.
so i located a thermometer in the cold air return, it hasn't gotten over 92 @ 500.
i have a metal screen over my modified hvac inlet, i can touch all but an inch or two of the hvac tin.
i throughly cleaned out the reused vent sections before i rerouted them.
the huge all metal encased hvac furnace used to get really hot on gas, i can't imagine a fire hazard.
i contemplated if it would do more than smoke damage the house if i threw in a cup of gasoline, match & fan on...
it seems to be working now, with the two thermostats in series.
the fan shuts off mostly since it's fed off the existing hvac programable thermostat upstairs.
if the upstairs is set to heat & on, then the basement ac thermostat only comes on if the stove is hot, or intermittantly.
literally on top of the hvac furnace is my add on ac thermostat location.
depending on the heat coming off the stove, it may run for 2 minutes on & 5 off, or continuously.
the proof is in the fact that i used to come down stairs & was hit in the face by the heat.
now it's the same temp down stairs & stairway.
furthermore, i had the bedroom end of the house vents shut off since the stove is under them.
but after my most recent cold air location change, the bedrooms above the stove were the only cold ones until i opened their vents back up
![shock !!! !!!](/talk/styles/default/xenforo/smileys/shock.gif)
although i haven't experienced COLD yet, this season has the fan running from 5-10 pm every night.
then it doesnt need to run over night obviously, or the next morning, or all day with no one home...
while staying @ home this weekend, i noticed it's performance is seamless.
the fan may only run 20% of the time since the basement ac thermostat cycles off.
it's interesting how the fan will keep cycling, even during cool down, fully automatic.
not to mention my mate & a consistant thermostat setting upstairs was not possable before.
one of my main concerns is people running their fans continuously.
waste of elec compared to the btus that gas hvac system is meant for, drafty too.
without any kwh eq installed, i do think my fan system is just as eff electrically.
the old system used to run fan all night to heat, my fan stops & system keeps heating all night, good heat too.
but it's running 5 - 10 pm everynight.