Our stove sits in the basement of our 1100 sqft rancher. We have no trouble getting the main living area at the top of the stairs comfortable. Our problem is that we'd like to have the bedrooms back the hallway warm while having the doors shut overnight. We've been running our central air fan overnight, but it's clearly noticeable on our electric bill. Been looking into registers through the drop ceiling but it seems they "suck" could air down and don't actually let much warm air up from the basement, which wouldn't do much good with the doors closed. Any advice??
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The registers - which should be located near exterior walls - will allow cold air to drop to the basement & if you leave the basement & bedroom doors open, that cold air will be replaced with warmed air. It makes take awhile to get there, but once the convection starts, it WILL get there.
You may be asking too much from a space heater in a remote part of the house if you close the doors and disrupt the air flow.
Also, your floors are fire barriers. Even if they are wood. They delay the fire spreading.
Creating holes may be against code. There are fire dampers that close if they get too hot (no electricity needed).
That said, to move heat you need a convection loop, not one hole but two.
If you do that and make a chase below one of the holes (one that is at the cold wall of your bedroom, so that the air that drops there can't exit that chase/tube until e.g. 2 ft above the basement floor. This will avoid warm air from coming up there. But then it's likely that the other hole will convect heat up. You have created a loop.
Creating holes may be against code. There are fire dampers that close if they get too hot (no electricity needed).
That said, to move heat you need a convection loop, not one hole but two.
If you do that and make a chase below one of the holes (one that is at the cold wall of your bedroom, so that the air that drops there can't exit that chase/tube until e.g. 2 ft above the basement floor. This will avoid warm air from coming up there. But then it's likely that the other hole will convect heat up. You have created a loop.
Thanks! We like to keep the bedroom doors shut at night. (Toddlers, husband up early, etc) It's good to know that registers might help pull more heat back into those rooms during the days when the room doors are open!
Yeah for sure! We just feel like since the stove is right below the bedrooms there should be a way to get the heat right into them.
Hmm, that's really interesting. Thanks for the advice!
If the stove is below the bedroom floors, try removing the drop ceiling panels. I bet that floor will warm up. Toasty toes are nice!
A sketch. It was meant for clarity but...Excuse the poor craftsmanship.
B is basement.
1st is 1st floor.
BR is bedroom
W is warm air
C is colder air.
The open chase will drop the colder air. The warmer air near the basement ceiling can't escape there.
That will go up through the other register.
Put the chased one near the outside wall, the warm air one on the other side of the bedroom.
It does mean two holes. And keep firecode in mind.
B is basement.
1st is 1st floor.
BR is bedroom
W is warm air
C is colder air.
The open chase will drop the colder air. The warmer air near the basement ceiling can't escape there.
That will go up through the other register.
Put the chased one near the outside wall, the warm air one on the other side of the bedroom.
It does mean two holes. And keep firecode in mind.
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