Any of you experience negative pressure in your basement? We have a basement stove and a tight house. The OAK helps out but I have to be carefull with the dryer and built in vacuum as they can put the house into negative pressure (the HRV won't make up the difference). If you have negative pressure, is that why most of my heat stays downstairs? How have you fixed your problem?
As mentioned, we have a basement install which heats the family room well but enough heat doesn't always come upstairs to the living area. An additional stove on the first floor of the house isn't in the cards. I just went to the local store to inquire about a blower for my stove to help get the heat moving out of the basement into the upper floor and the dealer talked me out of it. He said my fans (one pointing into the stove room and one pointing into the stairwell) wouldn't do any better than the blower. I was impressed (didn't want to make a quick sale I guess).
He suggested an alternative by bringing more air downstairs to help with airflow. I could do it by putting a grate in the floor to help the heat from my basement circulate upstairs. Well, I am not comfortable putting one in the floor so as in a previous post of mine I considered a grate in the one in the stairwell wall (opposite end of the house where the stove is located). If I stand in that stairwell I can feel the heat moving up the stairs so I thought one at floor level (just above the baseboard) into the stairwell wall (the one you look at while going downstairs) would help bring more cold air downstairs. Would that be better than higher in the wall? I can't go to the top of the wall as this opening will open up into a broom closet on the second floor.
Thoughts?
As mentioned, we have a basement install which heats the family room well but enough heat doesn't always come upstairs to the living area. An additional stove on the first floor of the house isn't in the cards. I just went to the local store to inquire about a blower for my stove to help get the heat moving out of the basement into the upper floor and the dealer talked me out of it. He said my fans (one pointing into the stove room and one pointing into the stairwell) wouldn't do any better than the blower. I was impressed (didn't want to make a quick sale I guess).
He suggested an alternative by bringing more air downstairs to help with airflow. I could do it by putting a grate in the floor to help the heat from my basement circulate upstairs. Well, I am not comfortable putting one in the floor so as in a previous post of mine I considered a grate in the one in the stairwell wall (opposite end of the house where the stove is located). If I stand in that stairwell I can feel the heat moving up the stairs so I thought one at floor level (just above the baseboard) into the stairwell wall (the one you look at while going downstairs) would help bring more cold air downstairs. Would that be better than higher in the wall? I can't go to the top of the wall as this opening will open up into a broom closet on the second floor.
Thoughts?