Trying to move air through the house, Fail !!! with fans

[Doug Doty]

I tried fans of all sizes blowing every which way but my best results came from shutting them off and letting the stove do it on its own.

I was previously convinced it worked too but I could just not make it happen with fans. I even thought it was working once but I confused mid day sun warming with a minor fan success. The next day the adjacent room raised the same 3 degrees without the fan.

............................

I just never had any success in my case and thought it might be helpful information to someone else trying to do the same and not getting the results they wanted. Side car made a good point, If you can move the air slowly enough to not cool it, by all means this should work and sounds like it does for him. All the fans did nothing for me, just too much velocity even on low.
For those that like their fans and get the results they want, by all means use them. I just know all my experimenting was checked with k type thermocouple thermometers so I know the info is good in my case at least, and it is offered as constructive information for anyone who can use it to help explain what might be going on in their situation.

It's my theory that air that is only 10 degrees hotter than the air in the next room is easily subject to temperature equalization when going through the blowing process. Same reason your oil or gas burning Hvac unit waits for the temperature to raise up to 150 degrees ( 70 above room target ) in the exchanger before the fans come on, otherwise the cooling effect and duct losses out weigh the benefits to that point.

In the end my house is comfortable now, it was not early on and fans were not the answer for my situation other that as previously said to make the stove room more comfortable. Reading here on the site at the time, it was full of blow air here and blow air there at the time and it was all misleading and wrong, so some fact based contrast is healthy in my opinion. I wasted my money buying a couple of specialized fans based on what I thought and read and assumed good information that turned out not to be so great. I give one away and put the other up for a summer attempt at moving cool air.

Otherwise If you got something that is working with fans and you are willing to state it as tested fact, then take the hour or two it takes to type it up like I did and share it. I'd really like to hear it. Otherwise your one liner comments are unsubstantiated drivel compared to what i offered up. There is a constant flow of new people here and presenting bad information is just wrong. I say If your an old pro then share the knowledge and lets make it searchable or move on and let us new guys re-invent the wheel every season.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

I'll also mention that you don't want the air you are moving to having the little heat energy it actually carries to also have to flow against an uninsulated air leaking pathway.

The right hand interior wall in that stair well is part of what is separating a garage under from the rest of the house. It is both insulated and sealed because of code. The door is gasket-ed.

The oil monster (well not all that big) is also in the garage.

 

[DBCOOPER]

Same reason your oil or gas burning Hvac unit waits for the temperature to raise up to 150 degrees ( 70 above room target ) in the exchanger before the fans come on, otherwise the cooling effect and duct losses out weigh the benefits to that point.

What cooling effect are you talking about? What duct losses?

 

[bogieb]

Okay, a picture is worth a thousand words. Temp in bedroom, stove at idle with LR ceiling fan on and two small fans pushing air down the hallway. Yes, the time is off because I didn't set it when I last changed the batteries - took first pic about 6:35 PM tonight.

Temp in room with stove ramped up on #3 setting, all fans off (full disclosure - couldn't figure why temp dropped so slowly and then went and felt FHW fins, they were warm because the TempGuard started up, so I had to wait until it shut down ~ 10 minutes of run time)

Temp in room with stove at idle and all 3 fans started up again

Pictures taken after sun went down, and temp outside is 10F, no wind and cloud cover so temp has not fallen during test. I chose the BR because it has curtains over the windows (less heat loss). All rooms have new triple pane windows and new insulation, vapor barrier and 1/2" sheet rock installed this fall.

Edit at 8:13. The stove has shut itself down as it hasn't called for heat since turning on the fans (which it called for heat shortly after turning fans off). Scientific test? No, but anecdotal to my house that I can repeat all night long. During day stove is mostly shut down because of heat from sun in the room the thermostat is in - at that point bedrooms get down to 68-69.

 

[Rossco]

I've had great success with asimple tjernlund register fan located in the hall way between the living space and bedrooms.

It sucks hot air out of the basement and pushes it into the hallway. The warm air is replaced in the basement via an outside air feed, this make up air is pulled into the stove fans. Once the set up has run for a little wh'ile the air pressure inside is positive.

 

[bogieb]

I've had great success with asimple tjernlund register fan located in the hall way between the living space and bedrooms.

It sucks hot air out of the basement and pushes it into the hallway. The warm air is replaced in the basement via an outside air feed, this make up air is pulled into the stove fans. Once the set up has run for a little wh'ile the air pressure inside is positive.

Unfortunately I couldn't do that as that vent is very close to the door to the garage (the coldest part of the basement). I use that vent for cold air return to the basement (before I had second stove, had a fan pulling the air down to the basement - now it just falls by itself). Did use register fans on top of two vents for the LR, which made it fairly comfortable (mid to high 60's), plus another fan just above and in front of the stove pushing hot air up.

 

[romaniuk]

I have faced the same problem in my house and finaly I have fixed it by using a small ventilation at the outer room of my home. I think a small ventilation is necessary for every room of our house to avoid such types of problems.

 

[TonyVideo]

Remember fans on the floor should be pointed or blowing at the direction of the stove. Cooler air at the bottom half of the room blowing into the warmer room and warm air replacing it at the top from the room.

 

[tiger]

#3) The only value a ceiling fan has in the stove room is, to cool the stove room down,

Something I want to try -- our stove is at the end of a 12x24 living room at one end of the house. I have bought two ceiling fans for it, need to install (which means electrical boxes, etc.). I was thinking of trying running one fan in push-down, one fan in pull-up, see if it creates a convection current. OTOH, it might not help the rest of the rooms...

 

[TonyVideo]

A ceiling fan for me is what I needed as I have 11 foot ceilings. It was 20+ degrees warmer on the ceiling vs the floor. Air circulation evened the room out provided the heat where we are. It did not cool the stove down at all but made it warmer where I had to turn it down. The air flow was up and around.

 

[woodmakesheat]

The best luck I've had with a fan is hanging one from the ceiling of my sun porch and letting it blast the hot air into my house at midday. On a sunny 40 degree day it will heat my house up 4 degrees in an hour. Then I turn the stove off