heat distribution questions


  #1  
Old 11-06-04, 10:16 PM
Andre
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wood-burning insert

Hi there.
I have a wood-burning fireplace insert that acts as a back-up for my gas furnace. My problem is that it heats my main floor extremely well but I can't seem to get the heat to travel up to my second floor (which gets quite cold). I was told to run the blower from my furnace to help assist the heat but all this does is blow cold air in all the rooms.

My first question to a heating expert is: should I install a cold-air return in the hottest room or is that counter productive? There are already two cold-air returns on the main floor and there is one on the second floor.

My second question is: should I instead install a thermostat on my second floor to trigger the furnace to heat the second floor.

Thanks,

Andre
 
  #2  
Old 11-07-04, 04:20 AM
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Hello Andre. Welcome to the Heating Furnaces forum topic and the Do It Yourself Web Site.

In all actuallity, the fireplace insert was not designed for whole house heating in a bi-level home and is not a replacement nor substitute for the furnace. May heat the area it is in very well but will not, in most cases, provide heat to other levels.

Heat rises. Thus the floor plan has more to do will the heats abilties to rise to the upper levels. And there is no power fan on the fireplace insert to further help distribute the heat. So the heat remains nearby in the area.

Using the blower of the forced air furnace does not help either. There is simply not enough heat produced by any insert to heat the entire house. May seem as though there is and be warm nearby, but that heat is radiant heat and not equal to the heating ability of the furnace.

adding another thermostat to the furnace will cause more problems than there are already and be counter productive. One T-Stat will cancel out the other or conflict with the other. Disrupting the normal heating cycles the furnace was designed to operate on. 2 thermostats connected to 1 furnace is not a productive method and never works out as thought it would.

Almost all the conditions described are related to the floor plan of the house and the natural occurrences of warmer air being lighter than cooler air. Warm air naturally rises as long as it has a means to rise and in enough volume.

Insert is not able to provide enough heat (BTU'S) and has no means to circulate the heated air it produces. Those conditions, btu size, house floor plan and no direct forced air power of the insert are the limiting factors.

Check back on your question several more times. Heating professionals and other members posting replies in this forum topic may offer you additional advice and or suggestions.

Kindly use the reply button to add updated additional information. Using the reply button moves the topic back up to the top of the list of current questions automatically.

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  #3  
Old 11-07-04, 09:15 AM
Andre
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Thanks for the info. You've saved me some extra work and, by all indications, extra frustration.

Andre
 
  #4  
Old 11-07-04, 09:52 AM
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Wink

The heat from the FP there shuts off the tstat on the first floor. It would take a lot of work now to tie in the FP to the duct work now as we do some times. When we have a new home. We use a heatalater steel insert for the FP and tie it in with the duct work that way you can use the furnace blower. For what you have now. You could go back to the old way. It was used a lot. They used to cut 1 are 2 holes in the floor and ceiling and put a register there in the floor and like just sleeve the hole from the ceiling up to the hole in the floor With just a grill on the ceiling. The hot air will go right up and the cold air will come right back down the stairs. There are fans now that you could put in the sleeve there to help also.

ED
 
 

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