As a result of dramatic increases in energy prices, I have been brainstorming about making my house more energy efficient. It?s a 2300 sq ft single story home in the California foothills. The house has central heat/air, and a wood stove. The room with the wood stove is about 500 sq ft, with a cathedral ceiling about 14? high. If the house is cold when you start a fire, you?re going to wait awhile before feeling any difference since that vast overhead space has to fill with warm air first. A ceiling fan in that room has helped a lot. It actually reduced our heating costs by about 20 percent for the whole winter (about $300).
About 2/3rds of the house is adequately warmed by the woodstove, but low doorways still trap an immense amount of warm air in the room with the high ceiling. (The rest of the house has pretty much normal ceiling heights.) From one end of the house to the other, temperatures can vary significantly. Sometimes one end will be 55 degrees, while temps in the cathedral ceiling room are 76 at my level and 100 plus up above.
The central intake is in the cold zone so it doesn?t help spread any of the unused heat at all. I?ve thought about moving the intake but it works well where it is in HOT summers. Could I add another intake and create a bypass to draw from one in the winter and the other in the summer, allowing me to use the existing central fan and ducting to circulate air that’s been heated by the wood stove? Or could I add a small separate system that draws straight from the warm area and dumps in the cold area? Thanks in advance, Chris
Replies
I'm no heating expert, but a couple of thoughts come to mind which may or may not work.
First would be to put the wood stove in your basement. Then it would warm up the floors and act more like radiant heat.
Second would be to replace the wood stove with one that has a fan, and tie it into your duct system. That would distribute the warm air better.
You talked about moving the forced air system intakes - How about just adding another one, and putting a register over it that you can open and close. That way you could alternate opening and closing them depending on whether or not you were in the heating or cooling cycle.
Life is like a dog-sled team. If you aren't the lead dog, the scenery never changes.
Chris , Ive done this problem on a house before that was ok for what it was intended. Same house as yours, it sounds . Any time you have a wood stove , it causes fluctuating temperatures. I put a duct inline fan on to the master bedroom comming from the high wall above the stove . Two registers, ten feet of duct , inline fan , and wired to thermoastat in bedroom . Cozy bedroom.
Tim Mooney
From the replies I received on this question, I think I might first pursue following your suggestion. My rooms are relatively close together when following a straight line distance, so a short run of duct with an inline fan might give me better results. The warm air would spend less time in the cold attic this way than if I used the entire central system.
Do you recall any specifics about your installation? Type of fan? Ducting diameter? Did you hard wire a conventional thermostat in the bedroom or just put some sort of sensor?
Thanks,
Chris
Chris actually I dont remember because my heat and air guy did it. But I know it was a simple therosat in my bedroom. It was also his suggestion to my problem. I can tell you that it worked well as long as there was fire in the stove. I found the fan running when there wasnt a fire. [not a big deal] My wife loved it , is what I remember the most , because I was rewarded.
Tim Mooney
"The central intake is in the cold zone so it doesn?t help
spread any of the unused heat at all. I?ve thought about
moving the intake but it works well where it is in HOT
summers. Could I add another intake and create a bypass to
draw from one in the winter and the other in the summer,
allowing me to use the existing central fan and ducting to
circulate air that's been heated by the wood stove? Or could I
add a small separate system that draws straight from the
warm area and dumps in the cold area?"
I have a similar room, fireplace really warms the room up, high ceiling. I put the return for that room up high. There is a ceiling fan in the room that helps circulate warm air and increases comfort WITHOUT the AC on. Supply registers are in the floor, opposite side of the room at the slider and window. When the AC runs, cool air floods the room bottom to top and work best w/o the fan.
You can add a high return. Replace the existing return grille with a register (a grille with a built-in damper behind it) and use a register for the high return as well. Close one, open the other. Swap them in the fall and spring. BTW, high/low return combos are fairly common in a good system. Let th room get good and warm, then run the furnace fan to circulate the warm air throughout the house. It helps, a little.