Moving heat up stairs

Hi there I just installed a leisure line pioneer stove this year. I went from a hand fired to a stoker I love it what a difference. My problem is I can't move the heat up stairs Its 90 down stairs this morning and 69 in one part of the up stairs and 72 in the other half. I have a ranch and the stove is on one side I have tryed all kinds of things I just can't get the heat even. I have floor registers in the three bedrooms and in the hallway. But nothing in the other end of the house witch is the kitchen and dinning room. So I cut a toe kick under the kitchen cabinet and put a 6" boot to a 4x12 register in the drop ceiling in the basement with a 6" inline fan to blow the heat in the kitchen. Then I had a 2x2 sheet metal pan made for the drop ceiling with a 8" flex with a inline fan and cut a hole in the dinning room wall so the heat will blow across the the dinning room. So with that said now I have heat in every room the problem is with the cellar door shut the heat just sits at the top of the door. I think I need some cold air returns I was told that I should put one or two at the oppisite side of the house to make the heat circulate does any one have any ideas I think I can make it work I just don't have the right combo it would be nice to sit down stairs and have it a little cooler I rather it be warmer up stairs.

We leave our basement door open.

If you really want all the heat upstairs and to have the cellar cooler your going to need to grab as much heat as you can right from the stove to move it upstairs before it migrates in with the air that's in the cellar. I saw on here and spent the last couple of days trying to find a picture of someone who built a hood for their stove where it connected to the stove right where the convection air blows off the front of the stove and he piped it upstairs. On one set up the guy had one large pipe coming from the top of the hood while the other guy had to pipes coming from to hoods placed side by side on the stove with each pipe going to feed different parts of his house. I built a sample of that yesterday to get the heat downstairs and it did make a world of difference. The bottom line is you will need to feed the air from upstairs to downstairs in order to maximize the air circulation.



Sorry for the quick post daughter is waking up and I was rushing.

I have still not the answer how did it work for u.

yes, you have to displace the cold air back down for good circulation. leave a door open, or cut some vents, or tie your blowers into your cold air return if you have them.

Do you have a heat jacket on the stove, that limits the radiant heat into the basement?

I don't have a jacket but what if a take out two 2x2 ceiling tiles out right above the stove and put like two 8" flex lines with in line fans in them and suck the heat off the top of the stove. Where should I bring them to right above is a bedroom. Or should I bring them to the other side of the house. Then I could leave the basement door open and use that as a big cold air return. The only thing is do u think this will make the side of the house with the stove hot and the other side cold?

Lots of CFM fan power is required to move the warm air from the stove to the other end of the house and everywhere in between.

A quick and easy method, if you already have a forced air furnace is to cut a large hole in the cold air return of the stove and turn on the furnace fan. It will literally suck all the warm air from the basement and send it upstairs. If you want to use the furnace for heat or central A/C, close off the big hole. The hole in the side of the cold air return effectively renders all existing cold-air return ducts useless, as air, like water, will follow the path of least resistance (or air drag). I used a $20 permanent screen with removable window from Home Depot. Works great. I've switched to furnace only in less than a minute, after shutting down my stove for a couple of days, needing only to put the window back in.

But sending the warm air into the house area is only half the equation. You have to get the cold house air back to the stove to complete the circuit. I simply took off the basement door and had a major cold-air return coming down the steps. Works great, and it's a example of KISS (keep it simple, stupid)...or, if you'd rather, the easiest solution is usually the best.

If you don't have a forced air furnace, then you'll have to duct the air to the various parts of the house. It also means building or buying a heat jacket for your stove, and using one or more blowers to get the air around. Although heat naturally rises, it doesn't always flow up through floor openings from below. It needs to be forced up (ducted or blower), and a cold air return provided.

For what it's worth, I'm in the process of building a jacket for my Alaska stove and already have the top-of-the-stove duct connected to my furnace ducts, and cut into a living-room cold-air return and ducted that to the input side of my blower. It's a major victory in getting the upstairs warm. I hope to get the side jacket constructed and installed this weekend, pulling air from another living room cold-air return duct, and sending the heat into the furnace hot-air duct.

I have been doing this for years. I will post some pictures soon. Please do not get crazy and cut your house up trying to move air. It is amazing how cold air loves to fall before hot air rises. Give me a day or 2 get some photos posted. Do not give up, someone has already done what most of us are trying to achieve.

I have my stove in the basement and ended up running a hood in front of the stove and running to a duct to my forced air furnace and it runs all the time. Works great but probably uses more electricity than I would like .
Jim

...but you are warm, and that is "Mission Critical!" It's not a perfect world, but still darned nice compared to living in a cave.....or so I would imagine.

I'm gonna PM Stroker Stoker Scotty and see how he is enjoying the 'man cave'. I told him it was merely a name for a domain where men like to hang out, but he took it literally and moved right in to an old 'Asbestos Mine'. Cabinover, try to appeal to him to come out. He told me it wasn't too bad. Keeps the trucks out of the weather, and ready to go. He's under a great deal of pressure after all the 'heat' he has taken from the 'Top Fuel Coal Fired Golf Cart' he prototyped for Elin a couple of weeks ago. She has been nominated for Rookie Top Fuel Cart Driver of 2009! Very impressive!

I've heard Cadillac is scouting him for design excellence because a 10K Hot Rod Golf Cart received no damage and a 80K 'Escapade' (name changed to protect the innocent) looked like it hit "Everything but the Lottery"! ....and at 5 mph?

Ok so i left the door open last night. Now i have a big cold air return on the other side of the house not to bad it was still 80 in the basement. I guess its better than 90 but there must be a way to make it more even. The upstairs one side was 69-70 thats the side of the house with the basement door open and the other side where the stove is was 72. So with the door open the basement droped from 90 to 80 it would be nice to get it to 72-75. I am getting closer just dont have the right combo yet. I took out a 2x2 tile above the stove and put a 6" flex duct with a inline fan to one of the closest redgisters like 2' to 3' away to try and grab some heat off the top of the stove.r The balance is off somewhere ?

Hey, the balancing thingy is improving. At least any 'Heat Loss' is going into the house frame and not out through WindowStats! As you are surely aware, having the 80 degree basement sure beats having the 33 degree basement.

Everyone argues about efficiency, and cost saving, but you can bet your blue tipped frozen fingers that they are in a warm office near Atlanta talking about it, not up north on the Ice Storm Anniversary.
Coal may not be perfect, but on a 0 degree day with the wind blowing 40mph, it sure beats the sound of the oil or propane truck on fast idle outside!

pzou812 wrote:Ok so i left the door open last night. Now i have a big cold air return on the other side of the house not to bad it was still 80 in the basement. I guess its better than 90 but there must be a way to make it more even.

You are using a stove to try and heat a whole house. It's not going to be even. If you need even, you need a coal fired furnace or boiler. Only a home with a very open floor plan can be evenly heated with a stove.

Here's what I and some others have done to help. It is still not even throughout the house, but it is within a few degrees.


Jeff

I agree 100% I guess its just bugging me because i cant figure it out I am one of those guys LOL. But eventually i will get it right in the mean time i am warm and thats all that counts. Thanks for all the feed back