Piping Into Ductwork

My Reading Juniata was installed in the basement and is piped into my return air. Turning the fan on my heater does very little to move the air thru the ducts. The stove, in the basement, is directly below my master bedroom. It's the hottest room in the house and I can't even sleep there, while my kitchen, at the far end, is pretty cold.. 58. I'm not sure why the stove wasn't placed more towards the middle instead of at the far end - the southern end - of the basement. My thermostat seems to do little to control the amount of heat coming from the stove. I'm not burning oil but I'm not loving this stove like I was led to believe I would. Can anyone help me. Also where is a good place to get coal. I live just outside of Chesapeake City, MD on the DE MD line.

Welcome, some photos would be good, someone will be here to help you soon...

Welcome to the forum....

Circulating the heat through the house is sometimes the toughest thing to get correct. Return air to the basement is as important as warm air to the upstairs. I have flex duct from a floor vent at the far end of the house dropped to the floor of the basement which allows the cooler air to get back to the stoker and pulls warmer air back there. Each house airflow is different so you will have to experiment a little to get it right.

I travel to Quarryville to get my rice coal. Do you have your supply for the year or are you trying to get it now? Are you picking it up or looking for a delivery? I had called TSC over in Middletown about a month ago but they aren't carrying coal and wouldn't order it. They said the TSC in Dover would be able to get it but I didn't bother calling there since that is farther for me than Quarryville.

If you don't already have them, a couple CO monitors are a must for your install for safety!!

Yep, what they said.

You have proof that the stove will throw out some heat, you just need to distribute that heat throughout the house.

Does the fan from your existing heater come on to circulate the air ???

You may need a register (hole in the floor) from the opposite end of the house to help circulate the air but since you have existing ductwork, we should try to use that if at all possible.

Can the existing heater blower be set to have that fan blowing at a low speed all the time ???

Rick

Did a dealer do the install for you? Regarding the placement of the stove on the end of the house, maybe.....

Was that where the chimney was located? Or if you are using a power vent, is that the only spot that was 'clear' enough on the outside of the house for the exhaust.

Having a long horizontal run of flue pipe isn't optimal because fly ash will collect there so maybe that was the best place for the stove from that stand point.

How many floors and square feet of house are you heating and how well insulated / draft free is the house?

There are many factors going on so bare with me. Your bedroom is the hottest because your stove is sending hot air straight up to the bedroom's return duct. The blower from your furnace is sucking in air from all the other returns and thus cooling the hot air from the weaker fan on the coal appliance. Like previously stated the coal stove needs to pulling the cool air from above to make room for the hot air going up. Keep in mind the term, "path of least resistance", If your basement is not insulated and the plenum and venting is cool it will suck the heat out of the heated air, meaning the venting needs to be insulated and there are many product for this. You could try pushing the hot air up into a central location with return lines from both ends of the home coming down to the coal stove creating a convection loop. Pictures of your set up and a description of the homes lay out would help as well.

As suggested, set your furnace blower on low or set it to clean cycle. This would assist the distribution of the heat. If the heated air cools down by the time it reaches the coldest room, raise your thermostat and adjust the registers in the warmer rooms until you get a balance between the two. It takes time and trial and error. Good luck!

I am running the same appliance. It is definitely trial and error but as others have said providing air circulation is crucial. I have my take off on top of the furnace ducted to 4 registers on my first floor. Two at one end of the house and two at the extreme opposite end of the house. In the middle of the house on my lower landing I have a return cut into my basement with a fan pulling air into the basement. This creates good airflow and my whole first floor runs a consistent 71*. With the basement being used as a plenum return back to the stove this keeps the basement from getting to hot. Hope this helps, give it time. It's worth it!

Hey TracyG.....
Any update on what you were able to try or did holiday activities get in the way of 'fun with coal heat' experiments??

Yes sorry holiday got in the way. Here are pictures of my stove w outgoing pipe to heater, and pic of pipe going into heater. There's about 10 ft of pipe that you can't see in the picture running across to the heater. Looks NOTHING like the other picture posted. Bedroom floor extremely warm. Bed is warm. I'm still sleeping upstairs. Downstairs part of house is 2100 sq ft ... different system upstairs. I'm keeping the fan on the heater running all the time.. doesn't seem to matter. The stove store did the install and they know I don't know anything about any of this and they haven't gotten back to me about the issues. They were going to think about it.... Someone I was talking to said the blower on the stove may not be powerful enough.. not enough CFM's..(??)

Thanks,
Tracy

First I would get insulation for HVAC duct and cover the heat pipe running to the other appliance, this should cool off the room above and if the room is still hot from the stove then insulate the space in the joist above the stove. You will also increase the heat output by insulating the long round pipe.

Also, originally the stove was going to go on the other side of the heater.. which would put it more centrally located in the basement.. but there is a propane line near there for gas fireplace I NEVER USE so the installer picked the far wall. My house is only 10 yrs old but on the drafty side with tray ceilings, vaulted ceilings, an upstairs I don't heat (heat pump I don't care to use) but stove guy said it would be toasty.

I get the feeling the stove isn't sized to the house properly, and the fact that its loosing heat to the basement to the point that your bedroom is so hot you can't stand it, isn't a good sign either.. How big is the house? And roughly where do you live? That oil furnace looks huge. One 8 inch warm air supply line is suppose to be enough volume with a 700+ CFM blower on the coal appliance to heat the house?? I see your coal burner is rated for 85000 BTU. What is the oil furnace rated?

The coal stoker should be a decent supplement, but I don't see it doing all the work..

How is return air getting back to the stoker?

TracyG wrote:.............. but stove guy said it would be toasty.

There are many suggestions we can give to help get the hot air in your living space and most will have a cost and understanding involved. Some will work and some will not because we are not there to foresee any obstacles or easements that may exist. I am sure you spoke at length with the salesman and installers about your needs and apparently they have not been met, I suggest being Proactive and demand correction before too much water passes under the bridge. If you need to contact the manufacturer do it!...but don't let this sit unattended. Worse case scenario you get your money back and start over from the VERY beginning, right here!...might be the best case scenario. my 2 cents.
Mike.

Yes I think I should contact Reading and talk to them. The store owner already lied to me once and said my stove needed a new part and it wouldn't be in for a week. Truth is some changes were made to the stove and they didn't have it right and the installer was tied up for a week. Installer didn't know the owner lied and told me. Again if I was a man they wouldn't be pulling this nonsense.