Getting my heat upstairs?

I need some help on gettng my heat upstairs. I got a Hitzer 50-93 in my basement. Last year I used a piece of 6'' flex hose hooked to a duct fan that plugged into a register in my kitchen. I left my basement door open also. This worked rather well but I was just wondering if there is anything better that I can do? It kept my houst between 66 and 70 all winter long. Only used about 10 gallons of oil to help durin a cold snap in Feb.

I would change the flex duct to a rigid one for better air flow, less ripples in the duct to slow the air down. Also maybe a bigger fan in the duct or try adding another feed vent to another part of the house? Maybe even a powered vent return to help with the air circulation?

yamaha wrote:I left my basement door open also.

How about replacing your basement door with a louvered one?

You need to create a better circulation loop, right now your Hitzer is pulling cold air off the basement floor to heat and send upstairs.. unless you use the basement space all the time,, you are trying to heat the basement too much.. the Hitzer will heat it some from radiant without the door open and once-heated air coming down the stairway..

What will help the most is to find a way to PULL air from the farthest corner of the house, like a distant bedroom or better a hallway for the bedrooms.. cut a floor cold-air return vent, hook this opening with ductwork, rigid, joist spaces, or flex duct to inlet of the distribution fan on the back of the Hizer,, this way there is a POSITIVE pull from the far end of the house, the duct going into the kitchen will try to supply this cold air return with hot air.. the resulting loop will greatly increase the comfort upstairs..

The returned air will be much warmer than the cold air off the basement floor, and therefore will heat to a higher temp and increase the temp of the ducted air into the kitchen...

Hope this makes sense.

Greg L.

That makes sense. Thanks for all the help!

I am gonna do something similar to what greg l. mentioned is put a fan on my far away cold air return and only run the pipe part way to the stove, so the basement doesn't become a vacuum. I am also going to hook both fans onto a thermostat so that when it gets warm, they shut off, hopefully this will also give me a some temperature control.