Ducting heat

I have a Hitzer 50-93 and have used it for two seasons. I am not getting enough heat up through my registers (stove in basment.) I was going to have a hvac guy make a hood over the stove and duct the heat to the two registers. I have decided to use premade duct from home depot. Going to mount two pieces over the front of the stove where the blower blows out the heat above the door. These are 4x12 rectangular and turn 90 degrees up to a 6" round. Then I am going to use 6" round to each register. I am hoping the blower on the stove is enough to push the heat approximately 12' in each direction. Any one else do anything like this??

Qball wrote:Then I am going to use 6" round to each register.

Are these floor registers already connected to a central system or ones you put in?
Take a look at this thread & see if there's anything helpful there: New Distribution Vent

(works well to move warm air up fro m the basement to the farthest point in my house., but you also have to get the cold air back down into the basement somehow)

Here's a couple of pics of the duct that I mounted to the stove today. Now I just got to work on a few sections of pipe and some elbows.

I understand what your trying to do, i am not sure you have the right type of stove, a good radiant with a heat collector/plenum and fan is what you need. I think you are on the right track. Maybe build a plenum for the blowers to blow into, then run your ducting and use duct fans to move it to where you need it. Do you have cold air returns to the basement.

I have two different registers and I leave the cellar door open. Burning wood I had a plenum that was duct to one register and the stairs worked as the cold air return. In hind sight I wish I did more research before buying this stove. My thinking is that with the blower on, the heat really cranks out of the front of the stove. I think I will be able to get this directed to the registers. If it does not work I will build a plenum and tie it into the ducts. The only thing I will be out is $14 bucks for the two flanges I monted on the stove. The only concern with a plenum in that I need to get access to the top hopper.

It's worth a shot! Let us know how it works out.

You have to provide ways for the cold air to get down to your basement too. Otherwise you are really trying to "pressurize" the upstairs with warm air & it won't work.

I have the exact set up in my house. What I do is run 8" flex pipe to my registers. I also installed a 8'' duct fan between the register and flex pipe to help push the warm air up. It worked really well for me last winter. I heated a 1400 sq/ft ranch with cathedral ceilings and a loft all last winter with no problems. Only used 10 gal. of fuel and burnt 3 ton of coal!!!!

Try putting a fan on a cold air return, this will create a vacuum, and draw the heat in. Also using a register booster fan may help move the heat up. I would have loved to go with a gravity hopper fed stove, but i couldnt figure out how to do a plenum, and top load hopper feed at the same time.

Ran my Pioneer for two weeks and had 68 degrees in the upstairs bedroom on the far end of the house(heater downstairs opposite end of house),left the bedroom window open 4 inches today and had 70 degrees in the bedroom after midnite when I got home.All convection flow,only blower is on the back of the stove and blows out the front with a kmart fan directing airflow into the hallway to the stairs,considering putting a 4 or 6 inch piece of pipe thru the bedroom ceiling into the uninsulated attic to draw the convection flow thru the bedroom without leaving windows open when it's storming.Anybody try anything like this and what kind of results did you get? RichB

You don't want to send humid, heated air into the attic area above the insulation. It will cause condensation and problems.

Finished the duct project and pretty happy so far. Lit the stove today (using Cowboy Coal...learned that here) and I am very impressed with the amount of heat coming through the two registers. It is about 50 out now, but in the 30's this morning. I also added a B34 baro which seems to be an improvement. The pipe above the damper is much cooler, I can touch it. I do not have a manometer so not getting any readings. Well here are some pic of the duct. My only concern is that the duct is getting pretty hot. I may add the insulation that Home Depot sells.

You can get some of that foam/foil insulation for the ducts, would keep it a bit warmer. It just wraps around the pipe.
something ike this.

http://www.astrofoil.net/astrofoil.insulation.home.html

Qball wrote:Finished the duct project and pretty happy so far.

Looks pretty impressive there!!

Few questions:

Does the stove's fan have enough power to move all that air through the ducts or are you using inline booster fans?
Is that 8" duct pipe?
Any way of getting cool return air (from upstairs) ducted down to the stove's air intakes? (without causing your wife to file divorce papers I mean? )...I think you'd see a major difference if you could & it would mean JUST one more duct line from upstairs to the bottom of your stove!

(I'm jealous & would love to try that but my stove is in a finished room & my wife knows where I keep the 12 gauge!)

I am getting quite a bit of air movement with the stove blower and it is 6 inch pipe.. I don't think I need a booster fan. The duct work is pretty hot so I may add the insulation. I moved the ceiling tiles because the hot duct was touching it. I leave the basement door open and it looks like the cold air is going down the stairs. I blew out a match and the smoke went down. To try to get more heat to the north side, furthest from the stove, I may add a register in the dining room and use some smaller duct back to the blower on the stove.....Last night it was in the 30's and I had the house at 70 with a slow burn and the blower on medium. The only complaint from the girl was the blower hum through the registers.