Woodstove plumbed into trunk line

jch2os

I have a bi-level that was build in 1980. When I moved in 10 years ago we put in air condition. The system also has a heat pump and the backup heat in the attic. So I'm tired of my high electric bills and started using my wood stove down in the basement. Keep that room plenty warm and all the rooms except the bedrooms(which are at the other end of the house).

My thoughts are I'm going to the one return vent(20"x25") that is in the upstairs hallway with a piece of wood during heating season, and run 2 8" flex hose lines down in the closet and have them come out towards the ceiling in the room of the wood stove. Do you think the 2 8" run will be enough? I saw online some people thought instead of the flex hose I should build it with duct and then insulated the wrap.

I was also going to put a thermostat in that room that controls the fan(in the attic unit) when it hits a certain temperature.

The room with the wood stove gets crazy hot, like I could see it hitting 100 easy. Do you think this will be enough to heat the rest of the house? Thoughts are welcome. Thank you.

beenthere

Need more then 2-8" runs. look at the size of duct running to the return vent. basically, thats the size you need.

Marty S.

Have you tried just turning the air handler fan on to circulate the air?

jch2os

Last night I was looking at how in the world I'm going to get the return air vents through my closet and I'm not 100% sure if it will work. I was thinking if I would have 2 8" lines down there and then add return lines in each bedroom if that would be enough. I do run the fan and that helps, but not enough to really get the heat out of that room. We have hardwood in the entire upstairs and so my wife didn't want me cutting vents if I didn't have to. And I don't think that would be enough to keep that room cool anyway.

I did have a thought about just pumping the air from the basement where the wood stove is to the garage. Above the basement is just perfect, warm floor the house is just great. Was wondering if I put enough heat in the garage to heat the bedrooms the same way. Need to insulate better but would be interesting to try.

I haven't done anything yet but I just feel like I have SO MUCH heat downstairs there has to be a way to get that to the rest of the house. Please keep the comments coming....would love to figure this out before the weather really hits. I live in Eastern PA.

jch2os

Well I think I figured out what I want to do, now just for the details. My plan is to build a separate system that I use just for heat. I will put a vent(with filter) in the basement with the wood stove so I can suck the heat out of that room and run that horizontally through my downstairs laundry room into the garage. Then cut holes in the ceiling of my garage into each of the bed rooms and attach vents/flex hose etc. My question is....what kind of fan should I use for this? My thoughts would be if I can have a bi-directional fan I could cool the basement in the summer from sucking the cold air from the bedrooms. Not super important so if I can get a better(energy efficient) fan without that I won't care.

Thoughts on this?

Fan type?

Flex hose or build it manually?

beenthere

Any vents/ducts in the garage must be sealed air tight so no fumes from the garage can get into them and spread to the rest of the house. All ceiling penetrations must be sealed.

jch2os

Sure. I was thinking about making them just like my main trunk line in the attic. I just didn't know if anyone thought it would work? Wouldn't work? What type of inline fan I should use? etc.

beenthere

That depends on how much air you want to move.

http://residential.fantech.net/resid...ine-duct-fans/

jch2os

Do you think this would move enough air?

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/FAN...VZ4?Pid=search

or something larger?

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/DAY...&cm_vc=IDPBBZ2

Thank you for your help! The rooms are pretty small, the entire upstairs is only 1300 square feet. the bedrooms would be about half.

beenthere

They Dayton will probably work.

jch2os

But not as good as the fantech you sent before? I wasn't thinkng the fan would cost that much.

beenthere

The fantech you linked to moves less air.

Good ones aren't cheap.

mrairflow

make sure that you do not put the room under negitive pressure when you start sucking the hot air out or you stove wont draft properly

jch2os

I don't think that should happen since I have the open stairs and no doors downstairs. Plus I'm putting the vent on the other side so the air should "flow"....we'll see! I will keep you posted.