Tiny Fan Makes Big Difference

So I was pretty satisfied with just using a ceiling fan at low speed in reverse which is pretty much centered in my house until I decided to put a little 125 cfm fan under my stove blowing cooler air under and back around and out my hearth. What a big difference! Cooled off the stove room a bit and heated up the other rooms of the house.

 

Great looking install. I wish my KS was black. Where did you get the fan?

 

Amazing what just a little air movement can do to even
out the house temperatures.

Imagine a house designed with some internal ducting & a fan just for a wood stove ? ?

 

I bought it off the internet years ago, don't remember exactly where. It's a Sand Hill doorway fan. $36 at Amazon.

 

Those little muffin fans do a fantastic job of moving air without moving the electric meter much. I tried the ones designed to fit in the doorway. I bought four of them, I don't use any of them. They are noisy and have too much draft. I now have a very small fan at the base of the stairs that blows away from the stairs and towards the stove. Heavy cool air is pulled down the stairs and the warmer lighter air replaces the cooled air. This creates a good cycle and evens out the temps through out the house.

 

I think my ceiling fan was actually creating a cooling effect, maybe it was too much even at a low setting.

 

The keystone is not ember protection only, right? Would the keystone cook a regular fan placed under the stove like that?

 

It doesn't get hot at all around the fan as long as it's running so I just let it run 24/7.

 

Yeah, it acts almost like a blower, the heat just rolls out from all that brick, soapstone and iron mass.

 

Have you got the rear heat shield on there?

 

NEATO how a bit of air movement can make a positive difference. It looks like a standard little 4" muffin fan found inside of line printers and things with power supplies that need cooling. Gang a couple of 'em side-by-side to double your breeze. Good experiment... Gorgeous hearth.

 

I just noticed, no bottom heat shield? Not necessary on a full masonry hearth but I installed mine to help keep firebox temps up. I may remove it just to do a little experimenting.

 

Nope, not needed

 

Yeah I took it off, it looked ugly under there.

 

I do have 3 of these fans but so far it seems one is working great. A day like today in the lower 20's I used to burn hotter and load 3 times per day, now I'm doing 2 loads and the house is warmer.

 

Todd, I think it was you who suggested a while back that the rear shield would help me keep more heat in the room with the Fireview. I took your advice and was happy with the results. I picked one up for the Keystone a couple of months ago. I figure it's better to reflect the radiation back at the stove instead of heating up the brick of my exterior masonry chimney. I can really feel the heat convecting up off the back of the stove and into the room. I've got the bottom shield on there as well. Yeah, it looks bad, but it's pretty dark in here...

I need to get a couple of fans to use at my MIL's with the Buck 91. It's in a room at one end of the house, with glass on three walls. It has two doorways into the living room so I think a couple of small fans may help move heat to the rest of the house before it just goes through the glass in the stove room. I will probably get a couple of rheostats so that I have total control over the speeds of the fans....