I built my place 3 years ago. 2x6 walls, R19 if I recall correctly, 18' ceilings in the living room, pretty open floor plan because we planned around a wood stove. 6" single wall pipe all the way up to the ceiling...obviously...with my Napoleon 1900 stove. As you can see from the pics, I have 2 sky lights above the stove, which I'm sure don't help retaining my heat and we have the upstairs rooms. Just to left of the bed rooms is a bonus room that I keep the door closed to. Twin 60" fans, I leave one running on medium speed throughout the burning season. I gave that as background info to talk about heating this place. If it gets below 30 outside, the stove keeps it about 70ish in here. What can I do to improve upon that? I know all the windows aren't helping me either, but what can be done there? My floors aren't insulated (crawl space) does that make a big difference? PS and yes my Christmas tree is still up. Wife if having a hard time getting rid of that 'ambient light' haha
If it isn't already, adjust the fan to pull air up to the ceiling. Should help. Try running both fans like that, but on low. Play around with the air flow. I'm wondering how warm that upstairs gets. How well is the attic space insulated? Vaulted ceiling are usually not insulated real well. Do you have icicles on the eaves?
Up stairs can get 80 in no time without the fan on. Attic is insulated pretty well, I don't see that as an issue. I found a few cold spots with and IR temp gun so I fixed them. I'm curious as to why the fan should pull air up instead of push down? I'm pushing down now.
JoshC, I believe it has to do with convection of natural movements meaning that warm air rises if you try to work against that it's more work. if you pull hot air up the older air already there is cooler and comes back down faster. Also why it is easier to blow cold air to a stove than hot air away as cold air at floor is denser. It seems counter intuitive but works better. Yes I would insulate the floors also.
Even if it makes no sense, a ceiling fan works much better in reverse, pulling air up. This moves hot air away from the stove area and to the rest of the house. 18' ceilings aren't very good for wood stove function, but you said you designed the house around wood stove heat?
Cold/cool air is easier to move than warm. Just try it. The fan(s) will pull cool air from below, which will push the warmer air down along the walls and create a nice loop. You may need to adjust the fan speed to suit you, but low might work.
Yup, fans on reverse as stated above. Use both of them on low, you dont want to create turbulance in the air which happens when the y spin too fast. Your not trying to mix the air, just help the natural convection cycle. As for your crawl space heck yea that needs insulated, and a vapor barrier too. The cold from the ground will radiate up through the floors. Depending on the floor plan it should only take you a weekend to do yourself if you're handy.
Bingo. It does look great. Lots of folks on here with big ceilings, and they do fine. Where's the boss Scotty Overkill ?
Yeah, as bobdog said, do the crawl...in the crawl. I need to do mine, but can only reach about 1/2 of it. Guys who built this place put some kind of support structure right down the middle. I guess it helps hold up the house or sumthin' , but it's a pain to work down there.
After you try the fans to distribute the heat and are still having issues then go with a bigger stove. You have a great looking place.
Thank you sir. Fans are running in reverse on low right now. It's not going to get cold today, but later in the week I'll be able to tell. This is a fairly good sized stove....I think? Napoleon Huntsville 1900 Wood Stove
Yep. I stand corrected. That looks like a good size from the link you posted. Maybe post your stove top temps might help.
and add the cubic feet with vaulted ceiling. Stove manufactures give square feet based on less than 8th ceilings so your 18 room should count 2.25 times in square footage..
