I hate to ask an apparent rookie question. Does anyone else find that having the insert blower fan on low actually makes the house warmer than when it’s on high? We have a quad voyageur. I have been testing the theory and I get an extra 4-7 degree warmer upstairs with it on low, downstairs gets 8 degrees or more and without the draft of cool air towards the unit that happens on high. I always assumed with the fan on high it’s blowing way more heat into the house, now I’m thinking it’s actually running more air across and is cooling the stove or putting out a higher volume of cooler heat and forcing a cool draft back down stairs. I don’t know what to think and am asking since FWHC has some serious knowledge in club! I have eliminated the possibility of it being the wood I’m burning, for the past few years I have been pointing the finger at some being dryer etc but my recent tests have been from the same covered stacks with the same species of wood, 3 1/2 year red oak at 15-17 % moisture.
I always run my fan on low just cause I worry about cooling the stove top too fast at the end of the burn cycle. I will be interested to see what the FHC has to say about this one though cause I've been wondering myself...
Do you also have shorter burn times with the fan on high ? I would think you'd only want the fan on high during the first third of the burn and on low for the last two thirds.
Yes I do. I had assumed it was the wood that was the variable in hot coals left in the morning. Thanks for the question, this verifies it that low speed is the way to go. Forgot to mention I have done the dollar test and seals are good.
Do you even need the fan ? Some houses are such that the convection currents that develope from a central heat source end up moving the heat around well enough. Some layouts need the assist.
I've had my insert for 8 years and I still cant decide if there's a difference with the blower on high. Most of the time it's set at about 1/3 speed. If there is any real advantage to a higher setting, I think it goes away once the blower fins are even a little dirty.
Unfortunately we do, house gets cold during power outages. We have a flush insert, doesn’t throw much radiant heat. I want to get a Woodstock and forget about insert headaches but my better half balks at the price.
I use a deep cycle battery and a 750 watt Diehard inverter to run the blower on my Buck during power outages,, The blower draws 200 watts. Battery was free and I think the inverter ran me $75 years ago. No need to be cold just because the power went out!!!
Ah, insert. They usually need the assist. They usually look nice though. If it does the job, squeeze the life out of it. There's always things to want.
There may be something to this...there have been cases where wood furnaces heat the house better with the blower turned down real low...
Never even gave it much thought at all until I read this thread. From my experience (which is very little) and my house setup if I do not have the fan on high other parts of the house do not get heated well if at all. So when it's super cold out the fan is on high as well as at night before bed. During the day my wife will turn it down as she gets little over heated. But I am curious to learn more about this. I'd love to turn it down, as many know they can be a little loud. I personally don't mind it that much because I live in a very busy, congested and loud area so it drowns out the noise from all the traffic. Perhaps subconsciously I want the fan on high, LOL.....! Traffic drives me nuts I tell ya, but that's a whole different topic.
I’m thinking it all depends on the model. I have a raised rancher with it on the first floor. 30’ chimney and if I put the air open more than 1/3 open it’s no different than full open. It’s without a doubt warmer down stairs and upstairs on low fan speed. I don’t like the unit but it’s paid for and I’m going to do what billb3 said and am going to run the life out of it. I’ll appreciate the Woodstock burn time more when I’m 50 than 40 anyway. And like you said the fan is nice for drowning out traffic noise. It must come down to insulation in the unit it’s self to how fan speed impacts output and burn time. I don’t know, still seems backwards.
as a fellow insert operator that also wants to upgrade to a Woodstock someday I have also wrestled with this question about blower speed. There is some great info in here about about how blower speed can affect but times and stove cooling ... efficiency etc . Much of this I have never considered so this is very enlightening for me. Thanks Winston for posting a great question! I have always thought about blower speed in two ways.. 1) How much heat do I need and how how loud can I tolerate (my stove in same room as my TV) 2) is it more efficient to heat my house with hotter exit air that results from a lower blower speed as the air has had more contact time with the stove as it makes it’s way around... or is it better to shoot for lower exit temp but more heated air volume? I’m sure there is a tipping point in there somewhere but it would take some experimentation to figure it out. I have run an instant read thermometer and confirmed that the site coming out is intact hotter when the blower speed is lower.
A boat load of variables come into play here with the size of the house, insert and location come to mind, I am heating over 2000 sq feet from the center of the house with a freestanding unit and with no fan the house heats up much slower so really does not work for me. Been doing this (no other heat source) for over 40 years in same house and the fan at high speed when fire is hot if the only thing that works for me.
I recently installed a 6" variable speed brushless dc duct blower into the back of my Breckwell wood insert. I got the Breckwell new old stock last year. It's the old USA made Breckwell. I burn it 24/7 and it has kept my 3800 square foot home warm while using the natural gas furnace less than 1 hour a day on average. Since the insert was installed into the opening of a double sided fireplace, I had access to the back of the stove to install a "real" blower. Photos attached. My duct blower has 10 speeds, and I almost always keep it on speed 1 or 2. If I go higher I have to open the air more to keep my stove pipe and firebox temperatures hot enough for efficient combustion. And like Winston, I do not see any real increase in heat output from doing so, at least not enough to justify the way it will eat through wood if the air control is not closed down. I think that having to supply more air is taking me out of the optimal air to fuel ratio. And, more of that heat is going up the chimney. There is one scenario when I crank the duct blower to high.... The duct blower is pressurizing the cavity between the stove and the external steel shell of the insert. Most of this air is pushed out of the front of the stove, but it is also pressurizing the air intake. In other words, I am forcing air in the firebox beyond what the chimney draft alone would pull in. But since the higher fan speed pulls more heat from the stove, it seems to keep temperatures in check despite that fact that I am supercharging the fire, so to speak. On a few occasions I have loaded up the stove with good dry wood (ash and oak mixed) and turned the blower speed to 10. By doing so, I am forcing a lot of extra air into the firebox, but I am also moving about 600 CFM of air over the top of the stove. The result? My little insert acts like a forced air furnace blowing 600 CFM of hot air out the front. This probably isn't terribly safe, so I have only done it with constant supervision. I can burn through 20 pounds of bone dry oak + ash in about an hour, and I see almost nothing coming out of the chimney, so it is burning efficiently. Doing this, I have taken my large, 2-story home from 60 to 70 degrees in less than an hour, with an outdoor temperature of 20-25 degrees. It heats the house about as fast as my 100,000 btu high efficiency gas furnace. So to anyone who has ever wondered if a huge blower would improve the performance of the stove or insert, the answer is --- probably not, unless you have an insert that you want to turn into a wood eating, forced-air monster.
