I have a single story ranch 975 sqft with a full insulated basement. Currently I'm heating the basement with a coal stove, switching to a wood stove in the next few weeks. I have 2 floor vents and leave the basement door open. I have 4 ceiling fans on the main floor that I run clockwise on low speed. I'm thinking about putting a ceiling fan in the stair way going down to the basement. Would it be better to run that fan in reverse to help draw the warm air up the stair way and use the vents as a cold air return or vice versa? As everything is set up now you can feel a majority of the heat coming from the basement door. Curious to see what others are doing that heat from the basement. Fred
The hot air from the basement will rise, cold air will sink and if you are trying to get more heat upstairs, put in line fans below your floor vents and pull air from the first floor down to the basement. Ideally the vents should be along an outside wall below windows (typically a cold spot) and as far from the stair way as possible. This way you get air circulating from warm to cold.
Yes, fan(s) running in reverse in the winter to pull the heat up...feels less cold/drafty this way too...
If it were me, I'd have a small fan blowing up and one blowing down. The regjster that's furthest from the stove blowing down
I second this idea. I won't swear to the exact number, but I believe that I read once that a fan will blow something like 10% more air at 50 degrees than it will at 100 degrees. I took that to mean that I always want to move the cold air, if I can. If it were me, I'd like the idea of the cold air returns blowing down, letting the heat come up the steps. And if you put the fan atop the steps, have it blowing the air up, which then hits the ceiling and spreads it horizontally through the house.
