Wood Stove Heat Circulation

[Brignolo]

We have a wood stove that heats our entire house during the winter. Of course the family room where the stove is located is always warm, sometimes too warm as the bedroom is always 10-15 degrees cooler.

 

The stove has blower on it and the family room has a central air return near the ceiling, and a ceiling fan. The fan is switched to force the air up in the room.

 

Ok, the stage is set. These simple programs have been very effective in distributing the heat throught the house. Even in the bedroom where the difference now is 5 degrees. The concept is that when the family room is too warm the fans fire and cool the room pushing the heat into the return (and uptairs aided by the master bedroom fan) where the furnace fan helps to distribute the heat a little more evenly throughout the rest of the house.

 

This program is designed to fire all the fans when it gets too warm in the family room. The "too warm" is subjective, so whatever your comfort level is, set the trigger temperature accordingly:

 

If
       Status  'Downstairs Theromstat' is 72° (Temperature)

Then
       Set 'Fan - Family Room' On
       Set 'Downstairs Theromstat' Fan On
       Set 'Master Bedroom Fan' On
Else
  - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

 

Then, when the temperature has stabilized (to your comfort in whatever room(s) you require) this program runs:

 

If
       Status  'Downstairs Theromstat' is 70° (Temperature)

Then
       Set 'Fan - Family Room' 45%
       Set 'Downstairs Theromstat' Fan Auto
       Set 'Master Bedroom Fan' 45%
Else
  - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

 

Now your family room is a comfortable temperature, and the rest of the house a little warmer.

 

Notes:

 

1. The Master Bedroom Fan is also set to draw the air up.

2. All temperatures are subjective.

3. You need an Insteon enabled theromostat. (It would be best if you had one in the heat destination room.)

4. Fan Auto in this case is really Fan Off, because the thermostat is set to "Mode Off."

5. As the Thermostat fan goes off (Auto) the ceiling fans drop to 45%. This allows the heat to keep circulating throughout the house.

6. The ISY is set to query the thermostat every 10 minutes. (Other wise the ISY will not know the temperature and your programs will not run.) So you know that the furnace fan will run at least 10 minutes.

 

Enjoy,

 

Joe

[Redrox]

Hi Brignolo,

 

nice setup. I would like to know what device you are using to control your fan? Since the fan motor is an inductive load a standard Insteon dimmer wouldn't do the job. I am looking to control my fans as well but haven't found any Insteon device that can handle inductive loads and varies the output so you can get variable circumferential speed on the motor.

[Brignolo]

Hi Redrox:

 

I am in fact using the insteon dimmers to control my fans. They've been installed for more than a year and I never had any problems.

 

Joe

[Redrox]

Thank you very much for your reply Joe.So you don't have any issues or "humming" motors or dimmers with this setup? I will certainly try this and see if it works. Thanks again.

[Brignolo]

Redrox:

 

No issues, let me know what happens.

 

Joe

[WilliamLaurence]

I bought one of these heat exchangers from ChimneyHeaters.com and it is Stainless Steel. The

 

rest of the pipes in my house are Copper and some plastic. I get a tremendous amount of heat

 

from this thing and I am worried that it will melt the copper or plastic tubing.

 

The heat coming out of the Chimney Heater is about 190f does anyone know if this is to hot

 

for the copper or Plastic pipes in my House?