Energy Matters Forums

[kesa32]

Here's an interesting read l found, http://www.aprovecho.org/lab/pubs/rl/st ... doc/18/raw

Greg they are good ideas with the ducting , l have cathedral cielings in the main living areas too so keeping the WAF is always going to be hard....plus the other half of the house is on a slab , so in my situation l'd have to draw cold air from ceiling height in the bedrooms etc, don't know if that'd be as affective
l was actually going to try the reverse and draw hot air from the end gable of my cathedral ceiling and push it INTO the bedrooms etc ....the problem with this would be a cooling affect on the living areas l'd imagine...

[ghind]

The cold air idea only works if sucked from ground level. Via a wardrobe or wall cavity is OK otherwise hot air from the ceiling is your only option. Thanks for the article it is very interesting i'm part way through now

Greg

[offgridQLD]

This is just from a few years experience with both styles of wood heaters. The first heater was a freestanding unit with no fan and the second being a wall insert with a fan. Both heaters were in very sumilar size and design homes and climate.

The insert was only used to fill the hole from a open fireplace. Even with a raging mally stump fire in the box if the fan was off no radian heat came off the heater. You my as well gather around a candle. Even with the fan on you needed a good fire going non stop to maintain a comfortable temp. Not to mention listening to the fan rattling away all night for a overnight burn. (some one show me a heater fan that doesn't eventually get noisy rattle to it and i will be surprised)

The freestanding unit did take longer to give off heat as the warmth soaked initially into the mass of the heater. Once it got hot its ability to maintain a deep warmth and at times to much warmth was fantastic. Continuing to warm the room long after the fire had settled down to ashes.

If I was to go for a wood heater again it would be the thickest heaviest freestanding unit I could find and like others mentioned a efficient ceiling fan or ducting if you have high ceilings.

One great product I found online that was a radiator jacket that integrated into your flue and could ducted to different rooms . I really like that idea of using the wasted flue heat for other rooms.

Kurt